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Title: Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is (Penguin Classics) by R. J. Hollingdale, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Michael Tanner ISBN: 0-14-044515-3 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Celebrate Self and Life!
Comment: I first read Nietzsche's Ecce Homo in August 1988. I bought another copy in October 1989 to read again to decipher more of Nietzsche's wit. On the inside cover of the first reading I wrote, "The style and the language of the writings of Nietzsche are ingenius! He stands alone with honor and respect. Psychologically dangerous to one's health for its extravagant and eloquence of expressed ideas, it is nevertheless psychologically beneficial as an eye-opener to affirm SELF and celebrate LIFE!"
Rating: 4
Summary: nietzsche's most bizarre book--and that's saying something
Comment: "ecce homo" is certainly the most, eh...'unusual' autobiography i've ever encountered, and has a fascination all its own, but i would take nietzsche to task for his constant criticism of scholars and those prefer to live in the imagination and language rather than in what he preferred to think of as 'reality. this kind of positivistic nonsense is what makes me prefer schopenhauer's philosophy to nietzsche's, in the end. its odd that a man with the sensitivity, perceptiveness and intelligence of nietzsche never seemed to realize that after awhile, the external world of people, things, egoism and power seeking simply becomes a tiresome bore. still, though, the concept of the dionysian is intriguing and the fiery, poetic quality of nietzsche's prose keeps the reader riveted to his unbelievably original thoughts and indispensable critique of christian beliefs and ascetic ideals.
the titles of the chapters are slightly amusing--"why i am so clever", "why i write such good books", "why i am a beginning". this isn't a question of not worrying about modesty, but one of impending insanity. its almost as though on some level nietzsche was aware that the end was near and that he needed to write something that expressed his heart and soul before he fell apart completely. one of the most stunning parts in the book are nietzsche's wholly accurate predictions for the twentieth century:"there will be wars such as mankind has never seen before." he said it with a certain delight, no doubt, but nonetheless, this man possessed the intuition and foresight of an almost mystical kind, although he would punch me in the mouth for saying that. he also admits some curious things about himself that contradict his professed philosophy more than slightly:"i know nothing of the 'heroic', i know nothing of 'will'. my being would rather say 'no' than 'yes'; in fact, it would rather say nothing at all." this, from the eternal yea sayer? "ecce homo" offers some curious insights into the actual psyche of the man who preached life affirmation with his more formal works.
Rating: 5
Summary: How to Truly Write Autobiography...
Comment: "I possess a perfectly uncanny sensitivity of the instinct for cleanliness, so that I perceive physiologically, smell the proximity, or - what am I saying? - the innermost parts, the 'entrails', of every soul... I have in this sensitivity psychological antennae with which I touch and take hold of every secret: all the concealed dirt at the bottom of many a nature, perhaps conditioned by bad blood but whitewashed by education, is made known to me almost on first contact."
-- Friederich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo
Ecce Homo is not a book of philosophy. It is not, for that matter, a book that conforms to any conventional genre of literature to which one can relate from ordinary reading. Rather, it is an elaborate anamnesis, a haunting excursion into the strange world of a moral hygienist, written by one of the most peculiar, though no less intriguing, minds of modern European history.
Very much out of line with the spirit of autobiography, Nietzsche ridicules with remorseless cynicism the very idea of writing a book about oneself. He begins his chapters with such titles as, "Why I Am So Wise", "Why I Am So Clever", "Why I Write Such Good Books", and "Why I Am A Destiny". Such titles, so egregious and perverse, deride the sheer arrogance presupposed by the writing of autobiography. For, if we are to be honest with ourselves, autobiographies are little more than shameless excercises in self-indulgent egotism, written exclusively for the scandalous purpose of public consumption. At no point does Nietzsche exhibit the sort of false modesty with which autobiographers make a mockery of their readers. What is presented in this book is something quite different. The readership here is never assumed to be a general audience. Marketing played was given no consideration in the writing of this book. Nietzsche takes little care (none, in fact) not to offend the reader. He writes absolutely whatever springs to mind, laying bare in defiantly candid terms his essential line of thinking, more rightly described as his 'essential attitudes', esteeming everything pleasing to his instincts and lashing out with utmost violence against every conceivable source of putrefaction and disease - German culture, Christianity, modern industrialism, the obsessive 'scholar' and bibliophilic pedant, dispiriting weather, and even English cookery. Herein lies Nietzsche's famous declaration: "I am the anti-ass par excellence and therewith a world-historical monster - I am, in Greek and not only in Greek, the Anti-Christ..."
