In case you haven't seen the film you can save yourself some time by
just listening
to this track by the (almost unrecognizable Young Tom Waits):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMIObyJLtuU
http://www.tomwaitslibrary.com/lyrics/miscellaneous/gettingdrunkonabottle.html
Review
What does 'sobriety' mean when drugs/alcohol aren't necessarily
involved in answering the question or in creating the conditions that
lead one to ask the question?
How do I know if I'm thinking clear-headedly or not? Maybe the times
when I think I'm thinking clear-headedly are when I'm most
deluded/delusive?
On the other hand, maybe I *need* to be somewhat delusiatory or
perhaps even deleuzian to generate certain questions -- perhaps I am
at my most "creative" when I'm thinking the *least* clearly? (Cf.
Bloom's Taxonomy:
http://web.uct.ac.za/projects/cbe/mcqman/mcqappc.html).
To finish this off, we turn to
http://www4.hmc.edu:8001/humanities/Beckman/Nietzsche/Genealogy.htm :
The Third (and final) Essay [in Genealogy of Morals] questions the
meaning of what Nietzsche calls "the ascetic ideal" --- that is, the
ideal of rigorous self-discipline, austerity, or self-denial and
abstinence. The opening complaint about Wagner's Parisfal is, of
course, prompted by Wagner's "adaptation of the myth to an orthodox
Christian austerity in contrast to Wagner's own life, which was
scarcely either austere or self-disciplined. The conclusion that there
is probably little meaning to an artist's asceticism (because artist's
are just functioning at the will of their publics) is a bit harsh and
of little general value.
Nietzsche moves on to philosophers and suggests, as a first
approximation, that the philosopher "wants to gain release from a
torture." (III, #6) Proceeding onward, he declares, "there
unquestionably exists a peculiar philosphers' irritation at and rancor
against sensuality." In view of this, "the philosopher abhors
marriage. . . A married philosopher belongs in comedy." (III, #7) The
torture, then, is everyday life, life in detail, as it were; the
philosopher sees the ascetic ideal as the "optimum condition for the
highest and boldest spirituality." Nietzsche makes it clear that the
philosopher's relation to the ascetic ideal is not out of any hatred
of life but, rather, it is purely out of a love of life, the
philosopher's own life. The philosopher, indeed, is possessed by a
"maternal" mission, a "pregnancy," that requires full attention. But
why have philosophers adopted the ascetic ideal as such in order to
secure attention on their spiritual "children"? According to
Nietzsche, the philosophical spirit has always been despised by the
majority of men. And is it now different? Thus, philosophers were
always forced "to use as a mask and cocoon the previously established
types of the contemplative man --- priest, sorcerer, soothsayer, and
in any case a religious type --- in order to be able to exist at all."
(III, #10) Philosophers are no more advocates of asceticism than are
artists, then; their embrace of asceticism is purely pragmatic.
(end quote; but it's well worth a longer look via the link above.)
4 out of 5 stars
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