Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"My object is not to establish that I was right but to find out if I am."
Galileo Galilei has been always one of my favorite historical characters, and a source of inspiration at times, specially whenever a debate concerning reason took place. I have to admit, however, that I hadn't read that much about him in depth, just some essays in books discussing the humanity's struggle for freedom and reason, as well as web references here and there. I kind of enjoyed referring to him and creating my own idea about his character and recantation; my own Galileo Galilei. Here Brecht sheds light on Galileo's story from a new perspective to me.
The play was quite entertaining and thought-provoking at the same time, and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. Several meanings can be read into the play; the need to doubt, the fight for reason, defying authorities, and science's moral obligation, where parallels can be easily drawn to today's world. The issue of Earth's rotation may be now settled (not for everyone, sadly) but Galileo's battle for reason hasn't ended since, the same struggle and debate take place almost everyday with different subjects; a struggle between reason and rigid ideas. The play's main concern in my opinion, however, is Galileo's recantation that, according to the writer, allowed science to deviate from its ideal path and lose connection with what's supposed to be its main aim, namely to lighten the burden of human existence. His recantation, in this view, merely helped deliver science to the arms of rulers and thus starting a new course for science that could lead eventually to the destruction of mankind.
Here you'll see science in its blooming youth
Also its first compromises with the truth (*)
The play brilliantly depicts the conflict between Galileo and the Church with splendid conversations with high-ranked church officials (the church here functions as authority in general), it also underpins the social aspect of the fight, which is consistent of course with Brecht's political views, between the ruling and the working classes. The penultimate scene presents Brecht's Galileo's conception of science for the people and emphasises the basic message of the play, where Galileo, imprisoned in his home by the inquisition, self-reproaches his human weakness that led to the decision to recant, refutes any suggestion of slyness in deceiving the authorities in order to proceed secretly with his research and finish his book "Discorsi", lectures about what science should be really about, and warns from a dark future ahead declaring that no achievement is valuable enough to make up for the damage caused by a betrayal of mankind.
The play doesn't idealise Galilei at all, on the contrary it blames him of wasting the opportunity to bring science to common people after he led science into social battle and abandoned it, and that by recanting and failing his supporters, he started the era where science would be a tool in the hands of rulers which eventually led to dropping that bomb that day in August, 1945. Brecht's play regards the atomic bomb as an end-product of Galileo's contribution to science and failure to contribute to society. The historical Galilei is quite controversial specially about what's behind his recantation, and some critics argue that the real Galileo was more speculative and less rational than Brecht's. I think I need to read more non-fictional history about him and some facts about the legal side of his trial as well.
According to the editor, this play is the most worked-over of all Brecht's plays. Its first version was written in German before the second world war and then it was re-written for the American stage emphasizing the message about the moral responsibility of science specially after the appalling results of the war. Then a third German version, an extended one, was written in the fifties for the East German stage. I've read the final one and then found myself reading the American version which was included in the appendix of the book edition I have got. the American one is much shorter and a bit lighter but quite entertaining as well. I recommend this play to everyone, I wanted to include in my review the quotes and scene's opening verses that I utterly enjoyed but then I would have included almost the whole book.
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Off-topic note:
After reading the play, I found myself returning to a couple of songs for the symphonic metal band "Haggard" that I some time ago during my university years and was quite interested in translating their italian and sometimes latin lyrics before the age of google translate (or at least I wasn't aware of at the time). The songs were of their album "Eppur Si Muove = And yet it moves". I find the album and specially the track "Per Aspera Ad Astra = A rough way to the stars" worth giving a listen.
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(*) from prologue to American production
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