Explosion I: Of Nietzsche's Ecce Homo Author(s): Sarah Kofman and Duncan Large Source: Diacritics, Vol. 24, No.

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EXPLOSION I: OF NIETZSCHE'S ECCE HOMO

SARAH KOFMAN
1. Otitis, Meta-Otitis Ecce homo: first it is a book, and the last one Nietzsche wrote, just before what is conventionally called his "collapse."' In 1888. The same year as Twilight of the Idols, The Case of Wagner, Dithyrambs of Dionysus, and The Anti-Christ. In the course of a particularly "fruitful" year, then (and where Nietzsche is concerned this is no mere metaphor); more precisely during the autumn of 1888, when the richness of the vintage was unparalleled [cf. EH III TI 2, 3].2 More precisely still, Ecce homo is a present which Nietzsche gives to himself and to life as a sign of gratitude, on 15 October 1888.3 To celebrate his forty-four years, he recounts "himself' to "himself." Himself? Ecce homo: behold, first, not so much a "man" as a season, a tremendous autumn, or a great autumnal wind blowing among the trees and making fruits fall everywhere.4 Ecce homo was not intended to be Nietzsche's last book. The correspondence of the period presents it as a threshold book, a "high noon," facing two ways: it closes one door and opens another.5 Once and for all it cuts the "umbilical cord"6connecting him to his 1. Translator'sNote (hereafter "TN"): the French version of this text appeared as the introduction[9-43] to thefirst volumeof Sarah Kofman's recent two-volumestudyof Ecce homo, Explosion. A full English translationof Explosion I will be published byAthlone Press in 1996. 2. TN: References to Nietzsche's letters and notes are to the Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Briefwechsel and Werke respectively), by volume and page number. All other Nietzsche as follows: I-"Why referencesare to sectionnumbers;thedivisionsof Ecce homoare abbreviated IAm So Wise";II-" WhyIAm So Clever";III-" WhyI WriteSuchGoodBooks";IV-" WhyIAm a Destiny." Thefollowing furtherabbreviationsapply:BGE-Beyond Good andEvil;BT-The Birthof Tragedy;CW-The Case of Wagner;EH-Ecce homo; GM-On the Genealogy of Morals;GSThe Gay Science; KGB-Nietzsche: Briefwechsel. KritischeGesamtausgabe; KGW-Nietzsche: Werke.KritischeGesamtausgabe; SL-Selected Lettersof Friedrich Nietzsche;SP-Nietzsche: A Self-Portraitfrom His Letters;TI-Twilight of the Idols; UM-Untimely Meditations;WP-The Will to Power;Z-Thus Spoke Zarathustra. ForNietzsche quotations,thepublishedEnglishtranslationslistedunder "Works Cited"have been used (withmodifications)wherepossible-in the case of the letters,Middletonbypreference. All other texts have been translatedfrom the German. 3. Cf. letter to ConstantinGeorg Naumann, 6 November 1888: "I resolved an extremely difficult task-namely that of recountingmyself,my books, my opinions, and in fragments, as far as was required,my life-between the 15th Oct. and the 4th November"[KGB III/5 464]. 4. TN: Kofmanreturns to this image of the harvest in the chapter of Explosion I ("Des vendanges t la Claude Lorrain" ["Vintages a la Claude Lorrain"] [145-59]) devoted to the I paragraph ("On thisperfect day... ") whichNietzsche inserts betweentheforeword and "Why Am So Wise." 5. Cf. letterto Carl von Gersdorff,20 December 1887: "Inan important sense mylifejust now stands as if at high noon: one door is closing, anotheropening.... Who and what should remain to me, now thatI mustmoveon to the mainrealpoint of myexistence[?] "[KGB111/5 214; SP 105]. 6. Cf. letter to Paul Deussen, 3 January 1888: "whenI total up all I have done over the last 2 years, it always strikesme now as being one and the same work of isolatingmyselffrommypast, diacritics / winter 1994 diacritics 24.4:51-70 51

past,tearshim away andseparateshim fromwhathe has been andwhat he has produced. It drawsa line, takesa balanceandsettlesaccounts,7 keeping,reapingonly what deserves to be keptandto return eternally.Butthebookalso opensonto thefuture.It is thepromise8 of a workwhich is ripeningunderthe autumnal sun:the only workof Nietzsche's worthy of the name, and of his name, which is to be for him the "sanction" and the a posteriori justification of his whole being. Withoutit, he says,9 he might well remain eternally problematic.WithRevaluationofAll Values,the firstpartof which (the only one he was ever able to write) Nietzsche publishedthe same year underthe title of TheAnti-Christ, he intendsto accomplishhis task, his mission, his destiny, andto become at last who he is: the man of destiny,bearerof a newfatumfor humanity; the manwho is to split history in two,'?blow up in a "catastrophic" way everythingthathas so far been sanctified,and overturnevery idol. No longer a man but dynamite,an explosive which will shake the earth and convulse it, transposingmountains and valleys [EH IV 1], and with this a new war, waged againstall thathas been reckoned"great," unparalleled inaugurating era,the one which he names-in oppositionto the last manin Zarathustra-the eraof the overman. RevaluationofAll Values,an attemptto take the destinyof humanityin hand again,1 was to have been an epoch-makingbook: therewould have been a "before"and an "after"this explosive work, just as there was a "before"and an "after"Socrates; Socrates,the decisive turningpointin Greekhistorywhom Nietzschecomparesto a stone throwninopportunely into the works of the fine machinewhich was Greekphilosophy, andan "after" changingits directionandmovementforever.12Justas therewas a "before" Christ,above all, whose "good"news was the originof a "newman,"the very one against whom Nietzsche, under the significant name of Anti-Christ,wages a merciless war, seeking in turnradicallyto transformhumanity. withRevaluationofAll Values,Nietzsche's earlier Incomparison writingsarejudged which delay the explosion but also preparefor it, by him to be distractions,re/creations13 since they free him from all the negativityhe was carryingwithin him and make him fit of new tablesof value. Hence all the past "work" for the affirmation is considereda mere to the only truework. promise, a mere "preface" Ecce homo has a more specific statusas a test bookwhich is to put spiritsto the test, to gauge whetheror not they will be capableof bearingthe radicalinversion of values, theumbilical cordbetween meandit.Ihaveexperienced, achieved wanted, ofsevering andperhaps is needed in order so much, thata kindof violence it andget ridof for meto distance myselffrom it"[KGB 111/5 221]. 7. Cf. letterto CarlFuchs,14 December 1887: "Iam ... rightin themidstof settlingmy with menandthings and behind memywholelifehitherto. Almost that accounts putting everything I donowis a 'drawing-a-line-under-everything"' 209;SL280]. Cf.also letterto Carl [KGB II1/5 vonGersdorff, 20 December 1887[KGB 111/5 214;SP 105]. 8. Cf.lettertoHeinrich "Shall wecelebrate 1887: Koselitz, togetherthecompletion 19April thecompletion 'literature' ? Ifeel thatthere which is basically ofallmyprevious oftheGayScience, is nowa scissionin mylife-and thatI nowhavethewholegreattaskaheadof me! Aheadof me 20December 1887: toHeinrichKoselitz, and,evenmore, [KGB 111/561]. Cf.alsoletter uponme!" "Iknow whatis doneanddonewith:a linehasbeendrawn under existence-thatwas my previous thiswaythatprevious hasshown themeaning existence of thelastfewyears. Ofcourse inprecisely 111/5 213]. itselfto be whatit is-a merepromise" [KGB 9. Cf letterto PaulDeussen, 3 January 1888[KGB 111/5 222]. 1888[KGB 10.Cf.letter 14September 111/5 toPaulDeussen, 426;SL 311],EHIV1,andletter to Malwida vonMeysenbug, 4 October 1888[KGB11I/5 447]. Cf.also draftletterto Ruggero endof December 1888[KGBIII/5569]. Bonghi, 11. Cf.letterto Heinrich 30 October 1888[KGBIII/5461f.; SL319]. Koselitz, Nietzsche and Socrates,cf. Kofman,"Nietzsche's 12. For all the variouslinksbetween Socrates." 1888[KGB 13. Cf.letterto PaulDeussen,14 September 111/5 426;SL311].
52

