Nietzsche’s Gay Science Also by Monika M. Langer MERLEAU-PONTY’S PHENOMENOLOGY OF PERCEPTION: A Guide and Commentary Nietzsche’s Gay Science Dancing Coherence

Monika M. Langer © Monika M. Langer 2010 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-58068-8

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-58069-5 ISBN 978-0-230-28176-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230281769 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Langer, Monika M. Nietzsche’s Gay Science : Dancing Coherence / Monika M. Langer. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844–1900. Die fröhliche Wissenschaft. 2. Philosophy. 3. Religion—Philosophy. I. Langer, Monika M. II. Title. III. Title: The Gay Science. B3313.F73l36 2010 193—dc22 2009048522 10987654321 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 I dedicate this book to my parents, Harald and Anne Langer, with gratitude for their interest and encouragement. This page intentionally left blank Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction xi

Nietzsche’s Preface 1

“Joke, Cunning, and Revenge.” Prelude in German Rhymes 14

Book One

Book One: Sections 1–10 31

Book One: Sections 11–33 43

Book One: Sections 34–56 58

Book Two

Book Two: Sections 57–75 77

Book Two: Sections 76–85 91

Book Two: Sections 86–98 98

Book Two: Sections 99–107 105

Book Three

Book Three: Sections 108–125 117

Book Three: Sections 126–153 137

Book Three: Sections 154–275 147

Book Four

Book Four: Sections 276–290 165

Book Four: Sections 291–298 177

Book Four: Sections 299–306 184

vii viii Contents

Book Four: Sections 307–315 189

Book Four: Sections 316–325 193

Book Four: Sections 326–334 197

Book Four: Sections 335–342 201

Book Five

Book Five: Sections 343–355 215

Book Five: Sections 356–365 229

Book Five: Sections 366–374 237

Book Five: Sections 375–383 249

Appendix: “Songs of Prince Vogelfrei” 261

Selected Bibliography 266

Index 268 Acknowledgements

I want to thank the University of Victoria for two grants (SSHRC and RGLS) that allowed me to undertake research in Europe. These grants enabled me to examine Nietzsche’s notebooks and handwrit- ten manuscripts of the first and second editions of The Gay Science (on microfilm and in printed hardcopy). I was thus able to resolve ques- tions that had arisen because of inconsistencies in the various modern German editions of the text. I wish to express my gratitude to Frau Dr. Roswitha Wollkopf of the Goethe-Schiller Archiv (in Weimar), and to Frau Giesela Nebiger of the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek (like- wise in Weimar). Their assistance was invaluable in procuring items for my examination, including several books with Nietzsche’s handwitten marginalia. I also want to thank my family, friends, and colleagues for their unflagging encouragement and cheerfulness during this project.

ix This page intentionally left blank Introduction

The Gay Science is among Nietzsche’s most remarkable and significant works. In his “Translator’s Introduction” Walter Kaufmann called it “one of Nietzsche’s most beautiful and important books”. Richard Schacht declared “for one interested in Nietzsche as philosoper, Die Frohliche [sic.] Wissenschaft (The Gay Science) is without question one of his finest, most illuminating, and most important published works”. He added: “If there is any one of his published works in which ‘the essential philosophical Nietzsche’ is to be found, it would seem to me to be this one.”1 More recently, David Allison said The Gay Science is one of “Nietzsche’s most celebrated and widely read texts”. He pointed out Nietzsche regarded it as his most personal work, and it contains virtually all his major philo- sophical themes. Allison said of all Nietzsche’s texts, The Gay Science “is probably his most important”.2 The Gay Science is clearly central to Nietzsche’s philosophy. Yet so far there has not been a book to help the reader grapple with its complex- ity, from the opening Preface to the concluding Appendix of songs. My book seeks to meet that need. There has been a heightened inter- est in The Gay Science, thanks largely to Ruth Abbey’s Nietzsche’s Middle Period, Kathleen Higgins’ Comic Relief: Nietzsche’s Gay Science, and David Allison’s Reading the New Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy, The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and On the Genealogy of Morals.3 To indicate how my book differs from these, it is worth summarizing Abbey’s, Higgins’, and Allison’s respective approaches. Ruth Abbey argues the works of his middle period (Human, All Too Human, “Assorted Opinions and Maxims”, “The Wanderer and His Shadow”, Daybreak, and the first four Books of The Gay Science) reveal a Nietzsche who is “more careful”, “more open”, less individualist, “less extreme”, and more productively engaged with the philosophical tradi- tion than in his later writings. Abbey maintains the middle period works provide a superior inquiry into the psyche’s complexity. Moreover, they “realize more fully some of Nietzsche’s own values, such as self-reflexive criticism, antidogmatism, openness to possibilities”, and sensitivity to becoming, contingency, and construction.4 To make her case, Abbey focuses on Nietzsche’s approach to morality, psychology, vanity, pity (as well as its cognates: empathy, sympathy, and

