From my limited exposure to his life and writings, I find him to be a fascinating and even uplifting character.
My question is this: what effects has your study of Nietzsche had on your own thinking and life?
I have been “exposed” to Nietzsche for quite some time.
I used to wonder quite often about what I should have done, about what changes were supposed to take place in my thoughts, my attitude, my behaviour...
Then I began to think that one need not to answer, because the question is nonsense from a Nietzschean point of view.
This may sound, probably sounds, as a paradox.
Truth be told, most people like me have been charmed by Nietzsche, long before understanding anything he says.
Nietzsche has become “iconic”, “pop”... like Jim Morrison... and the icon is what they know, seldom his works. Most teenagers approach Nietzsche starting form the Zarathustra, which is a somehow boring book - like Led Zeppelin’s
the Song Remains the Same is a truly boring film - and purpotedly written in order not to be understood. Many “Pop” interpretations of N.’s views are firmly rooted in clichés, like the unquestioned belief that N. champions the freedom and autonomy of single individuals.
It is not true that Nietzsche is difficult to read. Taking into account the unprecedented subjects (psychology did not really exist back then), the groundbreaking perspectives, he’s one of the most accessible writers ever. On top of that he’s often humorous, intriguing, even irresistible. (N. considered himself as the best German writer in prose, to my knowledge no one ever challenged his view).
Difficulty is rather caused by the fact that what he writes does not fit the (clichés-based) default assumptions. Average amateur readers are often trapped into that net of logic, expectations, prejudices from which Nietzsche wanted to break loose. It takes patience and slow-reading (unrewarding effort) before managing to frame most of what he wrote. (Correctly he predicted he would have become known after his death).
Nevertheless, Nietzsche is not only popular and (so-to-speak) well-known, it is a sort of cult, consequently it is thought that he commands a new way of living.
Why’s that?
I can volunteer some hypothesis.
The name Nietzsche has developed a sort of brand power over time. Quoting and referring to Nietzsche is cool, it implies being unconventional and profound as well as a rebel (without a cause). It also, and mostly, means having very good reasons to be uncompromisingly against... against all that we do not like. It becomes the philosophical foundation of teenage restlessness. In a world where brands embody taste and convey one person’s style, it is no wonder that so many young would-be philosophers embrace him zealously, Nietzsche becomes a personal Jesus, and indeed everybody would find his own...
Being an anti-systemic philosopher, one is tempted to believe that a single abschnitt or quote says it all (which is often quite a mistake). Moreover, the Nietzsche follower tends to believe that he’s dispensed from knowing other philosophers. Actually the impression of a fresh new start of philosophy is strong - regardless what Heidegger thinks. In the first book of Beyond Good and Evil he has condensed philosophical millenia in two dozens of aphorisms.
[Even when he refers to other philosophers, normally with destructive criticism, only rarely he focuses on the actual writings of his victim, more often Nietzsche attacks not the text but a psychological type or pitfall, and seems to condemn his target as a person rather than a philosopher. (That’s a bit oversimplified, but not really mistaken)].
Nietzsche philosophizes using his taste. It would be too weak a basis for anyone, but the man has been arguably the greatest philosophical genius of all times. No one ever before had openly made a philosophy based on taste, affirming his taste. That has been also a self-defence from a repulsive world and history (reality?) around him.
This condition is definitely shared by many today (in a world that seemingly provides a lot of knowledge and direction, but where one sees no use in attempting to understand it all).
So this philosophy provides a shelter, the ubi consistam (quite paradoxically for those considering him a pure nihilist), the ground to think in the way one feels: it’s liberating...
