Friedrich_Nietzsche - Untimely_Meditations_(Cambridge_Texts_in_the_History_of_Philosophy__1997)

Untimely Meditationsfo rm of aluminous and victorious example. His writ i ngs containnothing canonical, nothing strict and severe: what is canonical is inhis works. They are attempts to comprehend the instinct whichimpelled him to create his works, and as it were to set himself beforehis own eyes; if he can only manage to transform his instinct intoknowledge, he hopes the reverse process will take place within thesouls of his readers: it is with this objective that he writes. If it shouldin the event prove that he was here attempting the impossible,Wagner would nonetheless only be sharing the same fate as all thosewho have reflected on art; and over most of them he has the advantageof being the repository of the mightiest instinct for all the artscollectively. I know of no writings on aesthetics so illuminating asWagner' s; what is to be learned about the birth of a work of art is tobe learned from them. It is one of the truly great artists who hereappears as a witness and through a long course of years deposes histestimony ever more freely, clearly and distinctly; even when heblunders in a point of knowledge he nonetheless strikes fire. Certainof his writings, such as Beethoven, On Cond1Jcting, On Actors and Singersand State and Religion, strike dumb every urge to contradiction andcompel one to regard them with the silent reverence appropriate tothe opening of a precious shrine. Others, especially those of earlieryears and including Opera and Drama, are disturbing: they evidencean irregularity of rhythm through which they are, as prose, throwninto disorder. Their argumentation is full of gaps, and theiremotional leaps hinder rather than accelerate their progress; a kindof reluctance on the part of the writer lies over them like a shadow, as. though the artist is ashamed of intellectual demonstration. The hardestthing of all about them for those not wholly initiated is, perhaps, animpression they give of dignified self-assertiveness; it is a tonepeculiar to them and one hard to describe: to me it seems as thoughWagner were often speaking in the presence of enemies - for all these writingsare in spoken, not in written style, and one will find them muchclearer if one hears them read well aloudenemies with whom hecannot be familiar or intimate and at whom he is thus compelled todeclaim from a distance. But sometimes his passionate engagementbreaks through this deliberate dignity of style, and then the artificial,verbose and laboured periods vanish and there escape from himsentences and whole pages which are among the most beautiful in allGerman prose. Even supposing, however, that in such passages he isspeaking to his friends and that the spectre of his enemies has for themoment vacated its place by his chair, all the friends and enemies248