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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'
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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

Nietzsche, Bataille & Klossowski « Previous | |Next »
September 13, 2004

Gary,

I have been out of circulation with one thing and another, but I have been keeping an eye on your entries and I noticed that you are looking at Klossowski’s book on Nietzsche at the moment. You say that you are having trouble working out what is going on. I’ve got a few ideas, for what they are worth.

Klossowski uses Nietzsche’s works physiognomically, that is, he reads the person from his literary face. This is the opposite of a psychoanalytic reading.

What Klossowski identifies are Nietzsche’s phantasms. What are these? Phantasms are instinctual obsessions. They lie within our most impenetrable depths and are inaccessible in themselves. They are manifest through their simulations, which are never more than an interpretation or expression of a phantasm. Through Nietzsche’s simulacra, Klossowski identifies two obsessions, which are polar opposites: an obsession with dissolution and an obsession with communication (pedagogy). He concentrates largely on the first of the poles.

If this reflects some sort of a Bataillean theme, it is that Nietzsche’s goal was dissolution – he is an example, an instance of the general concern motivating the school (I’m using this last term loosely). From this perspective, Klossowski’s book is not unlike Bataille’s book on Gilles de Ray. I don’t think it has much in common with Bataille’s On Nietzsche. That has to be seen as the third volume of a trilogy called Summa Atheologica. I don’t think I would be doing it too much of an injustice to call this work a kind of post-religious mysticism. Bataille himself is happy with the idea. But Klossowski’s book is certainly nothing like that.

| Posted by at 12:51 PM | | Comments (0)
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