whetheror not they will be strongenoughto tolerateandthusunderstand the boldnessof the immoralist,this hithertounheard-oftype which Nietzsche the artistinvented as his own.14Andbecausethistype andthe taskhe sets himself areunheard of, Nietzsche thinks fit to prepare these spiritsand to give a self-presentation, above all so thatthey do not go and take him for someone else-a monsterof virtue,for example,or a founderof a new religion, or a saint. In any case they would be more inclined to accuse him of counterfeiting,or worse, since invertingvalues means being a new alchemist,takingall that has hithertobeen most hated, feared, and despised by humanity,the dross and the it into the most preciousof things, turningit into his "gold."15 rubbish,and transforming If Nietzsche thinkshe needs to presenthimself and preemptivelydefendhimself against all the disfigurements and accusations,it is because he knows very well thatno one else can give a pictureof him which might do himjustice: for, as was the case with Christ,no one so far-and he knows this will last at least anotherfifty years-has had ears to hear him or eyes to see him.16It is his profoundconviction thatthe problemswhich are his, andhis positionas animmoralist,arestill too premature, too suddento be understood.No one has reviewedhis writingsor even readthem. At any rateno German.Only a Daneand as he emphasizesin the correspondence, "themost intelligentDane therenow is, i.e. a Jew"-Georg Brandes,has held a seminaron his workatthe Universityof Copenhagen and taken a serious enough interestin him to sense his originalityand his "aristocratic radicalism": "Thatis well said andwell felt. Ah, these Jews!"17 Admittedlyhe knowsthat he has a group of more secret listeners and admirers,including a few Frenchmen,like But thatis still not many,andhe is constantlycomplainingof extreme HippolyteTaine.18 isolation,which is otherwiseacknowledgedas necessaryto the independenceof thework and as the vital preconditionof his writing:the only criterionfor knowingwhetherhe is indeed following his own paths and not anyone else's;19the only criterion,above all, of his greatness,the"rancune" of which, as he says in connectionwithZarathustra, his most exceptional"son"of all [EHIIIZ 5], is preciselysolitude,theremovalof thatwhich places itself at such a remove,so farbeyond. "Therancuneof what is great,"or the ransom,the penancewhich can extend to absolutetorture,to the point where he feels strangled,as if by a snake, or piercedby an unspeakablewound, to the point where he no longer even
14. Cf. draftletter to Franz Overbeck,20 July 1888: "Iam enoughof an artist to be able to hold on to a state till it becomesform, till it takesshape. I have invented for myselfat will the types whose boldnessgives mepleasure, e.g., the 'immoralist'--a hithertounheard-oftype" [KGBIIII 5 363]. 15. Cf. letter to Georg Brandes, 23 May 1888 [KGB 111/5 318; SP 118]. 16. Cf. letter to Franz Overbeck,18 October 1888 [KGB 111/5454; SL 315], and letter to HeinrichKoselitz,20 December1887: "'Hearnot and see not'-that seems to be themotto"[KGB 111/5 212]. 17. Letterto HeinrichKoselitz, 20 December 1887 [KGB111/5 213]. Cf:also letter to Georg Brandes,23 May 1888 [KGBIII5 317-19; SP 118], and letterto KarlKnortz,21 June 1888: "The task of giving you some picture of myself, as a thinker, or as a writer and poet, seems to me extraordinarily difficult. Thefirst majorattemptof this kindwas made last winterby the excellent Dane Dr. Georg Brandes, who will be known to you as a literary historian. He gave, at the Universityof Copenhagen,a longish course of lectures about me, entitled 'TheGermanPhilosopher Friedrich Nietzsche"' [KGB III/5 339; SL 298f]. This letter goes on to emphasize that Brandeshad a brilliantsuccess, thathe managedto interestan audienceof threehundred persons in the boldnesswithwhichNietzscheposes questions,and thathe madeNietzsche's namepopular throughoutthe north.... Cf. also EH III CW4. 18. Cf. letter to Karl Knortz,21 June 1888 [KGB 111/5 339f.; SL 299]. 19. Cf. letter to Franz Overbeck,14 April 1887 [KGB III/5 56], and letter to Malwida von Meysenbug,12 May 1887: "Whatcommandsme to go on living, an unusual and difficult task, commandsme also to avoidpeople and to bindmyselfto no one anymore.It maybe due to the state ofextremepurityto whichpreciselythattaskhas broughtme thatI can hardlystand'humanbeings' any longer, least of all the 'youngpeople"' [KGB III/5 69; SL 266].

diacritics / winter 1994

53

knows whetherhe is alive and whetherhis life is not merely a prejudice;20 to the point of paying for his immortalitywith his death:
The moral is: you can perish from having done something immortal: you do constant penance for it afterwards.21 On a loggia high above the said piazza, from which one has a view across Rome ..., that loneliest song was written that ever was written, the Night Song; at this time a melody of unspeakable melancholy went on continually around me whose refrain I rediscovered in the words "dead of immortality... " [EH III Z 4] One pays dearly for being immortal: one has to die several times while alive.

[EH III Z 5]
[I]t is not inconceivable that I am the firstphilosopher of the age, perhaps even a little more, something decisive and fateful standing between two millennia. One is always doingpenance for such an aloofposition-by an ever increasing, ever icier, ever sharper isolation.22

is the general"deafness"of his "countryWhatNietzsche suffers from in particular men"the Germans,who, becausehe is the most independent spiritin Europeandthe only Germanwriterworthy of the name, treathim "like someone who belongs in a lunatic
asylum."23 In Germany, though I am in my 45th year and havepublished aboutfifteen books (including a non plus ultra, Zarathustra), there has not yet been a single even moderately reputable review of any one of my books. People help themselves out now with the phrases "eccentric, " "pathological, " "psychiatric. " There are plenty of bad and slanderous gestures in my direction; an unrestrainedly hostile tone is paramount in the periodicals-learned and unlearned-but how is it that no one ever protests against this?24

This indeed is why Ecce homo, a text which is anti-Germanto the point of will in turncontinuallyhoundthis "stupidrace,""notone earof which"he annihilation,25 since all of them, like those of the young emperor(on which has been able to win over,26 the fate of his books might depend, throughthe censorship exercised by the imperial The young emperor police), are afflicted with "otitis, practicallyeven meta-otitis."27
whom he calls a "scarlet hypocrite,"28 just as in Ecce homo, because he fears being taken

for one, he takes the initiative and calls all German philosophers "'unconscious' counterfeiters."29
20. Cf.EHForeword 1, and letter to GeorgBrandes, 23 May 1888: "ForI am in the habitof 318]. forgetting now and then that I am alive" [KGB 111/5 21. Draft letter to Franz Overbeck,20 July 1888 [KGB111/5 363]-cf. also letterto Malwida von Meysenbug,end of July 1888 [KGB 111/5 377; SL 302]. 22. Letter to Reinhardtvon Seydlitz, 12 February1888 [KGB 111/5 248; SL 284]. 23. Letter to Malwida von Meysenbug,end of July 1888 [KGB I1/5 378; SL 302]. 24. Letter to Reinhardtvon Seydlitz,12 February1888 [KGB 111/5 248f.; SL 284]. 25. Cf. letter to August Strindberg,8 December 1888 [KGB 111/5 509; SL 330]. 26. Draft letter to Ruggero Bonghi, end of December 1888 [KGB III/5 569]. 27. Draft letter to Jean Bourdeau, c. 17 December 1888 [KGB III/5 534]. 28. Letter to August Strindberg,8 December 1888 [KGB 111/5 509; SL 330]. 29. EHIII CW4. Cf. also letter toAugustStrindberg,8 December 1888 [KGB 111/5 509; SL 330]. 54

