In this book, author Lucas Murrey argues that the thinking of the modern German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1944-1900) is not only more grounded in antiquity than previously understood, but is also based on the Dionysian spirit of Greece which scholars have still to confront. This book demonstrates that Nietzsche's philosophy is unique within Western thought as it retrieves the politics of a Dionysiac model and language to challenge the alienation of humans from nature and one another. Murrey develops here a new picture of Greece, reminding readers how money emerged and rapidly developed in Greece during the sixth century B.C.E. The event of monetization created the new art form of tragedy: money-tyrants struggling against the forces of earth and communities who consequently suffered isolation, blindness, and death. As Murrey points out, Nietzsche (unconsciously) retrieves the battle among money, nature, and community and adapts its lessons to our time. Additionally, Nietzsche's philosophy not only adapts the wisdom of Dionysus to question the unlimited "glow and fuel" of a "ponderous herd" of money-tyrants today, but it also draws attention to Greece's warnings about the lethal danger of the eyes in myth, cult, and theatre. This work introduces a much needed vision of Nietzschean thought, and it emphasizes the relevance of an interdisciplinary approach combining philosophy with literary studies and psychology with religious and visual/media studies. When applied to our present circumstance, the approach of this book reveals how a dangerous visual culture, through its support of the limitlessness of money, is harming our relationship with nature and each other.
1.Introduction Rise of Mass Culture and the Visualised Chronotope Emergence of Unlimited Language Previous Treatments Summary Part I Dionysian Philosophy 2. Evil Eye "the poisonous eye of ressentiment" "machinist and decorative artist" 3. Apollo and Dionysus "tragic myth" "secret celebrations of dramatic mysteries" "the public cult of tragedy" 4. Dionysian Philosophy "the Hellenic model" "Incipit tragoedia" 5. Fifty Mirrors Around You "they jingle with their gold" "Loathsome verbal-swill" "fifty mirrors around you" "to hear with the eyes" 6. The Meaning of Earth "a big eye" "teeth-gnashing and most lonely melancholy" "twinkling stars and glow worms" "the meaning of earth" Part II Proto-National Socialism 7. Despair of the German Spirit "a permanent, loving bond between German and Greek culture" "confused our gaze searches" 8. Patriotic excitation and aesthetic opulence "in the terror and sublimities of the recently out-broken war" "monstrous intrusive powers from the outside" "Destruction of Greek culture through the Jewish world" "And if the German should look about hesitantly for a Fuhrer..." 9. Blond German Beasts "false, flickering light" "happy monsters" "Not only onward, but also upward should you plant" 10. Purification of the Race "the wisdom of Him who is not only the God of the Jews" "the Aryan conquering race" "Zarathustra ... in the Aryan province" 11. Jews/Christians: "The Chosen People Among Peoples" "Jewish history";= "vengeful-addict instincts of an unhappy priest" "If Christianity remains, the Germans will be to blame" Conclusion 12. Herakleitean Hyper-abstractions "doubtful even about Herakleitos" "eternal contradiction, Father of all things" "the primal problem of tragedy" "in the ten years of his loneliness" Coda The Bordello in Leipzig Bibliography Index