xi xii Introduction benevolence), friendship, science, women, marriage, and the western intellectual tradition. She recognizes her emphasis on central themes and recurrent concerns is at variance with the approach of many commentators, who question such imposition of order and unity on apparent chaos and diversity. Abbey says these commentators presup- pose Nietzsche’s aphorisms and multiple styles (such as paragraphs of different lengths, short philosophical dialogues, and anecdotes) imply a diversity of thought and of subject matter in his writings. However, she points out Nietzsche challenged this assumption that his apho- risms and diverse styles indicate discontinuous thinking and patchwork writings.5 Like Abbey, Kathleen Higgins observes The Gay Science “has typically been read as a collection of freestanding sections, their interconnections scarcely noted”.6 By contrast with this approach, Higgins interprets the work as a unified project that is “very carefully orchestrated”.7 She ana- lyzes the shape of its first edition (consisting of the Prelude of poems and the first four Books) and concludes the prose sections are deliberately framed in terms of tragedy and comedy. Higgins contends Nietzsche presents these alternative theatrical forms as paradigms for divergent (but complementary) perspectives on life. Concentrating on his pre- sentation of comedy in The Gay Science, she explores his “attempt at lighthearted scholarship”, his “use of humorous strategies”, and his “parodic play with literary precedents”.8 Higgins says The Gay Science “is intricately assembled in deliberate segues of aphorisms”. She suggests the “image of the postal writer” is a fitting metaphor for its format, each new aphorism appearing “as a new missive”.9 Higgins thinks “Nietzsche’s perspective ...is [as] eccentric and disjointed as a series of postcards from a traveler” who records his observations.10 She says “by structuring his presentation as a series of fragments, Nietzsche directs our thinking into specific sequences, manipulating our experience of reflecting to provoke certain associations”.11 Nevertheless, Higgins does not analyze The Gay Science according to its patterns of “fragments”/“postcards”/aphorisms. Instead, she focuses largely on Nietzsche’s treatment of some principal themes (such as perspectivism, the interplay of tragedy and comedy, the death of God, eternal recurrence, and Zarathustra), as they become prominent. Unlike Higgins, David Allison does not regard The Gay Science as a uni- fied and carefully orchestrated work, although he interprets it as having a central concern. In his view, that concern is “to question the posi- tion and significance of human existence within an age that no longer seemed to have a discernible center”.12 Allison’s discussion of the text Introduction xiii concentrates on stylistic concerns in Nietzsche’s writings, Nietzsche’s account of morality and religion, the meaning and consequences of God’s death, the overcoming of traditional morality’s lingering influ- ence, and the meaning of naturalization. Allison claims Nietzsche’s style and the world he describes “confront us as a dynamic play of multi- ple and continually changing appearances”.13 He reads The Gay Science as “a collection of some 383 aphorisms ...with little overall sense of organization”.14 Allison finds this “general lack of organization” in “the disconnected series of short aphorisms”, the long intervals separating discussions of the same issue, the apparent contradictions, and “the lack of a guiding narrative structure and argument”.15 He contends Nietzsche intention- ally made the work nondirective, to achieve “the existential effect” of having to ponder and respond to a world with no ultimate purpose or moral absolutes.16 He says although it makes The Gay Science very dif- ficult to understand, this lack of direction compels readers to become actively and personally engaged. It also obliges them to reach their own conclusions about the issues Nietzsche raises. Allison claims the aphorism itself demands the reader’s engagement, because it is inher- ently incomplete and unstable. He says the aphorism “does not possess a single, discrete meaning in itself ”, and its possible significance is open-ended. The reader must therefore become “intertwined with the aphorism” and invest it with meaning.17 Arguably, no philosophical text possesses “a single, discrete meaning in itself ”, or is reducible to the strict meaning of its terms. The aphorism is especially rich in meaning, and thus particularly suitable for invit- ing philosophical reflection. Its potential significance is open-ended, because aphorisms are not amenable to a single, definitive reading that would preclude further interpretation. Nietzsche’s use of aphorisms is also arguably more fitting than the scholarly treatise format, since his philosophy challenges the traditional belief in univocity, identity, and systematization. However, the aphorisms are not freestanding. It is erroneous to think The Gay Science lacks organization and con- sists of a “disconnected series of short aphorisms”. It is also mistaken to think it is structured as “a series of fragments”, like “postcards from a traveler”. The aphorisms are not detached, disconnected, and iso- lated, as the metaphors “fragments” and “postcards” suggest. Nietzsche’s perspective is not disjointed, and The Gay Science is not a conglom- eration of thoughts and impressions. As Richard Schacht observed, in The Gay Science “we have much more than the disjointed collection of reflections and aphorisms which it may at first glance appear to be”.18 xiv Introduction

