I would like to fight your freshman writing seminar professor in hand-to-hand combat. Also what I wouldn't GIVE for a "Salome's incel cult at the monastery" BBC miniseries from the early 00's with dubious anachronisms!!
I don’t know how this column wound up on my screen but I’m very glad that it did. LOL. Enjoyed reading this very much. Even though the prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde are two of my favorite operatic pieces. 😉
This was an excellent and delightful read. The bit on early childhood screams "attachment disorder," which would explain his aversion to sex and also his having an entire chapter dedicated to him in *Faith of the Fatherless.* TLDR: not all atheists, but atheism is a maladaptive trauma response.
So here's the fuller context of the quotation by Neitzsche:
"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?"
It's an indictment of Western civilization, not God. It's an insightful and useful implication of where our hubris has lead us and and is leading us. Philosophers often stand in contrast to culture because by definition, they are attempting the feat of critiquing the very culture that they once were fully embedded within. At some point, they saw something that made them break with the typical cultural understandings. If their personal lives seem weird and strange to us, it's quite possible that their awkward stance is born out of that relationship. If you dig into the personal lives of any philosoher, you are likely going to find some bizarre behavior, simply because they are willing to think and live outside of social norms. It's easy to skewer someone like that, especially if you haven't taken the time to read and understand what he or she wrote. If their train of thought bothers you, simply going after their way of living or personality isn't a valid argument, and only points to a lack of sincerity on your part.
We had to read Zarathustra for my one philosophy class. I understood two pages in the whole damn book. One wonders, how much of his philosophy was Nietsche and how much was the spirochetes?
Yes, but loved him in Jib-Jab videos my cousins sent me. 😉 Other than that, he seems like the go-to philosopher that all smug, erudite, intellectual-adjacent party guests will throw out to sound well-read. This does raise the question of how much tertiary/neurosyphilis was *undiagnosed* in the 19th century.
His sister was an absolutely horrid person, too. She actually tried to get Lou onto a Nazi kill list for no reason other than envy. I get weird ‘Byron and his half-sister vibes’ from Nietzsche and his Elizabeth :/
I think Nietzsche was the philosopher who not only declared the death of God but who sought out for critique veiled versions of God like nature and science. it is for this reason and many others that I think he is still worth reading in college and after.
He is the only author I have read whose prose sounds as if he is shouting in your face the whole time you read him.
this is the truest sentence and thank you for saying it
I would like to fight your freshman writing seminar professor in hand-to-hand combat. Also what I wouldn't GIVE for a "Salome's incel cult at the monastery" BBC miniseries from the early 00's with dubious anachronisms!!
Oh my god do we have to make this? Can we, please?
Whenever I see something about Nietzsche all I can think about is the movie A Fish Called Wanda. Excellent lines about philosophy and Nietzsche.
That dialogue! I am positively dying!! 🤣🤣🤣
Also this is literally the only history of Nietzsche worth reading imho. So on point.
Surprised you didn't comment on him going to a whorehouse and contracting syphilis from the piano!
"What happened?"
"I got syphilis from a piano. Definitely not from having sex with whores. Just the piano."
I don’t know how this column wound up on my screen but I’m very glad that it did. LOL. Enjoyed reading this very much. Even though the prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde are two of my favorite operatic pieces. 😉
This was an excellent and delightful read. The bit on early childhood screams "attachment disorder," which would explain his aversion to sex and also his having an entire chapter dedicated to him in *Faith of the Fatherless.* TLDR: not all atheists, but atheism is a maladaptive trauma response.
Did you ever find out when was corn?
I found out the relevant bit, which was "not when this book is!"
So here's the fuller context of the quotation by Neitzsche:
"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?"
It's an indictment of Western civilization, not God. It's an insightful and useful implication of where our hubris has lead us and and is leading us. Philosophers often stand in contrast to culture because by definition, they are attempting the feat of critiquing the very culture that they once were fully embedded within. At some point, they saw something that made them break with the typical cultural understandings. If their personal lives seem weird and strange to us, it's quite possible that their awkward stance is born out of that relationship. If you dig into the personal lives of any philosoher, you are likely going to find some bizarre behavior, simply because they are willing to think and live outside of social norms. It's easy to skewer someone like that, especially if you haven't taken the time to read and understand what he or she wrote. If their train of thought bothers you, simply going after their way of living or personality isn't a valid argument, and only points to a lack of sincerity on your part.
Thanks for writing this. I don’t love Nietzsche but he was on to something, unlike this creep.
We had to read Zarathustra for my one philosophy class. I understood two pages in the whole damn book. One wonders, how much of his philosophy was Nietsche and how much was the spirochetes?
Yes, but loved him in Jib-Jab videos my cousins sent me. 😉 Other than that, he seems like the go-to philosopher that all smug, erudite, intellectual-adjacent party guests will throw out to sound well-read. This does raise the question of how much tertiary/neurosyphilis was *undiagnosed* in the 19th century.
Thanks, Allison!
19th-century German philosophy and militarism has distressed a lot of people, as shown by the Queen classic “Under Prussia.”
the NOISE I MADE
A) I adore Mr. ZARATHRUSTA
B) I love this article more than I should.
Well done!
Heck of a moustache though 👍
His sister was an absolutely horrid person, too. She actually tried to get Lou onto a Nazi kill list for no reason other than envy. I get weird ‘Byron and his half-sister vibes’ from Nietzsche and his Elizabeth :/
arguably an even worse person than her brother, but in a less-fun way!
My favourite part is the mysterious Salomé AND ALSO the mustache, which deserved to live on a less garbage person's face
I think Nietzsche was the philosopher who not only declared the death of God but who sought out for critique veiled versions of God like nature and science. it is for this reason and many others that I think he is still worth reading in college and after.