Nietzsche, Artistic Intoxication, and the Overcoming of Nihilism: the Body as an Ontology of Practice

In his essay “Richard Wagner atare derived from figures of Greek mythology,
Bayreuth” Friedrich Nietzsche writes,Apollo being the god of the plastic arts and
“there is only one hope and one guaranteeDionysus being the god of the musical arts. The
for the future of humanity: it consists in hisDionysian and the Apollonian, Nietzsche argues, are
retention of the sense for the tragic.” #metaphysical principles because they are forces
Nietzsche sees tragic art as a reliable means ofthat underlie the world but also represent real
effecting a transfiguration of nihilism, a nauseatingdynamics of human subjectivity, whose synthesis
absence of cultural vitality that originates from ourrepresent the tragic experience in art.#
strong cultural propensity to absolutizeThe modes of functioning of the two principles
metaphysical values. Nietzsche’s belief thatare then different in a way that proves important
our “retention of the sense of tragic”for artistic production. As metaphysical forces
constitutes one of our surest means tothey point to the existence of a unified and
overcoming such a cultural “sickness”transcendent reality of an artistic will (Ibid); the
includes the project of reaffirming the instinctual,role of the Dionysian is to commune with that
bodily, and practical over metaphysics, for through“primal unity”, and the role of Apollonian is
the aesthetics of the tragic, Nietzsche believes,to make that communion meaningful to us as
we can construct a value system that considersindividuals. The basic modality of the Apollonian is
and satisfies our individual practical needs.# Thisthe dream experience, which expresses itself
paper therefore argues that Nietzsche’sthrough the categories of imagination, illusions and
conception of the role of the body in the tragic,representation, which in turn are crucial for the
as an aesthetic experience, provides a usefulself to understand itself as a unified subjectivity,
model for combating some of the nihilistic aspectsfor they supply the forms and schemes that the
of contemporary modern culture. That is, thesubject inherits from society and imposes on the
body itself constitutes an “ontology ofworld to make it meaningful. Nietzsche asks us to
practice” # that can actually ground our effort“keep in mind that measured restraint, that
to successfully confront nihilism. Nietzsche writes,freedom from wilder emotions, that calm of the
“what does nihilism mean? That the highestsculptor god” (Ibid). Owing to their power of
values devaluate themselves” (WP 2).transfiguration,# the illusory but beautiful Apollonian
Nietzsche then sees ‘nihilism’ as thecodes that impose order on Dionysian frenzy
reality of the disappearance from our world ofrepose the subject on a comforting state of
“highest values” that claim to be universalself-knowledge and self-mastery, for the world is
and objective. Nietzsche writes, “the realno longer absorbed as becoming, change and
world, attainable to the wise, the pious, thesuffering but comprehended through clear rational
virtuous man- he dwells in it, he is it” (TI,models. The basic element in the Dionysian
“How the ‘Real World’ at Lastprinciple is the intoxicating experience that
became a Myth”). For more than twoexpresses itself through artistic rapture, an
thousand years now metaphysical rationalism hasexperience that dissolves subjectivity into the
defined how we relate to the world in terms offluxes of becoming, for when the subject is under
epistemology, ethics, and politics. With Platonism aits intoxicating influence, “everything
dualism was introduced into our horizon, wherebysubjective vanishes into complete
we have come accept the notion that truth andself-forgetfulness” (Ibid). The Dionysian owes
what justifies our conduct here on earth resides inits power to its ability to upset the balance of
a transcendent, idealistic, metaphysical “realsocial norms, values, and categories (nurtured by
world,” while our material realities are merelythe Apollonian) that make our life normal and
transient, inadequate, and needing ofmeaningful as “sovereign” individuals.
