Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was
born on 15th of October, 1844 and having contributed a verse, as Walt Whitman would say, left this
world after an arduous but rich life on 25th of August, 1900. In the
span of 55 years that he lived, he produced enlightening, path-breaking work
which changed the course of human thoughts. He was admired, revered and even
hated as a philosopher for his unorthodox ideas, his unconventional view on
Christianity, his never-heard-before commitment to Individual will, which was a sharp
turn from the Christian view of keeping individual interest subservient to the
larger social goods. He gave us the idea of an all-powerful, unyielding,
unapologetic Overman which awaits man
on the other side of the abyss. His eminence in philosophy is well-established
and his influence, undisputed, but his literary presence and impact is also
grand and glorious. Nietzsche shares with Yeats believe in the natural
aristocracy of men, (when he claims- Men are not equal), and believes in the
possibility of men who have the courage to rejoice in the face of tragic
knowledge.
Beyond a point, literature and
philosophy merges. Like two rivulets playfully stepping down from the
mountains, unsure of their path and their destiny- arrogant and audacious,
eventually merging and settling down into the immense expanse of ocean- into a
peaceful universality, twin rivers of Literature and philosophy flows down from
the solitary heights of human sensitivity. In Nietzsche, one finds an
extraordinary amalgamation of a brave and sharp intellect, responding to the
world around with the sensitive perception of a poet. We look here Nietzsche as a poet and a
literary figure and what we can we learn from Nietzsche as writers.
Thomas Mann, to my mind, corroborates this amalgamation of Literature with Philosophy, this coming
together of two forces of nature which define our world when he searches the
equivalence and equanimity of the soul between an extraordinary Litterateur and
a pioneering philosopher and writes – “Nietzsche and (Oscar) Wilde- they become
together as rebels, rebel into the name of beauty”. It is not for nothing that Nietzsche is
sometimes considered as a worthy inheritor of the philosophical legacy of William
Blake and Walt Whitman in his rejection of duality and the celebration of
individuality and self. It is on account of literary strength of his
philosophical work that many later day writers like Knut Hamsun, Rainer Maria
Rilke, Ayn Rand and Jack London who accepted the Literary
greatness of Nietzsche when he wrote “I am in the opposite intellectual camp from that of Nietzsche yet no man in my own camp stirs me as does Nietzsche”.
We however, look here not at Nietzsche as a philosopher, rather Nietzsche as a writer and
the lessons he left for writers of the day. In fact, the great appeal of
Nietzsche lies in the perfect balance he finds between his relentless search
for truth, his willingness to challenge the old wisdom and the beauty of his
language. His literary style offers his thoughts the wings to carry them to the
skies from where they may be visible to the most skeptic of the mind. TS Eliot
goes to the extent of saying- “Nietzsche
is one of the writers whose philosophy evaporates when detached from its literary
quantity.” Literature, fiction or not, is a search of truth as well as an
attempt to share with the world an attempt to share with the world the truth
painfully gotten. No wonder, an iconoclast worshiper of truth found great love
among writers of the world with Bernard Shaw admitting that in Nietzsche he recognized
a
peculiar sense of world akin to his own and who was celebrated by WH
Auden when he wrote, “O masterly debunker of our liberal fallacies”. His writings carried many lessons for writers.
Write with a Purpose:
Nietzsche argued that one should write with a purpose. To him writing
was a search of Truth. It was not a matter grandiose eloquence; it was a painful
wandering into the dark alleys of life. His wrote, “Of all that is written, I
love only what a person hath written with his blood. Write with blood and thou
wilt find that blood is spirit.” Look for a higher reason, a bigger message
than the story. The story, the poem is a vehicle for the idea. Don’t look at the market when you write.
Nietzsche says, “Whoever knows the reader with henceforth do nothing for the
reader. Another century of readers- and the spirit itself will stink.” Find
your sacred message, your voice and build your world around it- your poetry,
your stories, your novels are exquisite clothes for an exquisite thought. Don’t
fall for an easy path. Have something to tell before you decide on how to tell
it.
