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" The AntiChrist" by Friedrich Nietzsche, I think, is the last Nietzsche book I've to read. Nietzsche is an idol of mine, he is the most poetical genius writer ever to attempt to teach mankind. Twilight of the Idols and Zarathustra are up there amongst the best books I've ever read. But... The AntiChrist was a bit of a let down. It is basically a compendium of all his anti-Christian arguments and comments, in one huge, almost immature, rant. The arguments are obfuscated by his constant intense negativity. In the second half of the short book, the arguments are more clear, although in typical Nietzsche style there are so many offshoots that you have to read several pages to understand the larger-scale arguments. Which is part of his excellence, because his style is very readable: You can read a few sentences, and get one argument, a paragraph and get the feel for a general trend of arguments, or a few pages and realize that the total is even greater than all the individual offshoots, and realize some wonderfully poetic argument comprised of a dozen fluid parts, all summarized (occasionally) with beautiful and genius-like key paragraphs and built-up phrases. Nietzsche writes, therefore, like music... a sentence per beat, with versus and choruses which are all worthy on their own, but the total is so much more. However, The AntiChrist was perhaps limited by it's limited scope. It is a final "And just in case you ever doubted what the greatest expression of decadence is, just in case you somehow missed the rest of my text, here is it ugly and bold: Christianity sucks". The best threads in this book are of the "psychological types" and history of Christianity, in particular, the gospels versus Paul, and Jesus versus Paul. He credits the Gospels with some genuine worth and good news, although he relegates this "worth" to not quite as bad as the rest of the attempts of the unhealthy, crap masses at the bottom of humanity, which was still a pretty unhealthy and destructive attempt at rising to power. As a result of typical Nietzsche writing, I found myself quoting once from the middle of a paragraph that was over two complete pages long. I love Nietzsche :-) He had a unique writing style, completely fluid and wonderous, if the writing world were as intelligent at Nietzsche, his writing style would catch on. However as most writers are not, it is probably best not to try to copy his tangled, synthetic (yet not simplisticly modern) style! OK... anyone have any thoughts on The AntiChrist, perhaps some slightly more positive ones? Tags: book reviews, nietzsche, philosophy
Current Mood:  hyper
Listening To: "Immolation" by Ultraviolence
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Nietzsche: Twilight of the Idols ...is fast becoming my favorite non-fiction book. It's subtitle should be: Nietzsche kicks everyone's arse with the utmost style, humour, grace and art. Nietzsche is the only philosophy author, except LaVey, who makes me stop and laugh out loud when they drop their jokes. The jokes are just as amazingly worded and set up as all the arguments, the follow-ons and strength of it all is divine. I didn't understand Twilight of the Idols first time I read it, I didn't understand all the things it was debunking or all the cultures and concepts it mentioned. I didn't even get the humour. I just want to quote it at length. I already have one page that is a pure Nietzsche quote ( http://www.vexen.co.uk/human/humour.html), I could easily do several more! I want to quote all of his chapter "The Four Great Errors", texts 5 and 7. I thought Thus Spake Zarathustra was good, which it is, it is an amazing and inspiring book, pretentious and prophetic, just as I like it, I would call it "The" book of Humanism. But Twilight Of The Idols destroys everything (and with such style!), whereas the character of TSZ comes and shows us new ways to replace the old, broken and misguided ways. Written at a later date I finally agree with the critics that Twilight Of The Idols is Nietzsche's best, Thus Spake Zarathustra has been relegated to a mere 2nd place. Tags: nietzsche, philosophy, religion, thus spake zarathustra, twilight of the idols
Current Mood: inspired
Listening To: "The Sage" by Vampire State Building
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Here1. Nietzsche (100%) Click here for info 2. Aristotle (84%) Click here for info 3. Aquinas (74%) Click here for info 4. Hobbes (73%) Click here for info 5. Stoics (71%) Click here for info 6. Hume (69%) Click here for info 7. Epicureans (67%) Click here for info 8. Bentham (64%) Click here for info 9. Rand (58%) Click here for info 10. Sartre (56%) Click here for info 11. Mill (53%) Click here for info 12. Plato (51%) Click here for info 13. Cynics (49%) Click here for info 14. Spinoza (49%) Click here for info 15. Ockham (43%) Click here for info 16. Prescriptivism (41%) Click here for info 17. Kant (39%) Click here for info 18. Noddings (21%) Click here for info 19. Augustine (17%) Click here for info I was so surprised that it actually worked! Exciting! I would have but Spinoza much higher... in the top 5. Unfortunately I don't know enough classical philosophy to know most the other people in the list. I know... Nietzsche (fanfare), the Stoics (yay), Rand, Spinoza (my favorite theist, I think) and a bit of Kant. Tags: livejournal memes, nietzsche, philosophy
Current Mood:  happy
Listening To: Beyond - Hai Kuo Tian Kong
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