transcendence if we are to commune with thatBy tragic art Nietzsche means the effect of the
“real world.” Since Plato rationality, thedialectic between these two principles. He writes,
dialectic, ascetic contemplation, and the will to give“these two different tendencies run parallel to
a spiritual interpretation to the unstable forces ofeach other, for the most part openly at variance;
becoming have become cultural hallmarks ofand they continually incite each other to new and
modernity: what is valuable is one’s resolve tomore powerful births, which perpetuate an
behave in such a way so as to tap into aantagonism, only superficially reconciled by the
transcendent logos of truth and absolute dignity.#common term ‘art;’ till eventually, by a
The rise of Christianity, Nietzsche continues, onlymetaphysical miracle of the Hellenic ‘will,’
reinforced human beings’ conviction that athey appear coupled with each other, and through
“life worth living” should be deeply markedthis coupling ultimately generate an equally
by its metaphysical orientation: “The real worldDionysian and Apollonian form of art-Attic
[the ideal world of the Forms], attainable for thetragedy” (Ibid). The two principles contest
moment, but promised to the wise, the pious, theeach other but also strengthen the effects of
virtuous man (‘to the sinner whoeach other on the psyches of the tragic hero and
repents’)” (Ibid). Christianity eventuallyhis or her audience to create a tragic artistic
inherited the dualistic tradition of Platonism, so thatexperience, for whereas Dionysian rapture tends
most of us continue to locate the source ofto build up in us a longing for a return to normality
value-making in an ideal realm that remainsthrough Apollonian codes, Apollonian categories
detached from everyday life but that has thetend to gradually cause in us a feeling of cultural
power to pass judgments and impose norms onsuffocation that compels us to demand a
it.# What confers dignity to one’s life isDionysian release. A synthesis between the two
one’s ability to behave, here on earth, inprinciples, Nietzsche believes, is particularly
ways that prepare one for a promised millenariansignificant to artistic creativity, for whereas the
communion with a deity in charge of history.Dionysian inaugurates the release of chaotic
I.primeval, de-individualizing metaphysical forces, the
A defining feature of the highest values then isApollonian imposes codes on that frenzied release
the project to impose on life rational or ethicalto make it a coherent and tolerable artistic
perspectives that console us: through theexpression.
intellectual and moral traditions of the WesternWhat makes the dialectic tragic is not only the
consciousness we have been trained to believecontest and its resolution but also the character
that there exists an objective set of values toof the whole process: its dominance by the
which we can appeal for meaning. Not surprisinglyDionysian principle. The Dionysian principle
Nietzsche includes among the highest values mostexpresses a “primordial unity” within which
of our secular value systems, for they embraceall categories dissolve in the fluxes of change,
the Platonist-Christian spiritual notion that truthbecoming, and suffering, for “in song and in
really exists as a presence in a higher spiritualdance man expresses himself as a member of a
order although such presence must be recoveredhigher community; he has forgotten how to walk
from behind the empirical realities of becoming,and speak and is on the way toward flying into
life, or nature. Nietzsche writes, “no doubt,the air, dancing” (Ibid). Allowed to run its
those who are truthful in that audacious andcourse as a purely metaphysical and artistic
ultimate sense that is presupposed by the faith inprinciple, the Dionysian has a liberating, narcotic
science thus affirm another world than the worldand joyful effect in the subject despite revealing
of life, nature, and history; and insofar as theythe essence of life as change, instability, and pain
affirm this ‘other world‘- look, must theybecause the subject loses its ability to judge
not by the same token negate its counterpart,when it finds itself in total communion, as if
this world, our world?” (GS 344). Our scientificmerging, with the primordial metaphysical unity
pursuits constitute another way in which wethat underlies existence. This may compel us to
manifest the “will to truth” that drovewonder about the true nature of the relationships
both Platonism and Christianity. All threebetween the tragic and the meaninglessness of
movements “negate” life because theyexistence: if the tragic merges the subject with
affect some level of violence not only on naturethe absurd realities of life, is it a worthy aim to
but also on ourselves, since the search forembrace a tragic outlook on life if it condemns us
objective, ultimate truths may cause us to turnto a meaningless form of existence? This
life into a means (or a necessary ordeal) toquestion poses a serious challenge to Nietzsche if
securing these truths, as, for example, whenwe can correctly assume that once it grasps life
scientists only show interest in theas absurdity and suffering, the Dionysian will
animal-mechanical aspects of life rather than itssubsists at this level of its terrible discovery as an
creative possibilities. Nietzsche sees theend-in-itself. Nietzsche writes, “the highest art
emergence of the so-called modern ideologiesin saying Yes to life, tragedy, will be reborn when
(classical liberalism, socialism, positivism, historicism,humanity has weathered the consciousness of the
Darwinism, scientism, etc.) of late nineteenthhardest but most necessary wars without
century Europe as manifestations of thesuffering from it” (EH, “The Birth of
“metaphysical faith” that informs modernTragedy,” 4). The aim of the Dionysian
value making activities. # He warns againstexperience is not to stagnate in a meaningless
“the nihilistic consequences of the ways ofexistence but to go beyond and transforming the
thinking in politics and economics, where allabsurd suffering that plagues life; the tragic
‘principles’ are practically histrionic: the airconstitutes a truly affirmative perspective on life
of mediocrity, wretchedness, dishonesty, etc.because suffering is the ground for asserting a
Nationalism. Anarchism, etc. Punishment” (WPjoyful mode of existence.
