Reading Kleist is always a timely pastime. Here he is in ‘On the Marionette Theatre’:

‘"Does that mean", I said in some bewilderment, "that we must eat again of the tree of knowledge in order to return to the state of innocence?"
"Of course", he said, "but that's the final chapter in the history of the world."’

Read the story here.

Translation: Idris Parry.

Eating again of the tree of knowledge as the way forward? Kleist is describing reality, but even if we eat only of the tree of knowledge we will be forever stuck in a ghastly place, frozen in a state somewhere between animals and gods.