Here, I would like to address briefly some quotes and ideas from Elizabeth Grosz’s Chaos, Territory, Art in relation to the subject of Faust and Orpheus.
First, Grosz’s overall assertion is that art is an overabundance; it is what is left over after surviving and thriving is done. The idea of excess or overabundance is particularly prevalent in the Faust legend, as Faust is continually engaging in an overabundance of everything. The deal Faust has made with Mephistopheles is that if ever he says that he is satisfied with a particular moment, that he has reached the pinnacle of perfection and wishes to live in this one moment forever, then he is lost. Here Mephistopheles is offering him the whole of the plane of composition, but never all at once. Faust experiences it, frames it and reterritorializes it repeatedly. This is a case of overabundance at it’s maximum. I connect this to the Orpheus legend because Orpheus as the most talented musician ever is presented with an extraordinary ability to create music through the territorializing of chaos in the plane of composition. Both he and Faust suffer and are brought to their downfall by this overabundance. They are both fables in which there is too much beauty, too much art, too much music, and it cannot help or save either of them; in fact it leads directly to their downfall.
Beth Ratay