nietzsche, art & blogging
I am slow to get used to blogging, where I should probably be putting out more thoughts, half-cocked if need be, rather than just letting them simmer, trying to get them right. Well, here are some neither fully-formed, nor coherent, but what follows is the begining of some thoughts on Nietzsche and Art and blogging:
Friedrich Nietzsche in Will to Power, fragment 853, outlines the importance of Art in an existence that Neitzsche calls “frightening,” where Truth (God is dead) has been toppled, and we struggle comprehend what it means to live in a world where we have no objective (God) to appeal to in questions of consequence. Says Nietzsche:
Art and nothing but art! It is the great means of making life possible, the great seduction to life, the great stimulant of life….
Art as the redemption of the man of knowledge–of those who see the terrifying and questionable character of existence, who want to see it, the men of tragic knowledge.
Art as the redemption of the man of action–of those who not only see the terrifying and questionable character of existence but live it, want to live it, the tragic war-like men, then hero.
Art as the redemption of the sufferer–as the way to states in which suffering is willed, transfigured, diefied, where suffering is a form of great delight.
OK now all this has something to do with blogging, I think. Nietzsche’s general gist is that with the loss of faith in anything beyond human consciousness, humans can go down two paths: one is pessimist, and sees disaster (chaos will result); the other optimist (sort of), the path of the overman (Übermensch), who sees this loss of objective Truth as liberating… a realization of the creative power of humans to form truth (small-T) around principles of their making. He sees this as a sort of Art — not just artistic art, but life as art, where forming the principles of one’s own morality becomes a creative exercise, and living itself becomes Art. So if you live your own life as a kind of artistic creation, then you manage to acheive a life Nietzsche would be proud of (well probably not, since he was Nietzsche…).
This process of transforming life into art is a magical sort of thing: anyone who has written a brilliant poem after being spurned by that cute girl in calculus class–no matter how poorly the stanzas stand-up to time–can attest to the power of that creation. In producing Art we transform our own existence into something more, and somehow that enables us to turn “suffering into great delight.”
And more, we take even greater pleasure in sharing that with others. I was discussing capital-A Art with with a writer friend over coffee, and he said, more or less, “Art just is, don’t worry about whether it’s important or not. Birds sing, people paint and write and make art. We are creatures who make art, so don’t spend time humming about why that is important.” I agree, though I think Art is important for specific reasons (another post sometime) … but the relevant thing is that humans like to create, we derive benefits from creating, and we like to share our creations with the world. Anyone who has built something, anything–a bookcase, a great script to track who’s bookmarking urls in del.icio.us, a newly landscaped garden, or a novel–can attest to the pleasure not just in looking at one’s own work, but having a close friend admire it as well. Strangers are even better.
Blogging is particularly important because it allows, and encourages, anyone–as long as they have access to technology, never guaranteed–to easily transform bits of their lives into Art which they can share with others, a life-affirming sort of thing that Nietzsche might be happy about. Particularly since blogging by its nature tends to diffract the capital-T Truth that other forms of controlled media try to sell us. (The subject of a future post).
All this is just more rambling, except that it provides some context for a couple of specific projects I am developing, and I encourage any blogger to consider as well: working with groups of people who are often marginalized to help them find the pleasures, and the Nietzschean benefits of blogging, of finding Art in their lives, and finding an audience for their Art in blogging. More on these projects later.
Hugh, you’ve certainly hit a chord with these thoughts…
Your reluctance to ‘just posting’ is more than understandable, but I can only encourage you to let fly! Especially along these lines.
So, more please!
(What am I saying? - I’m still stuck blogging blogs! I’ll happily blog this, though)
Cheers!
Andre
Comment by sennnosen — January 5, 2005 @ 6:15 pm
rt of Blogging
What an splendid and thought-provoking post on dose magazine: nietzsche, art & blogging. I am grateful to respond in agreement that, […]
Pingback by Sen No Sen :: The Art of Blogging1 — January 5, 2005 @ 9:18 pm
Hey Hugh. Good post. I actually haven’t gotten around to reading your lengthier posts before, so I’m glad I took a few minutes.