Learn from the Great Minds: It is absurdly narcissistic to believe you know all and not seek help and knowledge. Be open to accept. Read more, reading is the accumulation of tools to go for the hunt of a written word. Reading is a part of writing, sparring before the battle. Nietzsche advises, "No river is great and bounteous through itself alone, but rather because it takes up so many tributaries and carries them onwards: that makes it great. ..it does not matter whether he is poorly or richly endowed in the beginning." Writing is a profession of constant education. Being a writer is opting for a career which is going to be forever a work in progress. You grow by reading, by collecting knowledge. A writer who does not read is never going to be a great writer. Read the great classics, read them to learn not to copy as Nietzsche says, “One repays a teacher badly if one always remains nothing but a pupil.” And Zarathustra urges his pupils, “Now I bid you lose me and find yourself; and only when you have denied me, will I return to you.” Keep reading, the worthy and the unworthy, of conforming, confounding and contradicting views. Be open in the choice of your reading, as long as you read. Learn to identify and build on your own voice: says he, “One must be a sea to be able to receive a polluted stream without becoming unclean.”
Respect and Love your Profession: Writers are often type-cast as
misplaced, lost souls- social misfits, doomed, sad souls. Don’t let it embarrass
you. Love your profession, be proud of it. Nietzsche writes “Men seldom endure
a profession if they do not believe or persuade themselves that it is basically
more important than all others.” He elaborates more poetically (though to be
fair not only about writing rather for all or any calling in like that one may
have) when he writes in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “I love him who makes his
virtue his addition and his catastrophe: for his virtue’s sake he wants to live
on and to live no more….I love all those who are as heavy drops, falling one by
one out of the dark cloud that hangs over men: they herald the advent of
lightening, and as heralds, they perish.” Isn't that all writers want to be? to be the
harbingers of future, the fearless pioneers, willing to expose themselves to
the possibility of ridicule, humiliation and being burnt as witches and madmen.
Stay true to your profession; don’t be swayed by the public opinion, the mind
of the mob. “They hum around you with
their praise too…They flatter you as a god or devil; they whine before you as
before a god or devil. What does it matter? They are flatterers and whiners and
nothing more.”
Tenacity of an Artist: Keep writing, without giving up, without wavering. The one who reaches the destiny is the one stays the course. Writing is a solitary profession. It takes from life, without ever being able to immerse oneself into it. It needs complete dedication. We become better writer by writing more. If the soul stirs with an ungovernable desire to assert itself tyrannically, and the fire is continually maintained, then even a slight talent gradually becomes an almost irresistible force of nature- Nietzsche writes. Writing is lonely job; there is no two ways about it, no deception can work for long. You need a strong sense of purpose, a lofty ideal to pursue and a great strength of character to persevere as a writer, to survive the mocking smiles of the world. A thinker grows every day, his days are never stagnant. A writer is full of doubts and writing is his way out of the maze of confusion, his days gray, uncertain. Every writer will find voice in Nietzsche’s words- “My today refutes my yesterday. I often skip steps when I climb: no step forgives me that.” The solitude and longing is so deep and sometimes so haunting, and there are repeated bouts of self-doubt, and looming question which threatens to engulf the whole being of a writer- “Is it worth it? What for?” Zarathustra offers the answers to his lonely wait- “This tree stands lonely here in the mountains; it grew high above man and beast. And if it wanted to speak it would have nobody who could understand it, so high has it grown. Now it waits and waits- for what it is waiting? It dwells too near the seat of the clouds: surely, it waits for the first lightning.”
It is very hard to find a teacher as
competent and as honest as Nietzsche who practiced what he preached. He wrote
with great flamboyance, which a characteristic voice, and told a great truth,
the individualism, the will to power, the idea of Overman. He was a man in a
hurry, he was bursting with ideas, had great courage in his grieving frame to
be able to bring it out. It is not for nothing he said about himself, as some
kind of premonition “I know my fate. One day my name will be
associated with the memory of something tremendous — a crisis without equal on
earth, the most profound collision of conscience, a decision that was conjured
up against everything that had been believed, demanded, hallowed so far. I am
no man, I am dynamite.” I cannot agree more.
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