Schacht insists “[t]he surface disorderliness of the volume” conceals its “fundamental coherence”.19 To date, commentators who recognize the coherence of The Gay Sci- ence have taken a thematic approach. Thus Schacht focuses on the “twin themes” of human nature and human possibility following God’s death. He regards these as “the point and counterpoint which give the volume its underlying structure and unity”.20 Abbey concentrates on recurrent themes and concerns uniting the middle period works, with particular emphasis on Human, All Too Human. Higgins focuses on some principal themes from the perspective of Nietzsche’s presentation of comedy in The Gay Science. All three discuss this or that particular aphorism only in relation to their chosen themes, generally with little regard for that aphorism’s actual place in The Gay Science. Even on the rare occasion when a sequence of aphorisms is consid- ered, some aphorisms are ignored. For instance, in discussing Nietzsche’s remarks on women in Book Two of The Gay Science, Higgins does not comment on several of the aphorisms in the sequence she is examining. She does devote a whole chapter to a consideration of the Prelude of poems, but discusses only a few of the poems – and these not in their actual sequence. The thematic commentaries are unquestionably inter- esting and useful. Yet while providing a greater appreciation of several significant themes, they leave readers of The Gay Science only marginally better able to deal with its complexity. Kaufmann said “Nietzsche’s books are easier to read but harder to understand than those of almost any other thinker”.21 This is especially true of The Gay Science, which is one of Nietzsche’s most difficult works. To comprehend it, one must pay close attention to its intricate coher- ence. As Kaufmann pointed out, The Gay Science is “a carefully crafted composition in which almost every section means much more in con- text than will ever be noted by readers who assume, in flat defiance of Nietzsche’s own repeated pleas to the contrary, that each section is a self-sufficient aphorism”.22 My book illuminates the interconnectedness of the sections. It guides the reader through the complexity of The Gay Science, by providing a detailed, sequential reading of the entire work as it appeared in its second edition. Unlike the first edition, the second includes the Preface, Book Five, and the Appendix of songs. I have used the Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari edition of Die fröhliche Wissenschaft in their Kritische Gesamtausgabe, and have con- sulted Walter Kaufmann’s translation.23 In keeping with the “logic” of The Gay Science, I have grouped its Preface, Prelude, three hundred and eighty-three sections, and Appendix of songs into twenty-four chapters Introduction xv of my book. Throughout, I have provided critical commentary and where necessary, corrections of Kaufmann’s translation. I have also supplied background information, wherever it enhanced the compre- hension and appreciation of Nietzsche’s text. The Gay Science arguably has three main, interconnected themes: the de-deification of nature, the world, morality, and knowledge; the nat- uralization of ourselves; and the beautification of our lives. Their infrequent explicit appearance in the text does not diminish the impor- tance of these three themes. Moreover, Nietzsche no doubt deliberately chose to have them emerge indirectly for the most part and to focus mainly on various closely related themes. He may well have thought a more direct and more extensive consideration of de-deification, nat- uralization, and beautification per se would be too abstract. As heirs of traditional philosophy, we generally favour a more abstract philo- sophical discussion of concepts per se. In keeping with his rejection of traditional philosophy, Nietzsche eshewed that approach. I have cho- sen to follow his own, different approach in commenting on The Gay Science. De-deification is neither simply nor primarily a matter of abandoning belief in a religious deity. When such belief loses its credibility, the entire morality and epistemology based on that belief loses its foundation. The whole system of thought involving hierarchical, binary oppositions becomes untenable, science and philosophy lose their footing, nature and the world lose their familiarity, and we humans lose our (assumed) privileged status vis-à-vis (non-human) animals and the rest of nature. We might assume – or try to convince ourselves – rejection of religious belief leaves everything else intact. Alternatively, we might attempt to regain security by anthropomorphizing nature or the world as such. Other responses include adopting belief in some secular (alleged) absolute or becoming dejected and nihilistic. Instead, Nietzsche recom- mends we naturalize ourselves in abandoning our own fragmentation into mind/spirit versus body and reintegrating ourselves with (the rest of) nature. Additionally, he recommends we learn how to love life and beautify our own lives. Although The Gay Science’s five Books do not put it in the following terms, they arguably deal mostly with themes that illuminate hin- drances to de-deification, naturalization, and beautification; that indi- cate what de-deification, naturalization, and beautification require and involve; and that suggest why de-deification, naturalization, and beau- tification are desirable. For instance, a life-negating morality and a long- ing for security are among the hindrances; the “intellectual conscience” xvi Introduction is among the requirements; a different conception of knowledge and truth is among the factors involved; and a life-affirming morality and new scope for creativity are among the reasons for undertaking de-deification, naturalization, and beautification. Book One deals with some of the hindrances to, and requirements for, de-deification, naturalization, and beautification. The continu- ally reappearing instructors of the aim of existence are among these hindrances, as are the hypocritical traditional morality and the conven- tional view of consciousness. Making knowledge corporeal and instinc- tive is among the requirements, as is the overturning of conventional evaluations. Book Two undermines the realists’ position – another significant hin- drance. It also considers some of what is required for, and involved in, de-deification, naturalization, and beautification. Thus it points out the importance of recognizing our greatest peril, seeing ourselves in perspec- tive, and developing the “historical sense”. Further, it emphasizes the need to transform ourselves into “an aesthetic phenomenon” and pro- vides a vision of the free-spirited existence that makes de-deification, naturalization, and beautification highly desirable. Book Three provides a more explicit consideration of de-deification and naturalization. It begins with the announcement of God’s death and of the need to overcome His shadow. Further, by challenging our assumptions about knowledge, logic, science, and volition, and by critiquing various narcotic modes of living, Book Three undermines important hindrances to de-deification, naturalization, and beautifica- tion. The fable of “the madman” suggests atheists tend to think God’s death leaves all else intact. In challenging that stance, the “madman” indicates the requisite awareness for, and some of the implications of, de-deification and naturalization. Book Four indicates some of the perils involved in accomplishing de-deification. It also suggests the requisite context for liberated liv- ing, indicates the importance of styling our characters, and emphasizes artists can teach us how to beautify our lives. Further, it examines some significant qualities of those who are artists of their lives and draws attention to the pain necessitated by continual transformations. In addi- tion, Book Four emphasizes the need for self-scrutiny, the consequences of thoughtlessness, the meaning of thinking, and the instincts’ role in knowledge. The fable of eternal return provides a test for assessing if we have the life-affirming attitude of a “free spirit”. Book Four thus indicates more of what is involved in, and required for, de-deification, naturalization and beautification. Introduction xvii