Hence also Nietzsche's rejectionof his Germanicorigins,the fantasticgenealogy he contrivesfor himself, which allows him to set at a distanceall his "maternal" relatives, whose proximityis too close and disgusts him, whose contact, like his uncleancontact he fears and desires. In orderto reassurehimself of his own with the "German rabble,"30 mentalequilibriumand emerge from solitude, he is forced by this radicalrejection(the reverse side of a profoundlove?) of the motherand of everything German,especially "Reich"German,to look beyond the bordersfor ears capable of hearing him without takinghim for mad.31 Fornothingthatgoes on in the French And he looks for themprincipallyin France.32 world alien. it is seems to him true thathe thinkshe has achieved,above Though spiritual all with Zarathustra,somethingwhich has neverbeen equaledin the Germanlanguage; with anyone;thoughhe is "boundto the German thoughhe is not afraidof beingcompared a a secret nevertheless,he languageby longstandinglove, intimacy,a deep reverence";33 he the of in French. His says, continuallygives impression writing affinity with this seems to him so that he the immediate translation of Ecce homo into great plans language in his underestimates his French,asking Strindberg-who opinion good fortunein not and to whom he a constant declares is leitmotiv from Untimely (this being German, Meditations onward) that there is no other culture but French culture34-to be its because he, too, is a poet of the first rank. translator, Speaking of The Case of Wagner-a text, he says, which is unique in today's Germanyon accountof its taste and refinedstyle-Nietzsche claims thatit would be as easy to translateit into Frenchas it would be difficult, almost impossible, to translateit into German,35 such is the extent to which it is thoughtin French. And so it is in French would be multiple: first, he thatone must readit. The advantagesof these translations of imperialcensorship;36 thenhe needsto bring needsthemin orderto escape thebrutality Ecce homo would "surpassin the intelligentnationsover onto his side: well translated, numberof editionseven Nana."37His work mightbe readover half the planet....38 The would allow Nietzscheto takea decisive steptoward essentialthingis thatthistranslation his destiny, toward "himself," toward "Nietzsche"'s becoming "Nietzsche," which (that presupposesas its condition thathe "come into the world again as a Frenchman"39 he become the motherof himself,just as he is the motherof his books, his sole means of self-recreation). For it is impossible(in the sense in which Nietzsche speaks of his "impossibles")to be Germannowadays:impossible,if one really loves and respectsthe language,to read the books which arewrittenin this language. But thatalso means thatthereare no more Germansnowadays. For those who call themselves by this name are not worthy of it. Thereare no more Germansbecause there are no more men. Like Diogenes the Cynic, " thechapter in Kofinan's I onEHI 3, has 30. TN:"Une fantastique, genealogie Explosion " in as "A translation Fantastical appeared English Genealogy. 14April1887[KGB 31. Cf.letterto FranzOverbeck 111/5 57]. 32. Cf.draftlettertoJeanBourdeau, c. 17 December 1888[KGB111/5 533]. to KarlKnortz, 21 June1888[KGB 33. Letter 111/5 341;SL300]. 34. Cf.lettertoAugust 18 December 1888[KGB 111/5 Strindberg, 539]. 35. Cf.letterto PaulDeussen,14 September 1888[KGBIII/5426; SL310f.],andletterto Malwida vonMeysenbug, 4 October 1888[KGB111/5 447]. 36. "TosecuremyselfagainstGerman brutalities ('confiscation' -), I shallsendthe first andtheyoung toPrinceBismarck withletters warcopies, beforepublication, emperor, declaring -I ama psychologist..."(letter mencannot military replytothatwith policemeasures. toAugust 8 December 1888[KGB III/5509; SL330]). Strindberg, 37. Cf.lettertoAugust 8 December 1888[KGB 111/5 509; SL330]. Strindberg, 4 October 38. Cf.letterto Malwida vonMeysenbug, 1888[KGBIII/5447]. c. 17 December 39. DraftlettertoJeanBourdeau, 1888[KGBIII/5535]. diacritics / winter 1994
55

one could look for them in vain in broaddaylight with a lantern.40 Goethe is the only Nietzschecanstill read,chronologicallythelast forwhom he feels respect:yet "German" he is precisely not Germanbut European,and he can be so because he is a man, a total, faithwhich says "no,"butby a Dionysian completemaninspiredno longerby a Christian faith which says "yes"unreservedlyto the totality [TI IX 48-51]. Napoleon, thatother complete man, that ens realissimumwho, over and above all petty nationalisms,also wantedto join the nationstogetherinto a single Europe,understood him well: the end of he felt when he saw Goethe: section209 of BeyondGoodandEvilrecallsthe astonishment "itbetrayswhathadfor centuriesbeen thoughtwas meantby the 'Germanspirit.' 'Voila un homme!'-which is to say: 'but thatis a man! And I had expected only a German!"' This meeting of the two "overmen"-of two figures who best embody the type of fictionedby Nietzsche in Zarathustra-is evoked at the end of a text which superhuman the Greathadneverthelessunderstood that recallsthatthestrange,madfatherof Frederick what was then most lacking in Germany-a deficiency which was more worryingand urgentthanthe lack of cultureor of social graces-was men worthyof the name. Burying himself, exploding himself as a Germanin orderto be reborn-to make does not mean changinghis himself be reborn-and to reaffirmhimself as a Frenchman, what do matter to this "stateless nationalities Nietzsche, nationality: person,"thisbeyondall-borders! It means effecting a much more profoundconversion:giving himself the of being recognizedfor what he is, a man-or Dionysus, which, understood opportunity correctly,is the samething. "HaveI been understood?-Dionysus against the Crucified" [EH IV 9]. Rightup against him, in parody. Ecce homo:to be readfirst in "Napoleonic"translation, then, this phraseof Pontius Pilate's pointingout Christto the Jews. Forif thereareno longer any men, if people no longereven know what a man is, the blame can be attributedto religion. Man has made a gift to the divinity of all the which make man a man:he has conceived everythinggreatand strongas characteristics as aliento himself. He has thusdiminishedhimselfanddividedup between superhuman, two sphereshis two sides, the one pitifulandweak, the otherstrongandastonishing. The first spherehe has called "man,"the second "God"[KGWVIII/3 99]. Because Christianityhas debased the notion of man, by projectingabove him his or "divinity,"it shouldbe restoredto him. And first, as with Christ"superhumanity" in a parodyof Christ-it shouldbe displayed:Ecce homo,beholdman,behold God, alias Dionysus. Understoodcorrectly,none of this has anythingmad aboutit.... 2. An Autobiography? The Questionof Madness textin all philosophy,one which YetEcce homohasbeenconsideredby farthe"maddest" to come. And as such it hasbeen rejected,or has been bearssymptomsof the "madness" the object of philosophical reappropriation.At all events it is an exceptional "work" which poses preciselythe questionof whetherit is a work, anda work-ofphilosophy,as it settles its accountswith everythingthat has called itself by this name hitherto,and constitutesa textwhich is strictlyspeakingunheard of-lacking earsto hearit. Nietzsche knew this so well that, like the Zarathustra of the "Old and New Law-Tables,"he addressesonly himself in it, recounts"himself' to "himself." In a gesturecharacteristic of the "autobiographical" genre, and despite his avowed reluctanceto speak of himself andvulgarization), (anexceptionalbeing, he can only expose himself to incomprehension
40. "He lit a lamp in broad daylightand said, as he went about, 'I am lookingfor a man'" [Diogenes Laertius2: 43]. 56

