Thoughts Out of Season 1

by Friedrich Neitzsche

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Classics

158 pages, paperback

First published January 1, 1874

About the author

See Friedrich Nietzsche

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

The essay on Wagner here in Thoughts Out of Season (Untimely Meditations, vol.1) hits all the notes you'd expect from the Romantic Era: nature and the sublime, the tortured genius struggling to bring forth his originality, rebellion against the constraints of artificially-imposed neoclassical artforms, the virtuoso artist developing out of the German Sturm und Drang movement, culminating in the 'grand opera' genre as the Gesamtkunkswerk. In this period of Nietzche's hero-worship of Wagner, conceived as a Byronic figure, he glosses over Wagner's campaign against Meyerbeer, because, well, Nietzsche was part of that campaign, as evidenced here--despite the fact that Wagner's ressentiment against Meyerbeer is the sort of thing Nietzsche would otherwise condemn (see Beyond Good and Evil). A word of caution to the reader: Nietzsche assumes a thorough familiarity with Wagner's music, to appreciate his masterful summary of his hero's oeuvre. And to get the full effect, and to put this early essay into its proper context as just one stage in Nietzsche's assessment of Wagner, you'll want to follow up with The Case Against Wagner (1888) and Nietzsche Contra Wagner (1888-9). In the latter, one of the last lucid things he wrote before succumbing to illness, he repents against the earlier views he published about Wagner's music, herein. He is particularly ashamed about his earlier claim here that Wagner represented some sort of wave for the future, rather than a retrograde reflection of things past.
As far as I know, he never did pull back from the character assassination he indulged in against David Strauss, in the first essay of Thoughts Out of Season.

There's nothing particularly out of season or "unfashionable" with these two essays, unless one wants to construe 'out of season' as being products of the author's youth (age 30-32 when he published them), perhaps writings that should be understood as precocious. Otherwise he seems very much a product of his age, heavily influenced by the Zeitgeist.

[Rolf Thorén · Rating 4 out of 5]

For meg har det å lese Nietzsche blitt noe jeg tenker jeg skal igjennom. Lesingen av denne boka får meg til å spørre meg hvorfor. Vil jeg meg selv virkelig så vondt. Jeg opplevde store deler av boka som tungrodd og smertefull å komme meg gjennom.
Hvordan i all verden skal dette tjene meg som far, spesialpedagog eller alkoholiker i tilfriskning? Etter å ha grunnet på dette, er jeg kommet frem til at jeg kanskje må lese den anderledes. Jeg må være aktivt søkende for å finne mening for meg, og også akseptere at denne ikke finnes hver dag. Hvis jeg leser for å finne svar, vil jeg finne noe. Med dette utgangspunktet gikk resten av boka så mye lettere.

[Iñaki Hernández · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recomendable sólo si quieres leer todo Nietzsche porque eres un apasionado de su pensamiento. Es preocupante ver ya, a finales del siglo XIX, como hay una denuncia del declive del lenguaje provocada por una cultura floja, satisfecha de sí misma y alimentada únicamente de periódicos. Interesante ver cómo aparece en el libro la figura del filisteo y cultifilisteo.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish and I do not intend to. The first half isn’t even Nietzsche; and it’s boring and pedantic.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Women can form a friendship with a man very well; but to preserve it - to that end a slight physical antipathy must probably help." - Nietzsche Family Circus

Description: "Human, All-Too-Human (1878) is often considered the start of Friedrich Nietzsche's mature period. This complex work, composed of hundreds of aphorisms of varying length, explores many themes to which Nietzsche later returned and marks a significant departure from his previous thinking. Here Nietzsche breaks with his early allegiance in Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner, and establishes the overall framework of his later philosophy. In contrast to his previous disdain for science, now Nietzsche views science as key to undercutting traditional metaphysics. This he sees as a crucial step in the emergence of free spirits who will be the avant-garde of culture." This is an essential work for anyone who wishes to understand Nietzsche's incisive critique of such diverse aspects of Western culture and values as the idea of good and evil, the roles of women and children in society, and the concept of power and the state.

Kicking off is: DAVID STRAUSS, THE CONFESSOR AND THE WRITER: I. : Public opinion in Germany seems strictly to forbid any allusion to the evil and dangerous consequences of a war, more particularly when the war in question has been a victorious one. Those writers, therefore, command a more ready attention who, regarding this public opinion as final, proceed to vie with each other in their jubilant praise of the war, and of the powerful influences it has brought to bear upon morality, culture, and art. Yet it must be confessed that a great victory is a great danger. Human nature bears a triumph less easily than a defeat; indeed, it might even be urged that it is simpler to gain a victory of this sort than to turn it to such account that it may not ultimately prove a serious rout.

"We Germans are of yesterday," Goethe once said to Eckermann. "True, for the last hundred years we have diligently cultivated ourselves, but a few centuries may yet have to run their course before our fellow-countrymen become permeated with sufficient intellectuality and higher culture to have it said of them, it is a long time since they were barbarians."

Indeed, our Philistines have ceased to be faint-hearted and bashful, and have acquired almost cynical assurance. There was a time, long, long ago, when the Philistine was only tolerated as something that did not speak, and about which no one spoke; then a period ensued during which his roughness was smoothed, during which he was found amusing, and people talked about him. Under this treatment he gradually became a prig, rejoiced with all his heart over his rough places and his wrongheaded and candid singularities, and began to talk, on his own account, after the style of Riehl's music for the home.

The heaven of the new believer must, perforce, be a heaven upon earth; for the Christian "prospect of an immortal life in heaven," together with the other consolations, "must irretrievably vanish" for him who has but "one foot" on the Straussian platform.

Is not life a hundred times too short to bore ourselves? - Nietzsche Family Circus

A corpse is a pleasant thought for a worm, and a worm is a dreadful thought for every living creature. Worms fancy their kingdom of heaven in a fat body; professors of philosophy seek theirs in rummaging among Schopenhauer's entrails, and as long as rodents exist, there will exist a heaven for rodents. In this, we have the answer to our first question: How does the believer in the new faith picture his heaven? The Straussian Philistine harbours in the works of our great poets and musicians like a parasitic worm whose life is destruction, whose admiration is devouring, and whose worship is digesting.

It has been many moons since I read any FN, however this one has just been completed over on Gutenberg and Brazilliant alerted me (hattip). Maybe you would care to re-visit too, here is the link.

NB I found three spelling mistakes in the grramazon blurb, so be careful when copying and pasting. (headsup)
PS The new default typeset at Project Gutenberg is easy on the eyes, a vast improvement.

[Cameron · Rating 4 out of 5]

One half of Untimely Meditations and two long essays on history, culture and Schopenhauer from a young Nietzsche. Like Birth of Tragedy, these early meditations outline concepts that would become fully realized in his later works. Required reading for anyone interested in Nietzsche.

[arg/machine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essays from a younger Nietzsche. In the public domain, with a free electronic copy here.

[Laura]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

David Strauss, the Confessor and the Writer - Richard Wagner in Bayreuth.