Book Five examines more explicitly the meaning and consequences of God’s death, draws attention to its implications for epistemology and morality, and claims European morality has lost its foundational faith/belief and must therefore collapse. It considers the origin of, and need for, faith/belief and notes science is also based on a faith/belief. Further, Book Five suggests consciousness is intrinsically social and our idea of so-called knowledge springs from our desire for the security of the familiar. As well, Book Five describes those who restrain their desire for certainty and luxuriate in the freedom to explore endless horizons. It indicates some features of the ideal world and ideal spirit envisaged, and points out the Nietzschean philosopher’s goal is to be “a good dancer”. Thus Book Five also suggests what de-deification, naturalization, and beautification require and involve, and what renders them desirable. It would of course be utterly un-Nietzschean to seek to give a defini- tive, canonical reading of The Gay Science. As Nietzsche would say, there may well be an infinite number of possible interpretations, both of the work as a whole and of any section. There is likewise no definitive, canonical grouping of the sections. Nonetheless, there is a fundamental coherence to the text. Its coherence is not that of the traditional schol- arly treatise. Such coherence would be at odds with a work designed to undermine philosophy’s longstanding dependence on overarching systems, pure concepts, aprioriprinciples, and logical arguments. The coherence of The Gay Science is a multifacetted, creative coherence that eshews the tradition’s ponderous stance and reflects Nietzsche’s desire to dance with the pen. My book brings that coherence to light and assists the reader in grappling with the text’s many difficulties.

