Bleeding out our Reflections

So I’ve been on a Nietzsche kick, maybe I’ll share some of his quotes and aphorisms up here sometime. But you might find these thoughts interesting…

Much of Nietzsche’s writings are on the cultivation of aesthetic taste. His commentary his aphorisms are instructive and illustrative opinions designed to point the way to an authentic and depthful experience of art. And, much of the time they are designed to point out the pitfalls and stupidities of those who have not yet grasped art with the highest subtlety (in his point of view).

They are not merely advice, however. Nietzsche would not have his readers clumsily depend upon them in substitution for their own tastes and experiences. They are written as if they were posted on a wall anonymously by a thinker who has put long hours of serious consideration into his labors and is confident in their integrity. Expecting nothing less from himself, he is sure that they will be carried into the minds of those who are deserving enough. Nietzsche definitely walks his talk: in his view, a piece of art should not attempt to bowl one over right away but gradually and surely compel the reader in its depth and authenticity. In my mind, this book was laying a graduated foundation of astonishment and trust in me. In love as artifice, he writes of an initial period where a reader rejoices as the philosopher as covers all the points of that reader’s psyche. This initial enthusiasm, while valuable, will eventually round out its depth with some critiques and a more balanced perspective. I feel the same way.

(I gained a sense of how a book can be like a living teacher. It made me glad that there are books that can still change me, and I might later look at some of these writings as mirrors that added their portion to the image of who I was at age twenty-one. Perhaps if I re-read them I will see a little bit of that image of me within them, and it will appear in context of my knowledge of it as step in the formation of who I would eventually be as a person.)

Nietzsche is very interested in how certain spiritual and artistic forms have developed and continued throughout cultures and histories. He is not interested in figuring out which religion or culture was right: he thinks a history of spiritual perceptions is more valuable. He wants to know the history of art’s role in the psyche of the human being, both modern and pre modern.

Pursuing this project, at one moment he explains how periods of low culture often are followed by artistic Renaissances, and that the sense of movement and contrast created provides rich soil for art, poetry and the like. These periods: œpossess the charm of an agreeable recollection, a yearning desire for what has almost been lost. While he notices the beauty in this development, he is also skeptical of the harkening back towards old forms. For him, the pleasure is fleeting.

This balance between discerning equanimity and passion are central in his discussion around aesthetic appreciation. Nietzsche recognizes the act of remembering as a sensual, aesthetic experience. It’s a key ingredient in the texture and depth of a human life, but he is weary when it is not used with the utmost taste and discretion.

In his discussions on music, he notes its ability to bring us to states of mind reminiscent of childhood. Listening to music is often a œlooking backward for him. He says, œalmost all music, moreover, produces a magical effect only when we hear the language of our own past speaking out of it. I’ve listened to certain music that takes makes me nostalgic for the past, or that seems to transport me to places like the ancient world. It’s the same pleasure that would satisfy my sometimes yearning to travel to exotic places.

Perhaps music can also elicit nostalgia for the future as well, in that it can make the present moment feel as if a œyou in the future were looking back on it. These moments give me a sense of compassion and self-acceptance for myself that often is only found when looking back (without judgment) on who we were at a stage in life. Though being only 21, life in these moments flowers into a small, poignant summation who I am thus far in life. It’s the sense being captured in a œpicture that defines the age. It’s the sensation of making a mark, maybe not on pop culture exactly, but a mark on and about my life that is really only something that I can wholly see, something that’s for me.

Sometimes looking back on a beautiful moment can make another beautiful moment. Vincent Van Gogh wrote that if a man were locked in a room with a good enough memory and a subtle sensibility, he could emotionally survive on his past experiences alone. Experiences like the one above I put into a kind of mental scrapbook of my thoughts and life. If it’s the right time to open up the scrapbook, I am taken back to a few periods in my life, and am again made to feel a surge of warmth, innocence, excitement and possibility. And, as I touched on above, during story telling or say, music making, I can reminisce about experiences I’ve not even had myself. Bards, even in the ancient days, have always sung about those days that are even more ancient. Nietzsche calls this kind of remembering œepic poetry. This throwback to the experiences of old is a process of leaving the forms of our age and time. N. thinks is valuable for gaining better perspectives on the modern age. It is amazing how satisfied emotionally we are by storytelling. This phenomenon calls us to reevaluate our need to possess people and things in world and our fear of losing them. I believe we are only really satisfied when we are satisfied on the level of the psyche. The language of our psyche is symbols, and when we are connected to life when our psyche is filled with images of beauty, love, power, and all the other (positive) multitudes of states of consciousness. (Nietzsche would add that these arise not as a black or white form but always as a shade in between.)

The images that our minds contain determine our current emotional state and outlook. The aesthete recognizes this and fills his world with beautiful images. The religious man goes to his symbol of God for spiritual qualities. A meditator one said that the mind at its fundamental level operates on images. If you’ve ever bowled over with laughter, you’ve probably noticed that it’s because the humorous image reenters your head again and again even without you willing it. If you’re depressed, what image keeps reentering your mind? Once this process is understood, the reason behind contemplation or meditation becomes clear. The purpose of any type of contemplation is the willful act of holding live giving images (or qualities) of power, love, etc in the forefront of our minds. It is not just conceptualizing or imagining, but allowing the qualities of the image to transform your state of mind as one might do in looking at a beautiful scene or picture. The ability to contemplate is developed and made stronger through its continued maintenance through and despite any negativities or distractions that might arise in the meantime. Nietzsche has come to his own method of contemplation. He finds no need for metaphysical or transcendent ideas, but he harkens back to the idea of Renaissance, or awakening, through the study of history, of art, culture or the natural world.