Nietzsche, in Ecce homo, speaksof himself in the firstperson(somethingwhich he says he has never yet done, even thoughhe has only ever writtenwith his blood), and like the Rousseauof the Confessions,whom he is also replayingin parody,he shows who he is Nietzsche so as not to be takenfor someone else. But thoughthereis "autobiography," in the most radical here in fact subverts the autobiographical way. It is the "genre" "the there text most is, Nietzsche depersonalized" autobiographical everwritten, strangest are we to understand him? How says paradoxically. First,he does not tell the story of an "I,"a subjectalways alreadytherewhich in its "story"itself mightbe distinguishedfromall others. It is the autobiographical singularity is to be "I" of which it and the which constitutesthe supposed simply telling the subject in a gesture "I" to to "itself' the accede of the autobiography permits story. Only the time of the threshold his reaffirmation. On of selective and discriminative forty-fifth year, Nietzschefeels it his dutyto say in what respectshe has remained"himself' and in what respectshe has become someone else.41 Saying who he is means showing how he has become who he is, in otherwords how he has attainednot his most profoundself, but the one which was situatedway above "him,"at "his"highestpoint;now if he is so afraidof at first, beingtakenfor someone else, it is because he "himself' took himself for "others" numerous he had to take his Before wentvia many"others." byroadsand reaching height, and under in conceal himself aberrant make many deviations, multiple hiding places42 was not a bad he of a that for masks: philologist, philologist. Although example, multiple in the time of the biographicalapres-coup,43 and only then, Nietzsche can claim that he to there. Similarly it strikeshim now as an "eccentricity" was "outsideof his centre"44 all or a Wagnerian.The time of the "apres-coup," havebeen a Schopenhauerian beyond anddispersals,allowshimto bringthemultiple"Nietzsches" thedigressions,recreations,45 backto a centeranda unity: the unityof a single task,of whichwhat is named"Nietzsche" was the involuntaryand unwittingmissionary.46 Wagner,Schopenhauer,Voltaire,Paul and names which Nietzsche had masks so on: so and Ree, Zarathustra, many Dionysus, to seize hold of in orderto say what did not yet have a name. The time of the apres-coup allows him to say: all these nameswere already"me,"simply signs for speakingof "me," as Socrateswas but a semiotic for Plato, and Kantor Buddhawere for Schopenhauer. In the thirdand fourthUntimeliestwopictures of the sternest selfishness, selfdiscipline are erected ... as signposts to a higher concept of culture, to the restoration of the concept "culture": untimelytypes par excellence, full of sovereign contempt for all that around them which was called "Reich," " "Christianity, " "Bismarck, " "success"-SchopenhauerandWagner "culture, or, in one word,Nietzsche. [EH III UM 1]

1882[KGB 20 August III11 41. Cf.letterto Heinrich Koselitz, 238]. is I havewritten hitherto 20 May1885: "Everything 42. Cf. letterto Elisabeth Nietzsche, between theGermans that commend with themostdangerous I amdealing matters; foreground.... are orthink or Wagner, toSchopenhauer inapopular manner, things times, upZarathustra-these a while" I can down behind which sit above all but me recreations, for again hiding-places, for III/353; SL241]. [KGB the "event" theevent"(although 43. TN:theperspective maynothavebeen); from "after term TheFrench translation ofthepsychoanalytic Nachtraglichkeit (re)interpretation. retrospective action,""retroaction"). ("deferred 1887[KGB 44. Cf.letterto CarlFuchs,14 December 111/5 209f.;SL280]. and 1888: "Ineedall kindsof recreations 45. Cf. letterto Paul Deussen,14 September likea game,likean act of 'freewill'"[KGB so as to set thework deviations upwithout anyeffort, 111/5 426;SL311]. 14December toCarlFuchs, 46.Cf.letter III/5210;SL281]. Cf.alsoGM, Preface. 1887[KGB diacritics / winter 1994
57

WhatIdid byandlarge was to taketwofamousandstill altogetherundetermined by theforelock,in orderto say typesby theforelock,as one takesan opportunity something,in orderto have a couple moreformulas,signs, meansof expression in my hands.... It was in this way thatPlato employedSocrates, as a semiotic
for Plato. [EH III UM 3]47

Just as man as a species is a type which is still undeterminedand unformed, mere "formlessness,material,an ugly stone which requiresa sculptor"[EH III Z 8] who is grandioseenoughto knowhow to formit andmakeit at last accedeto its truenature,homo likewise the manwho has the name"Nietzsche,"andwhose natura,or its superhumanity, at first was able to accede to his "type,"to what is highest, was undetermined, type and exceptional, uniquein him-and thus to honorhis proper name [nom superhuman, first himself be sculpted48 and formedby other"types"which letting propre]-only by conferredon him theirfaces [figures]and names [noms]. But as if by a returnshock, the undying renown [renom] of these figureheads [prete-noms] owes everything to the "Nietzsche" who has acceded to himself and, as a sign of gratitude,associates them forever with his immortality. The types with which he indeed identifies are necessary fictions which owe more to what Nietzsche is or will be thanto those they are supposed who he is or will be more thanto grasp them to figure, and they help one to understand themselves. Nietzsche's model in clarifyingthe relationshe maintainswith these identificatory which he himself establishesbetween Plato and Socrates. On figures is the relationship this reading,Plato's Socratesis a pure"chimera":"Platoin front,Platobehind,chimera in the middle" [cf. BGE 190 and Kofman,"Socrate"]. Plato boldly seized hold of the character anderoticallyintroduced himself the whole way, lendinghim his own delicacy and nobility, his own masks, and all the richness of his nature. Likewise the figures, figureheadsfor Nietzsche,areall chimericalcreations,enrichedandimpregnated by him: "Nietzsche in front, Nietzsche behind, chimera in the middle." They are all big with Nietzsche, with the Nietzsche they will bringinto the world, the Nietzsche to come who ad infinitum hasno nameyet. Theyareallvariations on thetheme"Nietzsche,"successive versions, the original text of which the autobiographyintends to display: "homo of the two types which Socrates Nietzsche." Once he hadrecognizedthe compenetration to them Nietzsche strove from each otherso as to restoreto andPlato represent, separate to him: to the one his what each nobility, to the other his baseness. properlybelongs the time of the is when he Likewise, autobiography attemptsto make the breakand cut the umbilical cord linking him to all those with whom he amorously, symbiotically andcontaminated by them to the pointof confusion. The coupled until he was corrupted first of all a work of is mourning-and in this sense a thanatography-in autobiography which Nietzsche burieshimself severaltimes over so as to be able to be rebornto himself himself: by virtue of an unparalleledgenealogical flair-his whole and reappropriate his nostrils is in [EH IV 1]49-he attemptsto divide up what in him properly genius to "him" and what were just borrowed masks, hiding places, more or less belongs detours,in orderto achieve his unity and demeaningfigureheads,occasionally aberrant himself into a destiny. his center and to transform It goes without saying that this reappropriative gesture can be read as a defense madness of which the Germansaccuse him and first of all the "madness": against against while so long as they do which they diagnosewhen they complainof his "eccentricities,"
47. TN: "Accessoires," the chapterin Kofman'sExplosion II on EHIII UM3, is forthcoming in English translationas "Accessories." 48: "Becomewhoyou are constantly,be theteacherand creatorofyourself"[KGWV/2453]. 49. TN: the quotationemphasizesthat in French "flair" also means "sense of smell. "