1). Behind the emotional and spiritual appeal ofIV.
modern ideological systems, there subsists a willNietzsche believes that “the intoxication of the
to dissimulate the reality of the collapse of valuewill” has the power to turn the will from its
systems that claim objectivity and that give theinward direction, where nihilism has imprisoned it,
modern personality a sense of moral comfort andand thrust it outward into becoming;
stability.“intoxication must first have heightened the
Nietzsche’s metaphor for the nihilistic individualexcitability of the entire machine: no art results
who makes value a matter of his own will is thebefore that happens” (TI, “Expeditions of
“ugliest man,” # who operates thean Untimely Man,” 8). The mechanism of
“death of God,” that is, the collapse ofintoxication consists in its ability to cause a
so-called objective metaphysical and secular ideals.condition of arousal in the will. If one believes that
We learn that the ugliest man (a figure of theit is one’s duty to better human existence by
morally self conscious modern subject) has growncreating progressive conditions, whereby the
tired of God’s pity, that is, God’s abilityinspired individual authentically fashions a world
to transparently see through the horriblemeaningful to her because it reflects her creative
character of an existence (that of the ugliestpossibilities (in the fifth section of the Birth of
man) that pretends to simulate ideal models. As aTragedy Nietzsche tells us that “it is only as
result, the ugliest man can no longeran aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the
“endure” a God that witnessedworld are eternally justified.”), and if one
“unblinking and through and through” hisbelieves that human beings should be able to so
(the ugliest man’s) hypocritical, violent, hateful,relate to life as the meaning of their humanity,
and irreverent attitude toward life. “Where Ithen one would welcome “a certain
have gone,” declares the ugliest man, “thephysiological precondition” that revives our
way is bad. I tread all roads to death andsense of power and purpose. Nietzsche continues,
destruction” (Z, IV, “The Ugliest“the essence of intoxication is the feeling of
Man.”). So God has to be murdered becauseplenitude and increased energy” (Ibid).
His pity is too great and revealing.Intoxication can reverse the state of nothingness
The ugliest man tells us that God “looked withassociated with nihilism because it has the power
eyes that saw everything- he saw the depthsto cause the self to believe that it can master
and abysses of man, all man’s hidden disgraceboth itself and the world. Nietzsche writes, “it
and ugliness” (Ibid). The ugliest man, beingis impossible for the Dionysian man not to
self-conscious of the ugly nature of his life andunderstand any suggestion of whatever kind, he
experiencing a great deal of guilt since theignores no signal from the emotions, he
presence of the highest ideals proves to be apossesses to the highest degree the instinct for
mirror that constantly reflects back his life as aunderstanding and divining, just as he possesses
great lie, resolves to abandon his own identificationthe art of communication to the highest degree.
with traditional, idealistic systems of values. HeHe enters into every skin, into every emotion; he
proclaims his power to fashion his own ideals. Likeis continually transforming himself“ (Ibid, 10). A
the modern compassionate individual whose pityrapturous experience then emphasizes feeling as
toward the other leads her to affirm her will tocentral to our awakening to becoming; as
power, pity then has a similar effect on theHeidegger remarks, in his discussion of rapture,
ugliest man. Though he reacts against God’s“feeling achieves from the outset the inherent
great pity, the ugliest man perceives such pity asinternalizing tendency of the body in our Dasein
a mirror, for his appreciation of God’s pity[the mode of existence of human beings].” #
causes him to experience a moral disgust againstThrough feeling, the cohesive powers of the body
his own life since, like many of us, he was trainedare extended into the world as our mode of
by the “religion of pity” to deeply trust inexistence. Nietzsche strongly feels that “from
God’s judgment. So the pity of the modernout of this feeling one gives to things, one
individual and the pity of the ugliest man arecompels them to take, one rapes them-one calls
similar because in both individuals pity causes athis procedure idealizing” (Ibid, 8). So the
deep reaction against the traditional perspectivesself’s emotive powers constitute an
on practical life. The ugliest man develops a hatredopportunity to reawaken the self.