Monika Langer

Notes

1. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science: With a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs (hereafter The Gay Science), trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vin- tage Books/Random House, 1974), p.3; and Richard Schacht, “Nietzsche’s Gay Science, Or, How to Naturalize Cheerfully”, in Reading Nietzsche,eds. Robert C. Solomon and Kathleen M. Higgins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 68, 70–71. The German title is actually Die fröhliche Wissenschaft. 2. David B. Allison, Reading the New Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy, The Gay Sci- ence, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and On the Genealogy of Morals (hereafter Reading the New Nietzsche) (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), x, pp. 99, 71. 3. Ruth Abbey, Nietzsche’s Middle Period (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000); Kathleen Marie Higgins, Comic Relief: Nietzsche’s Gay Science (hereafter Comic xviii Introduction

Relief ) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000); and David B. Allison, Reading the New Nietzsche, pp. 71–109. 4. Nietzsche’s Middle Period, xi, xiv, xv, p. 156. 5. Ibid., p. 157. Abbey quotes sections one hundred and twenty-eight and three hundred and seventy-six of Nietzsche’s “Assorted Opinions and Maxims” (published in Human, All Too Human), and section two of his Preface to On the Genealogy of Morals. 6. Comic Relief,p.5. 7. Ibid., p.8. 8. Ibid., viii, ix. 9. Ibid., pp. 11, 9. 10. Ibid., pp. 8, 9. 11. Ibid., p.12. 12. Reading the New Nietzsche, p. 72. 13. Ibid., p. 75. 14. Ibid., xi. 15. Ibid. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid., xi, p.76. 18. “Nietzsche’s Gay Science, Or, How to Naturalize Cheerfully”, in Reading Nietzsche, p. 68. 19. Ibid., p. 70. 20. Ibid., pp. 71,76. 21. Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist,4th ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974), p. 72. 22. “Translator’s Introduction”, The Gay Science, p.15. 23. Nietzsche Werke: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Fünfte Abteilung, Zweiter Band, Die fröhliche Wissenschaft, eds. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1973).