58

not know wherehis center is, Nietzsche says, they cannotreally know where andwhen he has been eccentric so far.50 The autobiography,by affirming and designatinghis center, should save him from such suspicions; and also reassurehis publisher,who is anxious and desperatebecause a real stir has been createdover the significance of his to such an extent thatthis publisheris preparedto handover the new editions literature, of his works-so thatpeople will stop saying Nietzsche is roundthe bend [debloque]to anyonewho will promisehim a long essay on "Nietzscheen bloc."51 Ecce homoplays the role of this essay, which no one has hadthe courageor the intelligenceto write,letting people know who he is and thathe is not mad. But it is a questionof reassuringhimself above all: of recountingto himself thathe is not mad and that at the very momenthe is planning to blow up the entire earthhe is not himself in the process of exploding-of shatteringinto a thousandfigures with no link or unity. Ecce homo could well be a last which will make Nietzsche say "madness" attemptto safeguardagainstthe threatening in the last letters-this time withoutany genealogicaldividing-up,andwithoutsaying all which thatseparateshim fromthese figures-that he is basicallyevery name in history;52 will henceforthmake him sign with multiple "signatures"(Dionysus, the Crucified, man" Nietzsche, and so forth)53 appendedat the bottomof pages which the "reasonable in them he he created the world and had find for claims that has Caiaphas extravagant, may put in chains, that he, too, has been crucified. Writingin a letter of 3 January1889 to Cosima Wagner under the name of "Princess Ariadne," his "beloved," Nietzsche/ Dionysus reveals to her his multiple identities, which (de)constitute him as a single subjectidenticalwith itself over time, as an "autos,"anddeconstitutehim also as a man, a specific differenceassuringthehumanrace since the namemanhas alwayspresupposed an identitywhich distinguishesit fromthe others-from animalityor divinity-whereas Nietzsche declaresthat he has also been a divine being, for example Dionysus: It is a prejudicethatI am a man. ButI have oftenlived among men alreadyand I knoweverythingthey can experience,from the lowest to the highest. Among IndiansI was Buddha, in Greece I was Dionysus,-Alexander and Caesar are LordBacon. LatterlyI was Voltaire myincarnations,as is theShakespearepoet, and Napoleon, perhaps Richard Wagner,too.... But this time I come as the victoriousDionysus, who will makea feast day of the earth.... Not thatI have much time. . . . The heavens are glad I am here .... I hung on the cross, too.... [KGB III/5 572 f.] But is this letter really the symptom of an unsoundness of mind? Is Nietzsche not his ancestor Empedocles who claimed he had been a fish, a bird, before "repeating"
50. Cf.letterto CarlFuchs, 14December1887[KGB 111/5 209; SL280], and lettertoHeinrich Koselitz, 20 December 1887 [KGB 111/5 213], where, in connection with the reviews of Beyond Good andEvil sent to himbyNaumann,he writes: "thewords 'psychiatric'and 'pathological'are supposed to serve as groundsfor explaining my book and as a censorship of it. (Just between ourselves: the enterpriseI am engaged in has somethingimmenseand monstrousabout it-and I can't blameanyoneif here and theretheyfeel a doubtarise aboutit, as to whetherI am still 'in my right mind')." 51. Letterto Carl Fuchs, 14 December 1887 [KGB III/5 210; SL 281]. 6 January 1889 [KGB III/5 578; SL 347]. 52. Cf. letter to Jacob Burckhardt, 53. Cf. lettersto: "theillustriousPoles, "4January 1889 [KGB111/5 577]; CardinalMariani, 4 January1889 [KGBIII1115 I, King ofltaly, 4 January1889 [KGB111/5 577]; Umberto 577]; Jacob Burckhardt,6 January 1889 [KGB III/5 579; SL 348]; Georg Brandes, 4 January 1889 [KGB II1/5573; SL 345]; Hans von Bulow, 4 January 1889 [KGB III/5 573]; Paul Deussen, 4 January 1889 [KGBIII/5574]; HeinrichKoselitz,4January 1889 [KGB111/5 575; SL 345]; ErwinRohde, 4January1889 [KGB111/5 576]; CarlSpitteler,4January1889 [KGBIII/5576]; HeinrichWiener, 4 January 1889 [KGB III/5 576].

diacritics / winter 1994

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the becominga manor a god? And is he not relatedto thatotherphilosopher,Peregrinus, founderof Eclecticism, as he is describedby Gerardde Nerval (who was also takenfor an eccentric because he was fascinatedby the eccentrics he painted in Les illumines)? thanksto metempsychosis,was able to experienceevery condition Peregrinus-Proteus, anddestiny,life, death,every situationandsex; he was ableto assumeevery office, travel up and down every land and every century: I am he who is neitherdeadnor alive, neithera shade nor a body,neitherchosen nor damned,neitherhistoricalnor mythical... ; I have seen myselfas a child, a man, a woman by turns,dying like the rest by chance or by destiny;my soul has travelled up and down the whole ladder of humanity,I have been king, emperor,cacique,artist,bourgeois,soldier, Greek,Indian,American,French.s4 of the Admittedly,from the perspectiveof the reasonablemanthe endless peregrination philosopherPeregrinuscan only be a sign of madness, making those people lose their heads who need every being to possess one specific name and one specific position in orderto reassurethemselvesof theirown equilibrium. Adoptingevery name and every positionmeansbeing eithera hoaxeror a madman[cf. Nerval,Le comteSaint-Germain]. Can Nietzsche's discoursebe assimilatedto thatof this philosopher-Proteus? Like Nerval-who identifies with his charactersand imitatesmultipleliterarymodels to the point of losing any ascribableidentity-does he find himself caught up in an endless anddrifting?The authorof Angelique indeedis and is not Diderot,Sterne, peregrination Swift, Rabelais,MerlinCoccaie,Apuleius,Petronius,Lucian,Homer,andso forth,55 just as Nietzsche is and is not all the charactershe has fictioned: Wagner, Schopenhauer, Alexander, Caesar,Napoleon, Voltaire, Lord Bacon, Buddha,Dionysus, and so forth. Yet althoughNietzsche, like Nerval'sPeregrinus-a paradigm of thewriter-says he has all that can men his is not without end. It is orientedand feel, experienced wandering determinedby the double perspectivehe carrieswithin him, that of life's lowest and of life's highest, which allows him to know both, to be both. At its outset, "WhyI Am So Wise" announcesa double originwhich tears apartthe "subject" Nietzsche into at least two "Nietzsches,"the one being the doubleof the other:one belonging at the top, andone belonging at the bottom of the ladder of life. A double origin which makes him withinhimself simultaneouslya decadentanda beginning,capableof alwaysmaintaining his "pro"and his "contra," with an outstandingflair for the signs of ascent and decline. It markshim out as a peerlessmasterin the artof invertingperspectives,anddestineshim, andhimalone,for the taskof invertingvalues. The variousincarnations listedin the letter "delirious" to Ariadne,in anapparently disorder,referin theirdiversitybackto thedouble in "Nietzsche."They areall required routeswhich typology always alreadypreinscribed Nietzsche hadto takein orderto reachthe stage of introducing into his doubleinheritance of healthandmorbiditya hierarchy affirmation of life. favoringhealthandtheunreserved the in of the Crucified. him, Favoring triumph, Dionysus against So one can no longer say, without at least puttingit in quotationmarks,thatEcce homo is an autobiography, for whatthe text "recounts" is rather the deathof the autosas a stable andsubstantial subject,as conceived by metaphysics;it is also the deathof the "bios,"if one takesthis to mean thatthe "life"of a living personhas its origin in his two parentsto thesamename). thestory 55. Cf.Nerval, which cannot written who ofa book befound, Angelique, byanauthor cannotbe found, the abbe comtede Bucquoy-so-calledcomte de Bucquoy-an eccentric whose name andexistence arebothuncertain, andwhois theparadigm character Cf. of thewriter. cf. alsoJeanneret. Kofman, Nerval; for Nerval'sendless drifting, 60
54. Nerval, L'ane d'or [The GoldenAss] (a text which is entirelygrafted ontoApuleius's of

