The Nietzschean Odyssey: Ecce Homo
How to Become What You Are
For many who read Nietzsche and are familiar with the outline of his life, the question when one has finished reading Ecce Homo is largely a question of whether or not Nietzsche is, by this point, bat shit insane. For example, the sections of Ecce Homo are titled as follows: Why I am so Wise, Why I am so Clever, Why I Write such Good Books, and Why I am a Destiny. He's certainly not modest, but that much we knew already. Then there's the content. "...the discrepancy between the greatness of my task and the smallness of my contemporaries is apparent from the fact that people have not listened or even looked at me." versus "...wherever I go, here in Turin, for example, every face lights up at the sight of me." Riiiiiiight.
This is, however, Nietzsche we're talking about, and things involving him are never so simple. Is he really insane? Is insanity a part of his creativity? These are questions that can be raised here with a straight face, and we must do so, for the projection particular to this book may be part of the plan.
Moving off for a moment, I normally don't take the introductions to my copies of books into account when writing on them, unless the introductions are written by the original author. It's part of a general rule of trying to avoid secondary literature (i.e. other people's interpretations) unless I feel I must. That being said, I think those who wrote the introduction I read here (Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman) have a good point to make. Before they go into the discussion of Ecce Homo, they bring up an important subject for Nietzsche, that of "becoming who you are" (this is, of course, the subtitle of this work). Becoming who you are, in many ways, is similar in purpose to the idea brought out from Zarathustra: changing every "thus it was" to "thus I willed it." It links back to eternal recurrence and the whole existential problem. Would you be willing to accept it if everything, even the worst of events, were repeated, exactly as was, over and over?
Nietzsche, of course, had Zarathustra (in whose place we can put Nietzsche himself, something he points towards in Ecce Homo) ultimately say yes. But what does that involve? How does that change one's view? According to the editors of this edition, it causes one to reevaluate their own lives on new terms. Everything up to this moment is not just a series of random happenings that were good or bad. They were important, no necessary steps to becoming exactly who you are. They were necessary not in the sense of philosophical necessity (we must keep in mind Nietzsche's abhorrence of such metaphysical doctrines) but in that if something had happened differently, we would turn out differently. And so this (that is to say, Ecce Homo) is an exercise in showing all the necessary events that lead to becoming Nietzsche.
How does one become Nietzsche, then? One is free, happy. Not resentful in the slightest, but also very warlike (warlike because a good war brings out the best in men, the most energy, the real feeling of life), this all under the title "Why I am so Wise." "Why I am so Clever" is all about how you place yourself. A Nietzsche must live in isolated, dry environments, with the strictest diet and utter solitude. Wagner, that betrayer of life, was just one more necessity. The years with Wagner were not a waste, as one may think based on Nietzsche's later opinions of the man. It was the best time of his life. It was necessary to help him escape from that poisonous German culture, and when Wagner himself betrayed Nietzsche by becoming "German" (perhaps more on this if and when I get to the Nietzsche/Wagner works), it was time for Nietzsche to move on. Once again, "thus it was" becomes "thus I willed it." Nietzsche wouldn't change a thing, as the Wagner years were vital if Nietzsche was to become Nietzsche.
There is a vital passage in this section which reinforces the thesis of Ecce Homo as an exercise in "becoming what you are," which I will reproduce in abridged form:
Thus, his periods of long sickness were simply opportunities to make him a cold observer, capable of seeing the psychological realities that others ignored. The isolation was a way of keeping out of the filth of 'common air'. The criticism of his works was just the bashing of dying ideals against a wall they cannot overcome, and slowly the ideas presented in his works will begin to sink in. Of course, whether this entitles Nietzsche to proclaim himself the most important man ever (which he doesn't stop too far short of doing) is another matter. He is certainly more important than most of his contemporaries would ever admit.
The largest section of Ecce Homo, "Why I Write such Good Books," is in essence an autobiography, through books, of his working years up to the present (right before the end, as it so happened). From The Birth of Tragedy's recognition of that life affirming force, the Dionysiac, through the dark times that produced The Wanderer and his Shadow (which I did not cover), through the masterwork, Zarathustra, a work produced in inspirational spurts in the deepest of solitudes and the cleanest of environments, to the Revaluation (The Antichrist in this case), when Nietzsche puts his message home in its strongest form. Nietzsche's books, in short, are Nietzsche.
The last section is "Why I am a Destiny." Perhaps the most pretentious title in the whole work. But now, after a century has passed, we may not be able to deny it. As he puts it, he is the destroyer of the old tablets, the tablets of Christian morals, of "good" and "evil". This is an event, one defined like the one which created the distinction between BC and AD. There is, in Nietzsche's mind, a new consciousness. It is just a matter of time before the man arises to take hold of it.
The man of Nietzsche's hopes has not come yet, and whether he will in the future is unknown. But Nietzsche always kept this hope. It is there that his life closed. His works, however, are not yet done. I have yet to get to Twilight of the Idols and Nietzche Contra Wagner/The Case of Wagner (which I will probably do together due to length and subject similarity), as well as some of his earlier works which I do not have. I have, however, run out of time. New semester starts tomorrow, and my formal studies with them. Hopefully I will be able to at least finish Nietzsche, but only time will tell.