of values based on the pity of God (or of theBut it is not enough to arouse the self; the body
ascetic ideologue, for that matter) because pitymust also affirm itself within becoming. Nietzsche
constantly reminds him of his own impotence,writes, “let us get rid of a prejudice here:
that is, his need to judge himself on the basis ofidealization does not consist, as is commonly
values that subsist outside the scope of his willbelieved, in subtracting or deducting of the petty
and that reflect back on his illusory life.and secondary. A tremendous expulsion of the
What is ugly about God’s murderer, theprincipal features rather is the decisive thing, so
ugliest man, is his will to embrace the collapse ofthat thereupon the others too disappear”
old idols as a reason to introduce a reactive set(Ibid). The goal is not to change the structures of
of values that further depreciates life and thatbecoming, for as an underlying reality, it will
demands our own creative intervention: “thealways remain a “primal unity” of chaos.
ugly is the form things assume when we viewWhat the intoxicating self tries to achieve is a
them with the will to implant a meaning, a new“tremendous expulsion” of the figures it
meaning, into what has become meaningless: thefinds most authentic about itself. Such a self
accumulated force which compels the creator totakes its lead from the multiplicity in the body in a
consider all that has been created hitherto asmanner that allows us to argue that the latter
unacceptable, ill-constituted, worthy of beingactually functions as an ontology of practice. The
denied, ugly!-“ (WP 416). God’s murdererbody that transfigures becoming is the body that
is ugly because he deepens the meaninglessnessexpresses not what it readily takes to be its own
of our world, so that if we are to defeat nihilism,essential features, which often are artificial and
we will have to transfigure his ugliness andoppressive cultural norms, but what Dionysus
introduce a more authentic set of values. Therecognizes as the underlying nature of reality: life
ugliest man experiences a visceral sentiment ofas frenzied becoming, a realm in which our socially
spiritual nakedness that panics him into seeking aassigned individuality, which ignores needs that are
false compensation to the collapse of traditionaltrue to us, is dissolved. Here the multiplicity of the
values. He wants to escape nihilism withoutself truly becomes an immanent dimension of the
overturning old metaphysical habits. He now reliespractical possibilities of becoming, as Dionysus tries
on the values offered through the practices ofto secure his “symbolic jubilee” of nature.
commercialized mass culture, social-utopianThe Dionysian hero seeks to change our
movements, political parties, and other secularperspectives on the structures of becoming by
value systems that pursue the will to truth.#giving them powerful symbolic expressions.# The
Nietzsche writes, “the ways ofmain issue that still concerns us is, using the
self-narcotization.- deep down: not knowingDionysian model, how do we recognize a body or
whither. Emptiness” (WP 29). The will to actiona self as a symbol of affirmation?
of the ugliest man is basically a form of negation,We learn from Zarathustra, the self-proclaimed
not positive construction, for he further pursuesdisciple of Dionysus, that we can symbolically
the metaphysical faith of the ascetic outlook; herecognize the non-nihilistic, transfigured body in the
acts on the basis of the notion that the traditionalcontorted forms it takes when the subject
values have failed to produce the absolute truthsengages in a dynamic activity like dancing. He
that should guide our life. He expresses a will todeclares, “I should believe only in a God who
impose on the lives of others meaning schemesunderstood how to dance” (Z, I, “Of
that actually degrade their personal needs,Reading and Writing“). As much as the tragic
impulses, and styles of life. This debilitatinghero, the teacher of the superhuman finds
character in the perspective of the ugliest man isDionysus, the god of music and dance, particularly
formative to nihilism: the death of God as theuseful in our effort to overcome nihilism, for
clash of competing, reactive, secular perspectivesthrough intoxicating dance the normal categories
on human existence.of bodily expectations and behavioral conventions
Ironically, then, the ugliest man, a symbol of theare displaced.# Not surprisingly, Zarathustra
modern subject who reacts against God’sreminds the “higher men,” who suffer
pity, embraces a mode of existence that inspiresfrom cultural impotence and who desire to
revulsion in some of us owing to its ugliness, thatrecover their power of willing, “although there
is, the character of the contradiction that plagueare swamps and thick afflictions on earth, he who
his will. Nietzsche writes, “ugliness signifies thehas light feet runs across mud and dances as
decadence [read decline] of a type, contradictionupon swept ice” (Z, IV, “Of the Higher
and lack of co-ordination among the innerMan,“ 17). Zarathustra confronts the
desires-signifies a decline in organizing strength, inponderous weight of cultural decline and nihilism
’will,’ to speak psychologically” (WPthrough affirmation, but a precondition for the
800). Contradiction in the basic impulses of thesuccess of that confrontation is the elimination of
self points to an “ugly” mode of life, anddecadence and resignation as weighty afflictions
we see in the ugliest man a desire to escape thethat plague the body.