whom he is bound by his "blood." When Nietzsche calls himself "full-blooded,"he thistermnot in a biological, physiological,or racialsense but,as we shallsee, understands in a typological and economic sense.56 Ecce homo is the most "depersonalized" there is. Its "hero"does not have an ascribablemotherand fatherin the autobiography conventionalmanner,does not have one single face [figure], or even a single mask, a of no one [personne]. The "I"who single persona. In this sense it is an autobiography speaksto himselfof himself is notusing a first-persondiscourse-which Platoconsidered the least mimetic of all-for in this ""rthere is more than one person or there is no one forces which explode. [personne]: nothing but an accumulation of superabundant Nietzsche is not a man, he is dynamite. Althoughwith Ecce homo, in a certaindefensive gesture,Nietzsche still attemptsto save himself from what the serious and reasonableman calls a "mad"dispersal, by fromthe emphasizingwhat properlybelongs to him andby still dividingup the "central" on the otherhandhe takes no care at all to avoid exploding all the time. The "eccentric," countlessquestionmarksandexclamationmarkswhich punctuate his text aresymptoms, in thewriting,of an accumulation of forces discharging themselvesexcessively andin the most extremefashion there is. Ithasbeenpossible to considerEcce homoa "mad" textabove all becauseof thistone, which is so singular,dazzling,stunning,andjubilant-unbearable for the moralmanwho takes himself seriously, because such a text breakswith the "conventional," acceptable tone, with all the customarymodesty and reserveadoptedin generalby those who speak in the "firstperson,"as if observinga sense of decency would offset the of "themselves" of audacity displayingoneself in "person."Nietzsche constantlyproclaimsthathe is an andunparalleled, exceptionalbeing, unprecedented always andeverywherethe "first"a "beginning," in the sense that he in a matchlessandunmatchable too, always inaugurates fashion:the first immoralist[EH IV 2], the first to have been able to handlethe German languageso well [EH III], the first to have solved the enigma of Ariadne:"Whoknows except me whatAriadne is!" [EH III Z 8]. The first to have understoodthe tremendous phenomenonof Dionysianism,and as early as TheBirth of Tragedy[EH III BT 2]. The first to have experienced true poetic inspiration,at the moment of Zarathustra,an extraordinary, incomparable work-greater thanthe greatest:in all genresandin all lands Z III [EH 6]. It is underthe effect of Dionysian intoxication(analogousto the intoxicationwhich the Alcibiades of the Symposiumneeded in orderto praiseSocrates-another incompaof rable, an unparalleledbeing in every respect), underthe effect of a superabundance no forces which sense of no comes to inhibit overflowing decency, prohibition anylonger, thatthe immoralistgives himself the rightto advertisefrom his full height-not without a malice which mocks all proprietyand seriousness-his titles to fame: "WhyI Am So Wise" (weise); "Why I Am So Clever"(klug); "Why I Write Such Good Books"; and "Why I Am a Destiny," titles which place Ecce homo underthe sign of extravagance, defiance,provocation,and make it a satyric text. As Alcibiades says of Socrates,Nietzsche, too, has always thoughtthat he belongs thisfollowerof Dionysus, harbinger to thegenus"satyr," of thegod, alreadyentirelyfilled with him. It is the "satyr"in "Nietzsche" which makes for the singular tone of his which is always spiced with a greatdeal of malice "wisdom,"or his "science"[savoir],57 andgood humor,58 andin which profundityandexuberance go tenderlyhandin hand[EH IIIGS]. A combinationof two "contradictory" tones which tramplesmoralityunderfoot 56. TN:cf.Kofman, "AFantastical Genealogy." savoir. 58. Cf.draftlettertoJeanBourdeau, c. 17 December 1888[KGB111/5 535]. diacritics / winter 1994
57. TN:theFrench title ofNietzsche's Die frohlicheWissenschaft(The Gay Science) is Le gai

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as it dances, and blows up all metaphysicaloppositions. A "satyric"tone which mocks all those who do not know how to laugh at the serious or "tragic"aspects of life by parodyingit. As early as July 1868 he writes to Sophie Ritschl:"we who take no page of this life so seriously thatwe cannotdrawin a joke as a fleeting arabesque.And what if we behavelike satyrsnow andthen,parodyinga life which always god can be surprised looks so serious and solemn but wears buskinson its feet" [KGB I/2 299]. Becoming "Nietzsche"for Nietzsche essentiallymeansbecoming a manof the "gay science," of the "GayaScienza." "Forlet us bear life no ill-will, but become more and more who we are-the 'gay-scientists'."59Yet in the forewordto Ecce homo [2] the "satyr"is merely the object of a preference,even a last resort. Nietzsche would prefer, he says, to be takenfor a satyrthana saint, thatis, a servantof Christ,for he is neithera fanatic nor an apostle, a founderof a religion, a monsterof virtue,or a moralman. But takinghim purely and simply for a satyrwould mean makinganothermistake. For the satyr is also thatcynical and shamelessbuffoon who is unafraidto wallow in his books as in his own dung, and acknowledgesonly the animal in man, a "belly with two needs and a head with one": someone who "sees, seeks and wants to see only hunger,sexual desire, and vanity, as thoughthese were the actual and sole motives of humanactions" [BGE 26]. Nietzsche feels no typological affinity at all with these buffoons, whose cynicism is the form in which only base and vulgar souls prize what is called sincerity. Yet it is still betterto be takenfor a cynic thana saint, for at least a certaintruthspeaks fromthe mouthof the cynic, andso he is moreinstructivethanthe moralman,who hides his face, waxes indignant,closes his modestearsat satyricbuffoonery,andis himselfbut a lie. "Fortheindignant man,andwhoeveris continuallytearingandrendinghimselfwith his teeth... may indeedmorallyspeakingstandhigherthanthe laughingandself-satisfied satyr, but in every other sense he is the more commonplace, less interesting, less instructivecase. And no one lies so muchas the indignantman"[BGE26]. So Nietzsche is no cynic: he has far too much nobility and distinctionfor that. But while he keeps his distancefromthe cynic, he does notdiscountthe assistanceof cynicism andits buffoonery in his fight againstChristian morality-the "infamousthing"which mustbe "crushed,"6 andwhich he constantlyattacks. Nietzsche is no cynic-he simply plays the cynic, and in doing so takes him to the limit:"WhyI Am So Clever"[1] sets againstthe prevailing of idealism a new remedy,a "medi-cynicism" "moraline" [EHIII5]. WhereasChristian of on makes the salvation humanitydepend theological "cuisine,"Nietzsche morality diet has been adopted. As a new dietician, makes it dependenton whicheveralimentary he draws up a veritable typology of different "cuisines,"the "worst"being the most to be fed, and thereshouldbe as manyways of eatingas thereare"intestines" impersonal: know how to nourish himself so as to be his own measure should should here, everyone virtue. Nietzsche maintains attainhis maximumof strength,of virtu,of "moraline-free" is itself a stomach,thatall the prejudices that"purespirit"is a "purelie," thatthe "spirit" intestinesandbad digestion. He thusruns of the spiritcome fromthe gut, fromdisturbed the riskof being takenfor a cynic ora buffoon,when he hasmerelyseized holdof themask andits sacredbook,theNew of the cynic, for his own use, in orderto "refute" Christianity Testament,the most stinkingbookof all, the completeabsenceof buffooneryfromwhich "Inthe entireNew Testamentthereis not one single bouffonnerie: serves as a refutation: but that fact refutes a book" [WP 187].

20August 1882[KGB to Heinrich 59. Letter Koselitz, III/1239]. is the which thisphraseof Voltaire's theinfamous 60. "Crush l'infame"], /"Ecrasez thing" in hisfightagainstmorality andall thatresembles watchword taken it, is upagainbyNietzsche also EHIV8. the last word in Ecce homo. of Cf. [TN:cf. Kofman 'sforthcoming study practically elle tremble!"] andVoltaire, Nietzsche "Et pourtant, 62

