7/28/2019 Review of Joan Stambaugh-The Other Nietzsche

1/3http://www.jstor.org

Review: [untitled]

Author(s): Babette E. Babich

Reviewed work(s): The Other Nietzsche by Joan Stambaugh

Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 53, No. 3, (Summer, 1995), pp. 325-

326

Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/431362

Accessed: 25/06/2008 12:29

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=black.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the

scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that

promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/431362?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=blackhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=blackhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/431362?origin=JSTOR-pdf

7/28/2019 Review of Joan Stambaugh-The Other Nietzsche

2/3

Book ReviewsSTAMBAUGH, JOAN. The Other Nietzsche.SUNY Press, 1994, 160 pp., $14.95 paper.JoanStambaughwrites for those who areable to readboth-or perhapsbettersaid, for those who arecap-able of reading between-both Nietzsche and Hei-degger. The Other Nietzsche presents Nietzsche as"poet mystic" apartfromthe "French"Nietzsche ofDerrida and the pious Heideggerian's reading ofNietzsche as the last metaphysician. Stambaugh'sstance "between" Nietzsche and Heidegger corre-spondsto a classical hermeneutic ension rather hanthe predictabilities of current intellectual fashion.Indeedthe poetic mysticism she unpacksas constitu-ting the "otherness"of Nietzsche is hardlya novelty.In literarycircles, Nietzsche has been received as apoet mystic since the firstpublicationof his works,aview enthusiasticallyendorsed in the early part ofthis century,most especially by Stefan George andhis followers.The title essay, appositely featured as the finalchapter in this collection, was first published inNietzsche and Asian Thought.Those who are inter-ested in finding connectionsbetween Eastern houghtand Nietzsche's thinking will likely not be disap-pointed, but the volume has advantagesbeyond thisassociation. Again, these advantagesare not to befound in linking Nietzsche to the many interpreta-tions of his thinking now available. Stambaugh at-tends to the etymology of a few key words fromNietzsche's text in sparingly parsed but certifiablyHeideggerian ashion, focuses on longerselect Nietz-sche quotations largely fromtheNachlass) to whichshe returnsagain and again in differentessays; but,althoughshe mentionsDerridaand othersobliquely,overall she engages with no commentators.Thus thebook mightequally have been titled NietzscheApart.Stambaugh'svoice is worthhearingin its own right,so such self-sufficiency is hardly a flaw if it doesrender the book a bit more essayistic and a bit lessscholarly on the terms of the over- and cross-ref-erenced format that is characteristic of scholarlyessays. Indeed most Nietzsche studies share Stam-baugh'sself-reliance(with or withouthermagisterialprescience) and readNietzsche non-dialogically.Butsuch insularitywas not characteristicof Nietzsche'sown writing. Reference and quotation, both directand indirect, of contemporaryand past scholars, ofcentral as of marginalauthors,was not only proto-typicalbut thevery engaged substanceof Nietzsche'sown evocative and provocativestyle.In addition o gathering ogethera numberof Stam-baugh's essays published elsewhere, the collectionincludes threenew studies.One, "NietzscheToday"(ChapterOne), offers a developmentof Stambaugh'sreadingof Nietzsche's thought on the eternalreturn,particularly taken with respect to her important

