Ruminating on Nietzsche (Like a Good Herd Animal)
On Hegel's ghost, Freud's revenge, and Nietzsche's unconscious
The first discussion of Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals book club is this Sunday, so I’ve been doing some close reading (and re-reading) of Nietzsche in preparation.
For those who want to join, there are still some spots, or if you want to join for the discussions on the second and third essays, you can do that separately (link to the series is here for more information: Interintellect link)
Anyway, I’ve been having a series of lightbulb moments as I’ve been reading. It’s been years since I’ve read the book, and I’m coming at it with different (more educated, shrewd, intellectually playful) eyes. Here’s some:
Nietzsche’s Genealogy is weirdly like Marx — probably because it’s got that Hegel stench about it
The “blond beast” is actually a lion, and he talks about Japanese and Arabic blond beasts. So — NOT a racial category; someone should have told the Nazis
Nietzsche takes a sly dig at Freud before Freud was Freud — but Freud had the last laugh
This book is less a work of history and more Nietzsche’s own unconscious on the page — it’s voyeuristic
I might polish these into some polished form at some point. For now, you can read them all over in our subscriber chat where I’m dumping these swarthy pearls: