person
Onan
In Genesis 38, the son of Judah who spills his seed on the ground rather than beget a child; Rilke uses 'the seed of Onan' as a figure for sterile, ungenerative reception.
Reading notes
- The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge §133 the seed of Onan
In Genesis 38 Onan spills his seed on the ground rather than father a child; Rilke's figure for the sterile, ungenerative way a venal age 'hears' Beethoven.