Date: Thu, 10 Aug 1995 16:58:02 -0500 (CDT)
From: Erik D Lindberg <edl-AT-csd.uwm.edu>
Subject: Re: athiesm


On Thu, 10 Aug 1995 CND7750-AT-utarlg.uta.edu wrote:

> Ahh, Eric, it's good to hear from you. Yes, D&G do not belong here, and
> it is not from their position i wish to argue--although the solo work
> of Deleuze comes close, especially _Difference and Repetition_ (from
> which i, for the most part Thomas, take the nonrepresentational agnle).
> In any event, irony can slowly fuck itself, as those who love to bring
> up Nietzsche's irony are want to do--from necessity i suspect, but perhaps
> not. Interms of other Nietzsche-like thinkers...Sade is without a dubt
> the closest.
> 
Well, here is Nietzsche doing it to himself: 

"We violate ourselves nowadays, not doubt of it, we nutcrackers of the 
soul, ever questioning and questionable, as if life were nothing but 
cracking nuts; and thus we are bound to grow day-by-day more 
questionable, worthier of asking questions; perhaps also worthier--of 
living?" (Genealogy of Morals III,9).

Throughout his Genealogy, Nietzsche ironically includes himself in the 
descriptions of negativity, ressentiment, and asceticism.  What he has 
won, through writing "such good books" is not, as the Deleuzian reading 
would have it, a "yea saying" affirmative posture.  Rather he wins a 
recognition of the ethos under which and with which he must struggle.  
Nietzsche escaping resentment?  He was certainly one of the most 
resentful people of his age, that self-vivisectionist, that nut-cracking, 
self-violating latter day dialectician.  Hardly free from ascetic rancor, 
he revels in what had, he thought, remained hidden in his predecessors.  
Does Nietzsche not come up with this description of ressentiment by 
looking at his own nasty reflection?

"they enjoy being mistrustful and dwelling on nasty deeds and imaginary 
slights; they scour the entrails of their past and present for obscure 
and questionable occurances that offer them the opportunity to revel in 
tormenting suspicions and to intoxicate themselves with the poison of 
their own malice: they tear open their oldest wounds, they bleed from 
long-healed scars, they make evildoers out of their friends, wives, 
children, and whoever else stands closest to them" (III,15)

> 
> 
> 	--- from list nietzsche-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu ---
> 

Erik D. Lindberg
Dept. of English and Comparative Lit.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI  53211
email: edl-AT-csd.uwm.edu



	--- from list nietzsche-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu ---

     ------------------