For many who read Nietzsche and are familiar with the outline of his life, the question when one has finished reading Ecce Homo is largely a question of whether or not Nietzsche is, by this point, bat shit insane. For example, the sections of Ecce Homo are titled as follows: Why I am so Wise, Why I am so Clever, Why I Write such Good Books, and Why I am a Destiny. He's certainly not modest, but that much we knew already. Then there's the content. "...the discrepancy between the greatness of my task and the smallness of my contemporaries is apparent from the fact that people have not listened or even looked at me." versus "...wherever I go, here in Turin, for example, every face lights up at the sight of me." Riiiiiiight.
This is, however, Nietzsche we're talking about, and things involving him are never so simple. Is he really insane? Is insanity a part of his creativity? These are questions that can be raised here with a straight face, and we must do so, for the projection particular to this book may be part of the plan.
Moving off for a moment, I normally don't take the introductions to my copies of books into account when writing on them, unless the introductions are written by the original author. It's part of a general rule of trying to avoid secondary literature (i.e. other people's interpretations) unless I feel I must. That being said, I think those who wrote the introduction I read here (Aaron Ridley and Judith Norman) have a good point to make. Before they go into the discussion of Ecce Homo, they bring up an important subject for Nietzsche, that of "becoming who you are" (this is, of course, the subtitle of this work). Becoming who you are, in many ways, is similar in purpose to the idea brought out from Zarathustra: changing every "thus it was" to "thus I willed it." It links back to eternal recurrence and the whole existential problem. Would you be willing to accept it if everything, even the worst of events, were repeated, exactly as was, over and over?
Nietzsche, of course, had Zarathustra (in whose place we can put Nietzsche himself, something he points towards in Ecce Homo) ultimately say yes. But what does that involve? How does that change one's view? According to the editors of this edition, it causes one to reevaluate their own lives on new terms. Everything up to this moment is not just a series of random happenings that were good or bad. They were important, no necessary steps to becoming exactly who you are. They were necessary not in the sense of philosophical necessity (we must keep in mind Nietzsche's abhorrence of such metaphysical doctrines) but in that if something had happened differently, we would turn out differently. And so this (that is to say, Ecce Homo) is an exercise in showing all the necessary events that lead to becoming Nietzsche.
How does one become Nietzsche, then? One is free, happy. Not resentful in the slightest, but also very warlike (warlike because a good war brings out the best in men, the most energy, the real feeling of life), this all under the title "Why I am so Wise." "Why I am so Clever" is all about how you place yourself. A Nietzsche must live in isolated, dry environments, with the strictest diet and utter solitude. Wagner, that betrayer of life, was just one more necessity. The years with Wagner were not a waste, as one may think based on Nietzsche's later opinions of the man. It was the best time of his life. It was necessary to help him escape from that poisonous German culture, and when Wagner himself betrayed Nietzsche by becoming "German" (perhaps more on this if and when I get to the Nietzsche/Wagner works), it was time for Nietzsche to move on. Once again, "thus it was" becomes "thus I willed it." Nietzsche wouldn't change a thing, as the Wagner years were vital if Nietzsche was to become Nietzsche.
There is a vital passage in this section which reinforces the thesis of Ecce Homo as an exercise in "becoming what you are," which I will reproduce in abridged form:
It cannot be avoided any more, at this point there needs to be a genuine answer to the question of how you become what you are...Becoming what you are presupposes that you do not have the slightest idea what you are. If you look at it this way, even life's mistakes have their own meaning and value...the organizing, governing 'idea' keeps growing deep inside, - it starts commanding, it slowly leads back from out of the side roads and wrong turns, it gets the individual qualities and virtues ready, since at some point these will prove indispensable as a means to the whole, - one by one, it develops all the servile faculties before giving any clue as to the domineering task, the 'goal', the 'purpose', the 'meaning'. - Viewed in this light, my life is just fantastic.
Thus, his periods of long sickness were simply opportunities to make him a cold observer, capable of seeing the psychological realities that others ignored. The isolation was a way of keeping out of the filth of 'common air'. The criticism of his works was just the bashing of dying ideals against a wall they cannot overcome, and slowly the ideas presented in his works will begin to sink in. Of course, whether this entitles Nietzsche to proclaim himself the most important man ever (which he doesn't stop too far short of doing) is another matter. He is certainly more important than most of his contemporaries would ever admit.
The largest section of Ecce Homo, "Why I Write such Good Books," is in essence an autobiography, through books, of his working years up to the present (right before the end, as it so happened). From The Birth of Tragedy's recognition of that life affirming force, the Dionysiac, through the dark times that produced The Wanderer and his Shadow (which I did not cover), through the masterwork, Zarathustra, a work produced in inspirational spurts in the deepest of solitudes and the cleanest of environments, to the Revaluation (The Antichrist in this case), when Nietzsche puts his message home in its strongest form. Nietzsche's books, in short, are Nietzsche.
The last section is "Why I am a Destiny." Perhaps the most pretentious title in the whole work. But now, after a century has passed, we may not be able to deny it. As he puts it, he is the destroyer of the old tablets, the tablets of Christian morals, of "good" and "evil". This is an event, one defined like the one which created the distinction between BC and AD. There is, in Nietzsche's mind, a new consciousness. It is just a matter of time before the man arises to take hold of it.
The man of Nietzsche's hopes has not come yet, and whether he will in the future is unknown. But Nietzsche always kept this hope. It is there that his life closed. His works, however, are not yet done. I have yet to get to Twilight of the Idols and Nietzche Contra Wagner/The Case of Wagner (which I will probably do together due to length and subject similarity), as well as some of his earlier works which I do not have. I have, however, run out of time. New semester starts tomorrow, and my formal studies with them. Hopefully I will be able to at least finish Nietzsche, but only time will tell.
posted by Derek at 9:33 PM
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