study of pity and revenge. StambaughunderlinesNietzsche's critiqueof "man's best thinking" as theembodimentof the spiritof revengeitself. This "bestthinking"constitutesthe inventivethoughtof meta-physics, but includes Westernphysics or science andethics or moral thinking. Beyond such "best think-ing" born of the spiritof revengeuntilnow,the artistof power more than the metaphysical thinker ofrevengecan transfigurehimself and is thus "able toexperienceand shapea higherdimensionof reality"(p. 10).This is the differencebetween the inventiveor projective wishfulness born out of the lack ofpowerand the will bornof creativetransfiguration raffirmation. n the studymentionedabove,"Thoughtson Pity and Revenge" (ChapterFour), Stambaugharticulatesa paradoxical ension betweenaffirmationand transformationand the quietistic understandingusuallyassociated with affirmation:"it is only whenI can affirm existencejust as it is that I become freeto transform t" (p. 55). This reflection is the heartof Stambaugh's nterpretationof Nietzsche on timeandthe thoughtof the eternalreturn.Nietzscheoffersa redemption rom time in advocatingwill (willing-ness) overagainst (one is temptedto say:mere) wish-ful thinking.For, in wishful thinking,one is yoked tothe past and what was in wishing it were otherwise.Thus one is not free to transform one's life butmerely to wish against it, to resent the past and toseek to takerevenge on it, holding the future n bond-age to the same. This is not a transfigurative ttitudetoward the future,it is not a willing backwardbut ismuch rathercaught in a metaphysical"backworld"of regret that is transcendence.Opposed to transcen-dence understoodas such an ill will toward ime andwhat was, the thought of the eternal returnteachesthe redemption of the past. This redemption canworkfor Stambaughas the affirmation n essence ofeternalreturn:"Iam ableto affirmmy life exactly asit is by my willingness, far ratherby my wantingnothing more with my whole being than to live itagain." This "is the condition of the possibility ofwilling an increase in the fullness and power ofthings, willing them to become more" (p. 8). High-lighted againstsuch a vision of life-affirmation, thewishful thinking of transcendence s inherently m-potent and focused on dominionbeyond its powers.Stambaugh links this impotent definition of tran-scendence to Nietzsche's express philosophy of"immanence" hat is, in otherwords,a philosophy ofwhatcan be. Transcendence, owever,wishes exactlyfor what is not, or thatwhatmightbe otherwisethanit is-as "a powerlesswishing for the Other n everyform, whetherfor God as the epitome of otherness(different rom the finite world andthe humancondi-tion in every respect)or for a being otherwise of lifeitself" (p. 8). The key, as Stambaugh sees it, forNietzsche is to be able to experiencedifferently.This

325

7/28/2019 Review of Joan Stambaugh-The Other Nietzsche

3/3

The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticismhe Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticismability is the meaningof art in life. Thus Stambaughnotes the "Germanwordfor art (Kunst) s relatedtothe verb to be able (koiinnen)"p. 11).Regardedas anartist of life in this way, "Man, he still undeterminedanimal, takes up a stance that becomes his center ofexperience, his attitude from which he shapes hisexperience" (p. 56).In "Life Without Music" (ChapterThree), "wish-fulness" is opposed to a self-transfiguringwilling-ness as evidencing "a weakness that would makedemands" p. 34). Such a "weakness hatwouldmakedemands" is distinguished from willingness con-ceived as the grand style. The elusive conceptof thegrand style is captured n the very spiritof its grandi-osity and is strikinglyreminiscentof the artist'srep-resentation of the sun's Gloria. Stambaugh quotesNietzsche's pregnant distinction between reactive(romantic) art as "a consequence of dissatisfactionwith reality" (romanticism is thus the very art of"wishfulness" n Stambaugh's ense of the term)andcreative art as "aureole,dithyramb in short, the artof apotheosis)" (p. 35). As the kind of glorificationmanifest in the Gloria, creative (classical) art, inNietzsche's own words again: "sheds a Homericaureoleover all things." But if the style of creativeart is thus classical in Nietzsche's sense, Stambaughdraws attention to the disquieting question of thevirtuosityof music in art and life. If "beauty,power,and the grand style all have to do with the tamingofor masteryover opposites, with gatheringthem intoa higher unity" (p. 37), such a definition leavesNietzsche with the problem that the "grand stylemightbe incompatiblewith theverynatureof music"(p. 37). Stambaughdoes not resolve the issue (in herown words, she is often happy, and this is a peakof grace, simply "to stop rather than to conclude"[p. 11]), but puts the question of the place of theclassical in music togetherwith the absenceof para-digms.Thus in passing, andnot in conclusion,Stam-baugh suggests that Nietzsche's candidates, Bizet,Offenbach,and PeterGast,must be accounted"inap-propriate"alternatives o Wagner.The suggestion isnot limpid, but it is Nietzschean in its provocativebrevity. Ending with this mild rebuke to Nietzsche'smusical scholarship, she invokes the metaphoricaldimension n Nietzsche's own reference o "the musicin tragedy; .. the music in the tragedyof existence"(p. 40).The last, previously unpublished,essay, "Appear-ance: Nihilism or Affirmation," continues Stam-baugh's reflection on the difference between wishand will conceived as postureor attitude or stance.Thus will is "a kind of activity that springsfrom aresponseto the real"(p. 133).Such a responsetakesplace apartfromany passive/active dichotomyas anunforced or free liberation and is thus an affirmationof the mysticalkindKeiji Nishitani implies when he

