Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Professor Sebacher
October 25, 2007
Rarely will a philosophy present itself as an allencompassing system that cannot
be amended or changed in some way to fit my subjective needs. While Nietzsche would
certainly admire specific qualities of my life, there are bound to be comforts I have not
left behind. Yet, the ideal life, according to Nietzsche, does not seem as engaging as it
was in its formative years. These shortcomings come to life in the characters from The
the unavoidable consequences of said philosophy, Rilke uses it as a starting point to
explore beyond Nietzsches' own ideological comforts. Still, it would take the faculties of
another professional thinker to go where not one of these other men would dare to go.
The two characters from Kunderas' story go through a transformation that either
propels their relationship to new heights, or utterly destroys it. They begin a role playing
game that, seemingly, increases their power over one another; this game allows them to
reestablish their own morality as the night ends in a summation of sexual ecstasy and
their will to power within their relationship; the man feels a "growing aversion toward" his
hitchhiking woman friend, and the woman feels "extraordinarily free," as if "everything
was permitted her" (Kundera1885). As the game picks up its pace, the young man
embraces this force, increasing his malice so that traditional morals are left behind;
when "the hitchhiker could long ago have taken offense and left" (Kundera 1886). Soon
the man realizes "that her soul was terrifyingly amorphous, that it held faithfulness and
unfaithfulness, treachery and innocence, flirtatiousness and chastity" (Kundera 1887).
This realization cements his: own hatred for the girl, idea that anything is permissible
with her, and, "hour of great contempt" for her (1338). By the standards of Zarathustra
this is "the greatest thing ye can experience" and, therefore, means their relationship is
coming to its pinnacle (Nietzsche 1338). The couple become "two bodies in perfect
harmony, two sensual bodies, alien to each other" which only propels their pleasure
(1889). Yet, the last words by the girl uttered are, "I am me, I am me..." leaving a cold
echo of her pain, a manifestation of the disastrous effects that come from the couples
attempt at reestablishing inherent values (1889). The girl is left devastated after "love
making without emotion or love;" and although the experience was great for the young
man, and pleasurable for the girl, the young man gets an inkling of the significance of
their night together from "the sad emptiness of the girl's assertion, in which the unknown
was defined in terms of the same unknown quantity" (1889). While playing their game,
the couple thought they were making it up as they went along; but, "the boundaries of
the playing field are fixed," and though their game made the boundaries seem
impermeable, the young couple were left "beyond that boundary" that holds true for
any intimate relationship (1886, 1889).
Like Nietzsche, Rilke senses the human race has lost a vital aspect of life. In his
poem, The Panther, he beholds a golden specimen of the animal kingdom that is made
into a "laughingstock, a thing of shame" because it has been left to perish in a zoo
(Nietzsche 1337). This majestic beast is subjected to a "servile type" role, basically an
attraction for children which completely strips the honor it once held (Nietzsche 1339).
So all too often is mankind left degraded. Men and women alike are held from their
potential because they can only see what prison ensnares them; like the panther, Rilke
writes, "It seems to him there are a thousand bars; and behind the bars, no world"
(1523). However, Rilke separates himself from the philosophy of Nietzsche in his poem,
god so effortlessly. This slab of marble has been "suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp," Rilke writes (1523). The stark contrast comes a few lines later when he
abolishes Nietzsche's idea that "to blaspheme the earth is now the dreadfulest sin"
(1338). Rilke suggests this statue would not "burst like a star" without its transcendent
dazzle; for "otherwise this stone would seem defaced beneath the translucent cascade
of the shoulders" (1523). The luminescence, from this stone, comes only once it is
chiseled into the perfect form of a man, not before. This does not mean our blue planet
is without beauty, but, that this earth does not contain it in itself. Rather, the truth of this
world shines through it. What is left is a pertinent warning for all, "you must change your
life" (Rilke 1523). Here, Rilke hails for a drastic transformation from: a caged beast to a
wild one; just as "the ape [was] to man" or, where Nietzsche writes, "shall man be to the
Superman" (1337).
To live dangerously is to live according to an individuals' will; to do away with
childish comforts and abominable habits that squeeze the very essence of life from the
living. This advice is immeasurably valuable for each person; even so, Nietzsche cannot
take sole credit for this revolutionary idea. Although his idea of the Superman began
from a different origin, and his means of accomplishing this metamorphosis is
completely amoral, his precept is nonetheless exquisite for its extraordinary language
and insightful assertion. Yet, "Imaginative writers try sometimes to picture this next step
the "Superman". . . . but they usually only succeed in picturing someone a good deal
nastier than man as we know him . . . . but supposing the next step was to be something
even more different from earlier steps than they ever dreamed of?" C.S. Lewis writes in
his book Mere Christianity (185186). He asserts that the "Next Step has already
appeared" (186). Lewis explains that humans, the next step from dinosaurs, "were not
merely going to have more power than the prehistoric monsters, they were going to have
a new kind of power. . . .not only going to be different, but different with a new kind of
difference;" " a change from being creatures of God to being sons of God" (186).
Comparable, Lewis likens this transformation to an instance of childbirth, writing:
"until we rise and follow Christ we are still parts of Nature, still in the womb of our
great mother. Her pregnancy has been long and painful and anxious, but it has
reached its climax. The great moment has come. . . . Will the birth "go off all
right"? But of course it differs from an ordinary birth in one important respect. In
an ordinary birth the baby has not much choice: here it has" (188).
And this is precisely where "with eagle's talons graspeth the abyss: he hath
courage" (Nietzsche 1340). "[The baby] might prefer to stay in the dark and warmth and
safety of the womb. For of course it would think the womb meant safety. That would be
just where it was wrong; for if it stays there it will die" (Lewis 188). This means that with
a slight trimming of Nietzsches' ideas brings much of what is truly of value into the
theological implications of Christianity. The Superman is now, in fact was, a Christian.
The object of ones' will to power is done without the cruelty and simple transitory
pleasure; now it is through righteousness and fulfillment of the soul.
Nietzsche brought humanity back to the earthy soil of the pagans leaving
Kunderas characters hopelessly dazed from the impact; but, it was Rilke who cried out
urgency of Zarathustra with the eternal transcendence of Apollo. Therefore, Nietzsche is
mistaken when he asserts selffulfillment is to be gained through cruelty, sexual
pleasure, or intoxication. It is an obvious conclusion for him to make from a godless,
meaningless world, but, what of the boundaries that cruelty destroys in Kundera's story,
or the magnificent splendor in Rilke's poems that comes from the outside this world?
Nietzsche cannot account for them. His goal of "celebrating the passions and the body
as well as the mind, affirming this world and the present moment" was to surpass man,
to feel alive, and to reach mankinds' full potential.