hold of metaphysics accompanied by a will toZarathustra wants a subject prepared and
impose on the world secular values whosepredisposed to change, and, as we noted above,
skeleton is the old metaphysical faith in the will tointoxication achieves this through an emotive
truth. He reacts against the old metaphysicalexperience that has the power to orient the self
values’ tendency to ignore and distort ourbeyond the absurd, though here we see the
practical needs, motives, and reasons to besame process articulated in a body that upsets its
effective cultural actors, yet the secular valuesnormal categories. Zarathustra advises the
that he re-imposes on the world often refuse“higher men“, “lift up your hearts, my
others the right to pursue their own practicalbrothers, high! higher! And do not forget your legs!
needs, motives, and reasons. “The effect ofLift up your legs, too, you fine dancers: and
the ugly is depressing: it is the expression of abetter still, stand on your heads! “ (Ibid).
depression. It takes away strength, itThrough the activity of dancing the body
impoverishes, it weighs down” (WP 809). Ansymbolically affirms its liberation from nihilistic
individual experiences moral stagnation and lack ofnormality; that is, Zarathustra sees a possibility to
creativity when, for example, she models heruplift the subject above the conditions that have
outlook on life, her values, or her lifestyle on theso far acted as a hinder to her life, for through
moral discourses and norms offered by thedance the whole person is involved with the
managers of mass culture (modern figures of therhythmic pulses of music in a way that turns his
“ugliest man“), for the latter excel in theor her life into a work of art, an achievement
administration of the masses’ desires, needs,Dionysus envisions for anyone aspiring for a
and values. Nietzsche notes that “the uglymeaningful life. Zarathustra’s celebration of
limps, the ugly stumbles: antithesis to the divinedance symbolizes the ability of some of us to
frivolity of the dancer” (Ibid). Contradiction intransfigure the reality around them by
the impulses of the ugliest man, as shared by thetransfiguring their own selfhoods.
late modern subject, promotes an aestheticallyNietzsche writes, “What does the tragic artist
and ethically objectionable mode of existencecommunicate of himself? Does he not display
because a self that cannot act and createprecisely the condition of fearlessness in the face
abandons life to its challenges, imperfections,of the fearsome and questionable? -This condition
chaos, and difficulties, when it should act toitself is a high desideratum: he who knows it
remedy them.bestows on it the highest honours…In the face
By ‘nihilism,’ therefore, Nietzsche meansof tragedy the warlike in our soul celebrates its
the process whereby we lose faith in the notionSaturnalias…” (TI, “Expeditions of an
that there exists objective sets of values thatUntimely man“, 24). A Dionysian-like
should always provide models for our livesaffirmation includes the ability to create a clearing
because of the nauseating, pitiful and uglyeffect in the midst of a nihilistic, hostile world that
character of the will (of the reactive modernreacts to our own authentic needs, and such a
subject) that upholds these values.clearing effect must also be a physiological
experience, and that is why it takes a Saturnalian
II.In ways unforeseen by the modern subject, thequality. The tragic artist seeks to produce a
body proves to be a powerful force in our abilitysymbolic, positive situation within overwhelming
to transform and reinterpret the aspects ofconditions of nihilism. Zarathustra’s use of
becoming that we find objectionable. Nietzsche,dance to render weightless the “swamps and
we already noted, wants us to remember, “inthick afflictions” of nihilism represents his call
all willing there is, first, a plurality of sensations,that we rely on the body to introduce a positive
namely, the sensation of the state ‘awaysymbolic force into becoming. Nietzsche insists
from which,’ the sensation of the statethat the Dionysian experience “is explicable
‘towards which,’ the sensation of thisonly as an excess of energy” (Ibid, 4).
