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Taking a little OT gambol down an enticing alley, R.A. wrote:
>Certainly most people *don't* know that, in the same way that
>Nietzsche or Wagner immediately influenced the philosophical and
>political, or the musical and artistic thinking of their time. And
>they continue to influence us today. (snip)
Schopenhauer came first! Not a stretch to say he was the biggest influence on
both of them, and others after. Recommended reading: "The Tristan Chord: Wagner
and Philosophy by Bryan Magee, fascinating stuff. If you dont believe me, here's
a passage from N's Untimely Meditations...
"I am one of those readers of Schopenhauer who when they have read one page of
him know for certain that they will go on to read all the pages and will pay
heed to every word he ever said. I trusted him at once and my trust is the same
now as it was nine years ago. Though this is a foolish and immodest way of
putting it, I understand him as though it were for me he had written. Thus it
is that I have never discovered any paradox in him, though here and there a
little error; for what are paradoxes but assertions which carry no conviction
because their author himself is not really convinced of them and makes them
only so as to glitter and seduce and in general cut a figure. Schopenhauer
never wants to cut a figure: for he writes for himself and no one wants to be
deceived, least of all a philosopher who has made it a rule for himself:
deceive no one, not even yourself! ... And, to say without more ado the highest
thing I can say in regard to his style, I cannot do better than quote a
sentence of his own: "a philosopher must be very honest not to call poetry or
rhetoric to his aid."
And one of Wagner's letters...
"I have a friend to whom I am growing more and more attached. It is my old
friend Schopenhauer, so sullen in appearance and yet so deeply affectionate a
person. Whenever my feelings have ranged most widely and deeply, a unique sense
of self-renewal overcomes me each time I open that book of his, for here I find
myself a whole person once more and see myself fully understood and clearly
expressed...which soon transforms my suffering into an object of
understanding...by revealing me to myself, and at the same time reveals the
whole world to me! It is a most wonderful interaction, an exchange of the most
supremely inspiriting kind: and its effect is always fresh, since it continues
to grow in strength. It is this that restores my sense of peace, and even
contempt resolves itself as love. --Richard Wagner
And the ending of Goetterdaemmerung was Schoepenhauer through and through. I get
a little choked up just thinking about it. Yep, cypherpunk-oriented people
really ought to see the Ring and read Schopenhauer...pardon the prosetlytizing,
I never seem to be able to help myself, ha.
>People like Wagner and Nietzsche hold their influence regardless of
>how personally abhorrent and obnoxious some of their other opinions
>on various contemporaneous issues were -- not unlike Mr. May's quite
>literally theatrical exhortation above, for instance which is,
>obviously, pure Nietzsche, and not, has been noted, Shakespeare. :-)
Hm. reminds me of when Shakespeare expressed a somewhat related sentiment, in
Richard III...
Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls:
Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe:
Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.
March on, join bravely, let us to't pell-mell
If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.
;)
~~Faustine.
***
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from
oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that
will reach to himself.
- --Thomas Paine
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