3. Paganism against Christianity Inotherwords,althoughEcce homoparodicallyrepeatsa phrasefromtheNew Testament in its title, and although Nietzsche also "reincarnates" the one who is pointed out by Pontius Pilate to be crucified, the book cannot be an invitationto imitate Christ. An imitationwhich was urged by medieval Christians,with the body of Christon display themthat"inmediavita, in mortesumus"(in themidstof life we arein death)reminding as a prayerin the Romanmissal of the Council of Trenthas it61-but also thatour mortal in glory. Nietzsche probablywanted to allude bodies, like Christ's,will be resurrected to thismedievalprayer when he initiallynotedamongthetitlesenvisagedbutnotretained: "In media vita." "In media vita" is also the name given to section 324 of The Gay Science-which is reproducedbelow in the original and in translation: In mediavita.-Nein! Das Leben hat mich nicht enttduscht! VonJahr zu Jahr finde ich es vielmehr wahrer, begehrenswertherund geheimnisvoller,-von jenem Tagean, wo der grosse Befreier iibermichkam,jener Gedanke,dass das LebeneinExperiment desErkennenden sein durfe-und nichteinePflicht, nicht ein Verhingnis,nichteineBetrigerei!--Und die Erkenntniss selber: magsiefiir Andere etwasAnderes sein, zum Beispiel ein Ruhebettoder der Wegzu einem Ruhebett,oder eine Unterhaltung,oder ein Miissiggang,--fir mich ist sie eine WeltderGefahrenundSiege, in der auch die heroischenGefiihleihre Tanz-und haben. "Das Leben ein Mittel der Erkenntnis"-mit diesem Tummelpldtze Grundsatze imHerzen kannmannicht nur tapfer,sondernsogar frohlichleben undfrohlichlachen! Und wer verstiindeiiberhaupt gut zu lachen undzu leben, der sich nicht vorerst aufKrieg und Sieg gut verstiinde? In media vita.-No! Life has not disappointedme! Year after year, on the contrary, Ifind it truer,moredesirableandmysterious-ever since thedaywhen the great liberatorcame over me, the thoughtthat life could be an experiment of theseekerfor knowledge-and not a duty,not a calamity,not trickery!-And knowledgeitself: let it be somethingelse for others,for examplea bed to rest on or thewayto such a bed, or an entertainment, or an idleness-for me it is a world of dangersand victories, in whichheroicfeelings, too, haveplaces to dance and play. "Life a means to knowledge"-with thisprinciple in one's heart one can live not only courageouslybut even gaily, andlaughgaily, too. And who would knowhow to laugh and live well at all, if he did notfirst knowa good deal about war and victory? In thistext Nietzsche exclaims as he opposes a Christian, theologico-moralinterpretation of life: life, stampedwith the mark of suffering and death, as simply a passage towardanother muchbetter,muchless disappointing life, towardtheonly "truelife," truly worthyof the name. To accede to it, man would have to live life "onearth"as a series of duties to be carriedout in order to achieve his salvation. Nietzsche, on the contrary, him, thathe finds it, even fromone vigorouslymaintainsthatlife, no, hasnot disappointed
61. TN: betterknownto English-speakingreaders as part of the Orderfor the Burial of the

Deadin TheBookof Common Prayer.In the "Supplement rhapsodique" ("Rhapsodic Supplement")at the end of Explosion II [371-84], Kofmanreturnsto thisformulation,noting thatDante is possibly alluding to it in the opening of the Divine Comedy ("Nel mezzo del cammindi nostra vita . . . ") and stressing that Nietzsche's allusion to it also allows a reading of the eternal return as a parodic displacementof the Christianthoughtof the Resurrection: "Nietzsche'sEcce Homo is a funeral ceremonyin whichthe Christiangod is buriedin orderto come backto life in theform of a pagan god whoplaces resurrection,in a whollypagan manner,at the veryheartof life " [376].

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year to the next, truer,more desirableand mysterious. In the midst of life it is not death rearingup in frontof him at every step like a skeleton;whathe finds is a beautifulwoman who, despite her infidelities or deceptions-the sufferings she brings-is never disappointingbutremainsdesirableandworthyof being loved, eternally,becauseshe is always full of beautiesandmysteries[cf. also GS, Preface](worthyof returning eternally,unlike themotherandthe sister,as we shallsee in discussingsection3 of "WhyI Am So Wise").62 Life as an endless enigma,as a meansto knowledge-once the deathof God andthe end of the ascetic ideal have beenproclaimed,this is what liberatesone fromdisgustat living, preventsone from falling into pessimism and nihilism. This alone is what can give a meaninganda new interestto life: for life as "anexperimentof the seekerfor knowledge" is not a long and peaceful river,or the way to a bed to rest on, or simply an amusement. A world full of dangers, a demandfor permanentconquests and victories, life, as an enigma, calls for bravuraand virility: a woman, she always loves only a warrior63-a overherandconquerher. A happyandjoyous warrior warrior who knowshow to triumph who feels all the strongerfor encounteringrecurrent obstacles and resistances: for the who conquest of life needs to be constantlyrenewed, since God is dead, the "stopgap" gave a definitive answerto every question,permanentlyeliminatingevery questionand every enigma. Every thought. Only the death of God transformslife into a world of victories in which heroic feelings, joy, and laughtercan have theirspace to dance,into a world which leaves space for the feast of thought. Indeedtherecannotbe any Christian for there cannot be any Christian festivity: by abusingfestivals [fetes], the "thought," Churchhas corrupted festivity [la fete], which is essentially pagan: One has to be very coarse in order not to feel the presence of Christiansand Christianvalues as an oppressionbeneath which all genuine festive feelings [eigentliche Feststimmung]go to the devil. Festivals include: pride, exuberance, wantonness; mockery of everything serious and philistine; a divine affirmation of oneself outof animalplenitudeandperfection-one and all states which the Christiancannot honestly welcome. The festival is paganismpar excellence [Das Fest ist Heidenthumpar excellence].64 Ecce homo, in media vita: Dionysus against the Crucified,no longer a Christianbut a pagan. It is all the more interesting,at this point, to recall thatHeideggerused this section from The Gay Science, "In media vita" [324], as an epigraph for the preface to his Nietzsche(1936-40). Strangelyreduced,shornof its exclamationmarks,shornof its title of life; shornof everything andthus of its directreferenceto the Christianinterpretation thatconnects it to desire, woman,joy, laughter,victory, war, in a word the greatpagan is the truncated formin which Heidegger festival of thought.65 Here,then(in translation),

"AFantastical 62. TN:cf.Kofman, Genealogy." toGMIII: wants us:she violent-thuswisdom 63. Cf.theepigraph "'Unconcerned, mocking, is a woman andalwayslovesonlya warrior.' (ThusSpokeZarathustra)." the other 64. WP 916 [KGWVIII/2219]. Besidesfestivals, the same text denounces has brought aboutthrough abuse:of asceticism, theChurch fasting,themonastery, corruptions in theface of oneself, death. courage 65.JacquesDerrida "]analyzes very strongly, [ "Interpreting Signatures thispoint yetwithout subtitle makes to theprojected thatthetitleofsection 324ofTheGayScience reference indicating findsthistitlerather of a Christian prayer;he therefore for Eccehomo,or thatit is theopening andtranslates it as just "inthemedium of life"[10 f.]. Instead,"inthemidstof life" enigmatic seemsto meimperative. 64

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cameovermequotesthetext:"'Life... moremysterioussince thedaythegreatliberator the thoughtthat life should be an experimentof knowers"' [Nietzsche 1: xv].66 Cuttinga text as one quotesit, andmoreoverusing the authorhimself to backoneself up, since the quotationis precededby "Nietzschehimself [whenknowingwho Nietzsche himself is is precisely what is at issue] names the experience that determines his thinking"-this is what goes to makeup an interpretative strategy. The same strategyas and throughoutHeidegger's Nietzsche: as Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe ["Obliteration"] Of Spirit] have shown very well, it involves Signatures," JacquesDerrida["Interpreting his "philosophy" to shielding Nietzsche from a biologizing readingwhich subordinates a biological model and sees in it a celebrationof life conceived as the ultimategoal or as which makes him into a Being. And hence saving him from a whole academictradition "poet,"at best a philosopherof life, lacking in conceptualrigor. The quotation,in this truncated form, indeedemphasizesthatlife cannotbe eithera model or a goal since it is simply a means: an "experimentof knowledge"(moreover,Nietzsche says in German so it would be betterto translateit like Vialatte:"for des Erkennenden," "einExperiment those who seek to know"[ "pourceuxqui cherchenta savoir "] thanlike Klossowski:"of
knowledge" ["de la connaissance"]).67 But if Heidegger thinks that in this way, by