ability is the meaningof art in life. Thus Stambaughnotes the "Germanwordfor art (Kunst) s relatedtothe verb to be able (koiinnen)"p. 11).Regardedas anartist of life in this way, "Man, he still undeterminedanimal, takes up a stance that becomes his center ofexperience, his attitude from which he shapes hisexperience" (p. 56).In "Life Without Music" (ChapterThree), "wish-fulness" is opposed to a self-transfiguringwilling-ness as evidencing "a weakness that would makedemands" p. 34). Such a "weakness hatwouldmakedemands" is distinguished from willingness con-ceived as the grand style. The elusive conceptof thegrand style is captured n the very spiritof its grandi-osity and is strikinglyreminiscentof the artist'srep-resentation of the sun's Gloria. Stambaugh quotesNietzsche's pregnant distinction between reactive(romantic) art as "a consequence of dissatisfactionwith reality" (romanticism is thus the very art of"wishfulness" n Stambaugh's ense of the term)andcreative art as "aureole,dithyramb in short, the artof apotheosis)" (p. 35). As the kind of glorificationmanifest in the Gloria, creative (classical) art, inNietzsche's own words again: "sheds a Homericaureoleover all things." But if the style of creativeart is thus classical in Nietzsche's sense, Stambaughdraws attention to the disquieting question of thevirtuosityof music in art and life. If "beauty,power,and the grand style all have to do with the tamingofor masteryover opposites, with gatheringthem intoa higher unity" (p. 37), such a definition leavesNietzsche with the problem that the "grand stylemightbe incompatiblewith theverynatureof music"(p. 37). Stambaughdoes not resolve the issue (in herown words, she is often happy, and this is a peakof grace, simply "to stop rather than to conclude"[p. 11]), but puts the question of the place of theclassical in music togetherwith the absenceof para-digms.Thus in passing, andnot in conclusion,Stam-baugh suggests that Nietzsche's candidates, Bizet,Offenbach,and PeterGast,must be accounted"inap-propriate"alternatives o Wagner.The suggestion isnot limpid, but it is Nietzschean in its provocativebrevity. Ending with this mild rebuke to Nietzsche'smusical scholarship, she invokes the metaphoricaldimension n Nietzsche's own reference o "the musicin tragedy; .. the music in the tragedyof existence"(p. 40).The last, previously unpublished,essay, "Appear-ance: Nihilism or Affirmation," continues Stam-baugh's reflection on the difference between wishand will conceived as postureor attitude or stance.Thus will is "a kind of activity that springsfrom aresponseto the real"(p. 133).Such a responsetakesplace apartfromany passive/active dichotomyas anunforced or free liberation and is thus an affirmationof the mysticalkindKeiji Nishitani implies when he

calls Thus Spoke Zarathustra"scripture."This re-sponsible/responsivemysticism recalls Stambaugh'searlierreflection on affirmation:"If I can affirmoutof the fullness of my existence insteadof revengingmyself for whatI lack or have lost or could lose I amfreed from the bonds of reaction." It is in this waythat Stambaughbrings Nietzsche into concord withBuddhism while at the end finding Nietzsche "tem-peramentallyclosest to Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzuwith his rejection of metaphysicalbackworlds andhis understandingof the world as play" (p. 151).BABETTE E. BABICHDepartmentof PhilosophyFordhamUniversity-Lincoln Center