Thanks for reminding me about Nietzsche’s exhortation to make one’s life art. I’ve read him, but the reminder is good because, as someone who thinks of himself as creative, but who never practiced any of the “arts”, I’ve often thought of my life being my art. Not that that necessarily means “good” art, but I make a conscious attempt to live with certain themes and uniqueness.
Sometimes there is a definite aspect of “performance” that enters into certain moments - especially when sharing intimate space with a lover or a friend. And not the kind of performance that creates self-consciousness and division from what one’s doing, but an awareness of sublimity to certain moments. - would you call that art?
Also, we’re living in an age when anything can become art -if accompanied with an artistic statement- it’s a good opportunity to reclaim life as (at least an attempt to create) art.
Comment by mtl3p — January 6, 2005 @ 8:07 pm
yes there is something more subtle than those moments of feeling like we’re in a movie, or when we recognize that we are acting or playing a role in our own lives (which happens often enough, I think, to all of us). I guess the difference is consciousness, that in order to live life as nietzsche thinks it ought to be lived we must approach each moment, and take each emotion and build something with it. oprah-like platitudes come to mind, but then there is nothing wrong with platitudes if they’re used to help us build more meaningful lives. I think this is a big problem with the modern (western) world, this sense of malaise because there is nothing important in our lives (again, due to the death of God). That’s always seemed to me to be such an odd response: there is so much to DO, so much important work to be done, the problem, I think, is that many people chose not to use their time for things they find important. And that’s where the malaise comes in.
But back to blogging again: I’ve thought of myself as a bit of a lone intellectual, I have many opinions etc, I’m well-informed, and I chosen various career paths that answered some of my desire to do something worthwhile. But in the end I often felt like I was in a bit of a vaccum, thinking my thoughts, pounding fists on dinner tables at the injustice of the world, among friends, who agree with me anway. Blogging gives flight to these thoughts, and offers the possibility that something collective can come of them.
Comment by hugh — January 7, 2005 @ 10:02 am
Trop rares sont les gens qui saisissent bien la pensée Nietzschéenne. Votre billet est celui d’une personne lucide. La philosophie est, à mon humble avis, trop souvent jalousement conservée dans les livres. Celle-ci ne remplit bien sa mission que si elle est appliquée à des cas concrets. Que si elle se permet d’être diffusée, interprétée et matérialisée d’une certaine façon.
” La connaissance pour elle-même: voilà la dernière chausse-trape de la morale; c’est ainsi qu’on retombe complêtement en son pouvoir.”
Nietzsche, Par-dela bien et mal, maxime 64.
Je suis heureuse d’être tombée sur ce site.
Je repasserai certainement!
Comment by Galad — January 10, 2005 @ 11:15 am
merci galad: je suis totallement d’accord - philosophie a tellement a nous apprendre, mais peu de gens hors des departments universitaires, ont l’occasion de penser a ces sujets importantes. il me semble que les academiques ecrivent pour eux-meme, avec une specialisation tellement precis que ca devient inutile. si les pensées sont séparée de societé, de quel utilité ca peut nous offrir? le but, a mon avis, devrait etre a batir des vies et une societé qui sont mieux qu’il etait hier, chaque jour. et qui a besoin de dieu pour ca? - c’est pas de tout anti-religieux, mais plus-tot une question de creativité et engagement avec nos propre vies, et les gens qui nous entours.
Comment by hugh — January 10, 2005 @ 1:00 pm
“amor fati” Filed under: general sen no sen’s comments on my neitzsche & blogging post reminded me of two nietszche quotations, which […]
Pingback by dose :: more neitzsche, “amor fati”1 — January 12, 2005 @ 12:38 pm
anuary 20, 2005
suffering & justin hall
I posted a while ago about nietzsche and blogging, and then after a reminder from sen no sen, I dug up s […]
Pingback by dose :: suffering & justin hall :: January :: 2005 — January 20, 2005 @ 1:36 am
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