About the Icarian complex that Bataille speaks of, this is a psychological attitude which he attributes to Nietzsche. There are some passages in THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA which are easy to overlook and hard to understand. Bataille's interpretation is one thing and the intended meaning of Nietzsche, which is the original one, is another. Nietzsche observed that people feared breaking from conformity because they realized that it was dangerous. He encouraged them to do what they felt was dangerous. His way of speaking was to encourage people not to fear going above and beyond the norm, but rather to see the fact (in his view) that this leads to destruction as a necessary thing and a fundamental confirmation that one had in fact reached certain heights. The lighting strikes at one BECAUSE one has reached the heights, and would not have struck if one had been lowly and remained lowly. Therefore lighting strikes are a confirmation that one has become something higher than the norm.
Whilst Nietzsche spoke in a manner aimed at getting people to overcome their timidity, Bataille's interpretation is that Nietzsche's goal in aiming to reach the heights was to be destroyed. This is a different way of looking at it, a back-to-front way. It's not wrong, but a different perspective.
Since Nietzsche's goal was to be in the motion of a constant moral transcendence (until one was struck dead), and since Nietzsche seemed to succumb to his own prescription by going mad, Bataille suggested a different solution, which was a lateral integration of increasingly more knowledge into the psyche, rather than going up to the sun and going mad. Even though I have used the term "lateral", (because expanding consciousness is what Bataille implied), Bataille proposed a downward movement instead, away from the moral heights and into notional "immorality". But as I have said, this was all intended to expand the mind. It was actually a movement toward greater psychical health, although with some of the attendant risks that Nietzsche thought inevitable, but this time only the heightened possibility of destruction.
Whilst Nietzsche spoke in a manner aimed at getting people to overcome their timidity, Bataille's interpretation is that Nietzsche's goal in aiming to reach the heights was to be destroyed. This is a different way of looking at it, a back-to-front way. It's not wrong, but a different perspective.
Since Nietzsche's goal was to be in the motion of a constant moral transcendence (until one was struck dead), and since Nietzsche seemed to succumb to his own prescription by going mad, Bataille suggested a different solution, which was a lateral integration of increasingly more knowledge into the psyche, rather than going up to the sun and going mad. Even though I have used the term "lateral", (because expanding consciousness is what Bataille implied), Bataille proposed a downward movement instead, away from the moral heights and into notional "immorality". But as I have said, this was all intended to expand the mind. It was actually a movement toward greater psychical health, although with some of the attendant risks that Nietzsche thought inevitable, but this time only the heightened possibility of destruction.
No comments:
Post a Comment