Ecce Homo follows no chronological order. It reads quite erratically, touching upon the most random points of concern (one might say fetishes) in Nietzsche's brief, but profound life. He elaborates with great passion upon his love of Wagnerian music, his intimate hatred for false 'idealism', and the destructive consequences of excessive rationalism. " 'Rationality against instinct. 'Rationality' at any price as dangerous, as a force undermining life!" He emphasizes endlessly the importance of intellectually and spiritually conducive surroundings, of "[s]electivity in nutriment; selectivity in climate and place", making it painfully clear that Germany was thoroughly godforsaken in this respect. The reader is given a refreshing sense of what is means to be cultured and civilized in Nietzsche's view. He reveals his love of Italian life, French cuisine, and Moorish architecture. He also has been described as having an extraordinary perception for diagnosing symptoms of social rot. Nearly all of Europe, with its embrace of industry and technology, was condemned by Nietzsche as being sick to the bone. Christianity is used as an unfailing example of what it means to be truly dirty in both body and mind. Surprisingly thrown into this wild mix of bitter damnation is alcohol, entirely shunned by Nietzsche for being an influence as criminal and destructive in its effects as Christianity itself: "Alcoholic drinks are no good for me; a glass of wine or beer a day is quite enough to make life for me a 'Vale of Tears'...To believe that wine 'makes cheerful' I would have to be a Christian, that is to say believe what for me is precisely an absurdity".
Of practical value and written in the most coherent fashion are the individual chapters devoted to each of Nietzsche's books. These chapters present a 'lightning tour' of his philosophy, giving concrete definition to his most celebrated ideas. The reader is given a taste of the elevated euphoria that went into the writing of the Gay Science. Nietzsche generously quotes from Thus Spake Zarathustra, highlighting its most graceful passages in which his lyrical talents shine forth in resplendent brilliance. In the chapter titled, "The Untimely Essays", Nietzsche offers his views of scientific management and modern industrialism, unveiling "what gnaws at and poisons life, in our way of carrying on science: life sick with this inhuman clockwork and mechanism, with the 'impersonality' of the worker, with the false economy of 'divison of labor' ". Such openly Marxist overtones belie all attempts to characterize Nietzsche as the unsuspecting prophet of fascism.
Nietzsche possessed, among other things, an exceptional gift for conveying seemingly simple ideas with a profound, hammering intensity. In these pages, one will encounter a uniquely superior command of language, in lines of unrivaled grace, eloquence, and passion, and laced with the sort of formidable literary power that will violently shake the ground beneath one. It is said that Ecce Homo is "one of the supreme masterpieces of German prose". I would go so far as to suggest that R.J. Hollingdale's translation of this magnanimous work is one of the supreme masterpieces of *English* prose.
"I can write in letters that make even the blind see." -- Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ
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Title: Thus Spake Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0486406636 Publisher: Dover Pubns Pub. Date: 16 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $3.50 |
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Title: Nietzsche: Human, All Too Human : A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Nietzsche, R. J. Hollingdale, Richard Schacht, Karl Ameriks, Desmond M. Clarke ISBN: 0521567041 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 07 November, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Will to Power by Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0394704371 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 August, 1968 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Nietzsche: Untimely Meditations by Friedrich Nietzsche, Daniel Breazeale, R. J. Hollingdale, Karl Ameriks, Desmond M. Clarke ISBN: 0521585848 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 06 November, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Beyond Good & Evil : Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future by Walter Kaufmann, Friedrich Nietzsche ISBN: 0679724656 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 17 December, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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