CARRIER, DAVID. Poussin'sPaintings:A StudyinArt-HistoricalMethodology.PennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress, 1993,276 pp., $35.00 cloth.David Carrierends his serious, erudite, and some-what arcane book on Poussin and the nature of art-writing by claiminga likeness to Poussin.Arguingasa generaltheme thatinterpretations not only histori-cally situated but also irreduciblypersonal,he sug-gests that it is partly his particularfeel for certainaspects of Poussin's work that affords him episte-mological access to those aspects of the work. Forone writingon a painter who is widely consideredtobe a difficult, recalcitrantgenius, a painterof bril-liant classicism and astringent,spare lyricismwhoseunremittentdarkness urnsthe lightnessof Italian artinto Gallicized gravity,such an affinity may well berequired.For to enter into the space of an hermeticpainter ike Poussin-a pictorialspacewhich Carriernicely argues positions the viewer outside at a greatdistance from what is happeninginside it-may inpart requireone to be so taken by this painter's re-conditegravitythatone finds oneself absorbed n hispictures without, as it were, trying. There is littleovertjoy in Poussin'swork, little unadulterated re-sentation of sensuous pleasureor unrestrained yri-cism. Instead,Poussin's attitude is that ecstasy andmortality, pleasure and morbidity, touch and tran-sience, are nearly the same thing. Poussin seems tobe paintingout of the older Freud'sthoughtthatsexanddeath are drives which areeverywhere ntercon-nected. This is hardto take, for Et in Arcadia Ego: Itoo was in paradise,only to find myself entombed na mausoleum.Carrier'saffinity for Poussin has, I think, a lot todo with the chief virtues of this book, and also withits significant defects. As an extended reading ofPoussin, Carrier's book is scholarly and involved.There is much to learn hereabout how to readPous-sin's visual twists, stylistic tendencies, and elaborate

calls Thus Spoke Zarathustra"scripture."This re-sponsible/responsivemysticism recalls Stambaugh'searlierreflection on affirmation:"If I can affirmoutof the fullness of my existence insteadof revengingmyself for whatI lack or have lost or could lose I amfreed from the bonds of reaction." It is in this waythat Stambaughbrings Nietzsche into concord withBuddhism while at the end finding Nietzsche "tem-peramentallyclosest to Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzuwith his rejection of metaphysicalbackworlds andhis understandingof the world as play" (p. 151).BABETTE E. BABICHDepartmentof PhilosophyFordhamUniversity-Lincoln Center

CARRIER, DAVID. Poussin'sPaintings:A StudyinArt-HistoricalMethodology.PennsylvaniaStateUniversityPress, 1993,276 pp., $35.00 cloth.David Carrierends his serious, erudite, and some-what arcane book on Poussin and the nature of art-writing by claiminga likeness to Poussin.Arguingasa generaltheme thatinterpretations not only histori-cally situated but also irreduciblypersonal,he sug-gests that it is partly his particularfeel for certainaspects of Poussin's work that affords him episte-mological access to those aspects of the work. Forone writingon a painter who is widely consideredtobe a difficult, recalcitrantgenius, a painterof bril-liant classicism and astringent,spare lyricismwhoseunremittentdarkness urnsthe lightnessof Italian artinto Gallicized gravity,such an affinity may well berequired.For to enter into the space of an hermeticpainter ike Poussin-a pictorialspacewhich Carriernicely argues positions the viewer outside at a greatdistance from what is happeninginside it-may inpart requireone to be so taken by this painter's re-conditegravitythatone finds oneself absorbed n hispictures without, as it were, trying. There is littleovertjoy in Poussin'swork, little unadulterated re-sentation of sensuous pleasureor unrestrained yri-cism. Instead,Poussin's attitude is that ecstasy andmortality, pleasure and morbidity, touch and tran-sience, are nearly the same thing. Poussin seems tobe paintingout of the older Freud'sthoughtthatsexanddeath are drives which areeverywhere ntercon-nected. This is hardto take, for Et in Arcadia Ego: Itoo was in paradise,only to find myself entombed na mausoleum.Carrier'saffinity for Poussin has, I think, a lot todo with the chief virtues of this book, and also withits significant defects. As an extended reading ofPoussin, Carrier's book is scholarly and involved.There is much to learn hereabout how to readPous-sin's visual twists, stylistic tendencies, and elaborate

32626