‘from’ and ‘towards’ themselves,Through dance, as a means to disrupt a
and then also an accompanying muscularnauseating and pitiful normality, we recognize a
sensation, which even without our putting intofracturing of existence, owing to an oversupplied
motion ‘arms and legs,’ begins its actionartistic will, as a precondition toward creating the
by force of habit as soon as we ’will’body as a symbol of affirmation.
anything” (BGE 19). Qualities in the dispositionThat Nietzsche asks us “to welcome every
of the body directly affect the nature of themoment of universal existence with a sense of
becoming around us because both the body andtriumph” should lead us to assume that life will
becoming constitute a continual matrix of forces,continue to be a challenge that invokes our
and whether we subsist in nihilism or achieve anpowers to judge and act, so that existence
emancipated world depends on the nature of thereduces to an eternal need to impose meaning
pertinent direction these forces take. Nietzscheschemes on the world. This leads Zarathustra to
notes, “I tell you: one must have chaos inponder, “if ever I have played dice with the
one, to give birth to a dancing star. I tell you: yougods at their table, the earth, so that the earth
still have chaos in you” (Z, Ibid, 5). Nietzschetrembled and broke open and streams of fire
sees the will itself as an excessive force, and thesnorted forth: for earth is a table of the gods,
forces whose excess the will configures areand trembling with creative new words and the
overwhelmingly those of the body, as opposed todice throws of the gods: Oh how should I not lust
purely cognitive and psychological elements, forfor eternity and for the wedding ring of rings-the
only in the will as a bodily balance of forces canRing of Recurrence!” (Z, III, “The Seven
we understand Nietzsche’s claim that valueSeals,” 3).
depends on our ability to organize the chaos thatNietzsche again reminds us that the transfiguration
structures the modern self. Nietzsche notes,effected on becoming through existential action is
“what is essential ‘in heaven and onnot meant to permanently change the character
earth’ seems to be, to say it once more,of becoming, for the latter will have to remain a
that there should be obedience over a long periodlocus of possibilities and thus a field of chance,
of time and in a single direction: given that,instability, suffering and dice throwing.# The body
something always develops, and has developed,as beautiful figuration, through dance, consists in
for whose sake it is worth while to live on earth;the insight that intoxication temporarily presents
for example, virtue, art, music, dance, reason,the self as a figurative aberration within nihilistic
spirituality- something transfiguring, subtle, mad,becoming. Nietzsche writes, “affirmation of life
and divine” (Ibid). The disparate physiologicaleven in its strangest and sternest problems, the
and psychological structure of the will must bewill to life rejoicing in its own inexhaustibility
released, though in a regulated fashion if anythingthrough the sacrifice of its highest types- that is
valuable is to take root in our culture. Nietzschewhat I called Dionysian…” (TI, “What I
has in mind something akin to the great Romanticowe to the Ancients,” 5). Because beauty in
poets‘ notion of creativity as “controlledbecoming consists in a transfigured perspective
emotion.” # By referring to thethat exalts our being and because beauty in
“chaos” in the self, Nietzsche means tobecoming symbolizes our will to affirmation we
draw attention to the need to sublimate thecan say that “the crooked” body that
multiplicity in the structure of the will.enraptures itself in Dionysian dance affirms a will
Numerous practical issues and challenges structurethat embraces the transfigured, beautiful realities
our lives, so that we often do not seek toof becoming as its content.
provide complete solutions to all of them. TheOne could wonder whether the Dionysian self
only avenue we have to making something out ofshould be kept in a constant state of intoxication
such practical chaos is to assume some level ofto maintain its affirmative and aesthetical qualities?
self-discipline, so that we can prioritize our practicalClearly it would not be healthy for any human
needs and make constructive choices. Thatperson to subsist in a constant state of rapture.
