Don't you wish that you were a philosopher? If your opinions are contradictory, then they are ironic; if they are evil, they are misinterpreted; if they are incoherent, illogical, or badly-written, then they are deep. This last is of the supreme importance- establish your work as the unique province of the intellectuals and they will trip over themselves justifying your genius. Do not be ashamed of your egotism nor your incoherence- the more you claim that your work can be understood only by the lofty few, the more your work will be lauded, loved and universally admired. Your semi-coherent babbling will become the gospel of the elite, because they know that very fact makes them elite; they will love your work not for itself, but for all of the wonderful things that it says about them, discuss it not because it is great, but because it makes them part of the class of people who discuss that sort of thing. Claim that you are perfect, and then you are, because any perceived imperfection would be an admission of incomplete understanding in an insufficiently deep reader. If you have any doubts of universal acceptance, do your best to insult the Institution, endorse hedonism, and massage your public's more ugly prejudices. Complete overthrow of Christianity is the minimum- see if you can do in all of morality at once. If your facts are wrong, people will admire your logic; if your logic is flawed, they will praise your perspective; if all else fails, they will turn to admiration of your style, celebrating every rhetorical trick as a triumph of literature.
The joy of liberal arts is that nothing is too meaningless to be profound, nothing too egotistical and subjective to be canonized, nothing too made-up to be Truth.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Thus Spoke Zarathustra...you may be interested in the fact that Rav Kook actually enjoyed/ liked/ benefited from Nietzsche. I learned a lot from him (though not exactly in accord with his "will to power" ideas) but some of his ideas are really powerful. Although I do agree with the fact that when you claim something you write is for the "elite few" everyone suddenly runs after it... :)
This was less an attempt to insult Nietzsche (we read only his Genealogy of Morals) than a rant against the method of reading them, with the a priori assumption that they are the epitome of deepness. I mean, I think that he did actually have some good points, but...it's possible for even Nietzsche to be wrong...and even stupid, on occasion.
Oh, I agree entirely. It's very possible for Nietzsche to be wrong and stupid! I discovered that for myself, when I actually read his work...it's insidious, though, when you hear someone has had a breakdown you suddenly assume it was his genius and brilliance that killed him...Of course, he could have been a genius, but a nefarious genius. The Antichrist and anti almost anything and everything...suspecting ulterior and cruel motives of everyone (especially Jewish priests, whose actions are totally motivated by "power") Oh yes, you are quite right.
(off this topic) Except for the fact that it's pink, you would enjoy this icon.
:)
Let's try that again- this icon.
Chana- yay! I love the icon. I would use it as mine, except that that requires computer literacy and stuff. Thanks.
Also, someone in my class mentioned the fact that Nietsche really was crazy. In other ways, too, I mean. Like that by the end of his life he would random stop and yell at cart-horses for talking to him. Not to mention the fact that he has a series of essays at the back of his book entitled "Why I am so wise", "Why I am so clever", "Why I write such good books", and "Why I am a destiny". How can you even parody a man like that? He's done it all already.
An obscure and tangential factoid:
Zoroaster's name in Persian is Zaratushtra. Nietzsche named his work "Also sprach Zarathustra" changing the original pronounciation for no apparent reason. What's more puzzling is that German has a "sh" sound, but does not have a "th" sound.
Post a Comment