Nietzsche underscores the chaos that exists inThe state of the Dionysian self is temporary, and
the self should be seen as his way of remindingafter the rapturous “metaphysical
us that we owe our cultural achievements to ourcomfort” has passed, it may express its
ability to exert violence on the practical aspectssatisfaction with the important changes operated
of life that define us. For Nietzsche self-masteryon the categories of our culture. To understand
involves a process whereby “an irreplaceablethis process, we must return to Nietzsche’s
amount of strength and spirit had to be crushed,vision of tragic art as a synthesis between the
stifled, and ruined (for here, as everywhere,beautiful codes and appearances of the Apollonian
“nature” manifests herself as she is, in allprinciple and the ecstatic and rapturous
her prodigal and indifferent magnificence which isaffirmations of the Dionysian principle. Nietzsche
outrageous but noble)” (Ibid). The flurry ofwrites, “tragedy closes with a sound which
practical-bodily issues that plague our livescould never come from the realm of Apollonian
demands a “narrowing of ourart. And thus the Apollonian illusion reveals itself as
perspective,” if we are to turn practicalwhat it really is- the veiling during the
challenges into aesthetically and morally satisfyingperformance of the tragedy of the real Dionysian
practices and value.effect; but the latter is so powerful that it ends
We also learn that that the multiplicity of theby forcing the Apollonian drama itself into a
bodily will cannot be “explainedsphere where it begins to speak with Dionysian
mechanistically” (Ibid). For Nietzsche thewisdom and even denies itself and its Apollonian
forces of the will do not rationally structureVisibility“ (BT 21). Through its codes and
themselves in a way that allows the mind todream-like categories the Apollonian principle seeks
intuitively intent and represent the world,to return the subject to the normality of social
independent of the influence of the body becauseexistence as an individual satisfied with the
the will configures itself as will only as a result ofprevalent cultural order, but as Nietzsche notes
forces spontaneously clashing. ConsciousnessDionysian intoxication is powerful enough to upset
cannot function as an interpretive force detachedthe reigning codes. The body transformed into a
from the bodily realities of the self. Nietzschesymbol of affirmation, beauty, and joy remains a
believes that the Cogito functions as a conscious,transfigured body, and if it is to be re-coded by
mediating expression of a body structured as anthe Apollonian perspective, for the sake of a
unconscious self with its own hermeneuticreturn to social normality,# such re-coding must
powers.# Rational concepts can help interpret theincorporate the Dionysian body as a unique, often
modalities of the self, as an agent immersed innon-conforming self, for the Apollonian force must
the practical events of life, but only afterspeak “finally the language of Dionysus.”
subterranean, bodily dynamics of willing giveLike the masters of slave morality, the Apollonian
coherence to these rational concepts. Thusorder would show respect to the Dionysian force
Zarathustra notes, “You say ‘I’ andonly if the latter expresses itself through a
you are proud of this word. But greater thanpowerful force of affirmation. Having been
this-although you will not believe in it-is your bodyimpressed by the Dionysian-like self’s ability to
and its great intelligence, which does not sayconvey its different practical needs, our
‘I’ but performs ‘I’” (Z, I,Apollonian-like cultural conventions are likely to be
“Of the Despisers of the Body“). Theinfluenced by the former (the “other”) as
modern subject is conscious of its ownsociety debates value.
categories, but it fails to realize how much more
significant is their real origin. A disembodied mindV.
cannot grasp the real nature of the world it wantsWe found that Nietzsche believes that nihilism, as
to interpret because emotions, personalthe collapse of objective values that some of us
temperament, behavioral habits, and our bruteperceive in aspects of contemporary life,
interactions with the material processes of theoriginates from a feeling of repulsion against the
everyday life contribute to the ability of mind tougly character of a mode of existence disfigured
accurately grasp what it wants to interpret. Ourby its “metaphysical faith” and which
representations of the world take place as acompels some of us to abandon our reverence
continual matrix of rational and personalityfor objective value. We agree with Nietzsche that
processes. In practical everyday life, Nietzsche istransforming our nihilistic table of values should
telling us, part of the reason why ourinclude embracing the tragic hero’s bodily
interpretations of the world satisfy us is that theyapproach as a model. That is, since the Dionysian
emotionally and temperamentally satisfy us; thatperspective, as aesthetic intoxication, gives the
is, such interpretations have grasped thetragic hero a means to both overcome and
metaphorical (symbolical) reality of the body sinceelevate life, we should embrace it as our guide to
they draw on the latter’s multiplicity andface up to practical life and affirmatively draw
continuity with the practical forces of becoming tofrom the latter values that reflect our own unique
impose perspectives on the world.needs. Indeed in the example of Zarathustra we
saw that such model can actually succeed in
III.In Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy we learnturning the human subject into a culturally creative
that great art is a product of a dialectic betweenbeing by transforming the body into a situation of
two metaphysical and artistic principles: thepersonal, joyful and aesthetic affirmation.
Dionysian and the Apollonian (BT 1). The terms