removingfrom the text all thatNietzsche calls truly "life"(the entire instinctualaspect, the joyous and heroic, pagan affirmationof thought as infinite interrogation),he is Nietzschefromreappropriation by Nazism(whichuses Nietzsche's pseudosafeguarding biologism as a support)at the same momentas he himself is distancinghimself from it, thenhe loses "Nietzsche"at least as much as he saves him. He protectshim only so that he can betterinscribehim withinthe historyof Westernmetaphysics,where "Nietzsche" has a very specific place, a limit place as the last thinkerof metaphysics, which he completes by invertingit; a single place defining the meaningof the name "Nietzsche," which is thus reduced,beyond the multiplicityof adopted masks, faces [figures], and names, to the simplicity of a single name. A single name, itself the sign of a single thatof the will to power. So knowing "who Nietzsche is" does not involve "thought," with him, a type of readingwhich-as he assertsof enteringinto a "living"relationship of the first masters of thought-remains superficial.68 It Nietzsche's interpretation involves looking beyond Nietzsche's life, his "psychology" or his idiosyncrasy, his empiricalor biographicalpersonalityor personalities,to reachand to think the thing in question, the thought,in this case the still unthoughtthoughtof the will to power. A thought which remainedin a state of incompletion, not for any "subjective"reasons, whethernormalorpathological,butpurelyandsimply becauseit is a featureof everygreat thoughtto contain somethingunthought. Nietzsche as the Thinkerof the Consummation of Metaphysics WhoNietzsche is and above all who he will be we shall knowas soon as we are able to thinkthe thoughtthathe gave shape to in thephrase "thewill topower. " Nietzscheis thatthinkerwho trodthepathof thoughtto "thewill topower. " We shall neverexperiencewhoNietzscheis througha historicalreportabouthis life
66. TN: since thepassages whichKofmancitesfrom Heidegger's Nietzsche are not all to be found in theEnglish translation,I have used "Nietzsche"for referencesto the English translation and "nietzsche"forreferencesto theoriginalGermanedition (whichbears "heideggernietzsche" on its spines). 67. TN:the contrastis betweenAlexandreVialatte's French translationof "Inmediavita"uses whereIhave used (a modifiedversionof) WalterKaufnann'sEnglishversionwhichKofman and Pierre Klossowski'sFrench translationof the Heidegger epigraph. 68. Cf. the opening of Heidegger, "TheAnaximanderFragment."

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history,nor througha presentation[DarstellungJof the contentsof his writings. Neither do we, nor should we wantto knowwhoNietzscheis, if we have in mind only thepersonality[Personlichkeit],the historicalfigure, and thepsychological object and its products. [Nietzsche3: 3] So Nietzsche has a single thought,and this thoughthas nothingto do with what he to reunifyapres coup his writingsandhis "life"(which for him are himself, in his attempt of life" from the "material precisely indissociable,andone cannotseparatethe "material of thought"as Heideggerdoes, repeatingthe metaphysicalgesturepar excellence at the very momenthe is claimingto condemnit), what he himself calls in the prefaceto On the Genealogy of Morals the unityof one nativesoil, one sun, one taste,in a word of one will, or again in Ecce homo the unity of one task,one mission, or one destiny. The "unity"of Nietzsche's thoughtis not symptomaticof his biopsychologicalsingularity,of a certain of the drives in him favoring one will which serves as a more or less hierarchization provisional center of perspective: on the contrary,it is the singularityof Nietzsche's thought,linkedto the singularityof his limit-positionin the historyof Westernmetaphyshis propername, placed in quotation ics, that singularizesand allows one to understand marksin the prefacetoNietzsche, since this propernameis strictlyspeakingjust the name of a thought,anddesignatesnot a personbut a momentin a periodin the historyof Being. And what Nietzsche calls his destiny,Heidegger-in a violent gestureof interpretation, theliteralityof the texts-denies thatit can involve an"individual fate." The disregarding Nietzscheanfatumdesignatesmerely the destiny of a thought,of "thehistoryof the era of modem times, of the end of the West." This goes withoutsaying for someone who has earswhich arefine enough to hearin a singular destiny the destiny of Being, but only if he stops his ears to what Nietzsche proclaims,so as not to hear,not who is "HerrNietzsche"(for what does HerrNietzsche matter to Nietzsche, he says in the preface to The Gay Science), but the question of typological identityas he poses it in the forewordto Ecce homo,the questionof knowing who he is, who he has become, and how he has become what he is. Yet Heidegger is not unawarethat by its title and subtitle,Ecce homo: How One Becomes WhatOne Is appearsto indicatethatit is in this last text thatone must look for the answerto the questionof "who Nietzsche is." But he effaces the objection through disavowal: this self-display, in which others have sought to read "the harbingerof erupting madness,"or at any rate "uninhibitedself-presentationand boundless selfis no autobiography: in no way is it the story of a singulardestiny. mirroring," Andyet-was not the last thingthatNietzsche himselfcompletedforpublication thepiece that is entitled Ecce Homo: How One Becomes WhatOne Is? Does not Ecce Homospeakas his lastwill-that one occupyoneselfwithhim,withthis man, and let oneself be told by him those things that occupy the sections of his book?-"WhyI am so wise. WhyI am so clever. WhyI writesuch good books. WhyI am a destiny[Schicksal]." Is this not the apotheosisof uninhibitedselfpresentationand boundlessself-mirroring? It is a gratuitous and thus often practised procedure to take this selfpublication of his own nature and will [diese Selbstveroffentlichungseines eigenen Wesens undWollens] as theharbingerof eruptingmadness. However, in Ecce Homo it is a matter neither of the biography of Nietzsche nor of the " not thefate person of "HerrNietzsche." In truth,it is a matterof a "destiny, [Geschick] of an individualbut the history [Geschichte] of the era of modern times, of the end of the West. [Nietzsche3: 3]

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So Heideggersaves Nietzsche from"madness," butby ceasing to "squintsomehow after the 'life' of the man"who createdthe work, and even after this work itself, for neither concerns him, Heideggerconfines him all the more easily to what is his sole affair and the history of Being thought as totality and concern, which he alone can understand: uniqueness, where the essential thinkerstake their place, "those exceptional human beings who are destined to think one single thought, a thought that is always 'about' beings as a whole [das Seiende im Ganzen]"[Nietzsche3: 4]. Intryingto protectso-called Nietzschefrommadness,is Heideggernot in fact trying to blind himself to thatmadnesswhich threatensevery thinkerand every thought,every Onthepretextof nottakingintoconsideration Nietzschetheperson,Nietzsche "subject"? the "subject,"which derives from a typically "metaphysical" reading,is Heidegger not not so much the subjectas striving, as Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe puts it, to "obliterate" the fact that there is no subject? And this is what frightens him, for in that case the suspicion could well arise that, no more thanthereis a subject,therecannotbe a single thought,a single name, a single history,a single metaphysics,or beings as a whole. If he dreams of effacing from the "thought"of "Nietzsche" all traces of desire, laughter, "eccentricity," buffoonery,carnivalesquemultiplicity,is it not because all this can have no place in a logos which is supposedto be a gatheringtogetheranda unifying-because all this is too explosive anddazzling? Is it not because Nietzsche, if one understands him other than as an "essential thinker,"precisely blows up-along with the subject and Being, which are reducedby him to mere names or metaphysicalfictions (and "metaphysical"is awordwhichforhimhasa completelydifferent meaningthanforHeidegger)the idea of the logos which Heidegger, retranslatingHeraclitus for his own use, for himself? reappropriates What is at stake in the Nietzsche/Heideggerdebateis ultimatelytwo radicallydifferent ways of contemplatingthoughtand the logos, the one pagan, the other Christian. And becauseEcce homo is just aparody of thatEcce homo which designatesChrist andthosewho arelike him,Heideggercouldno morereadit in its "literality" thanhe could section 324 of TheGayScience. Nor does he fail to give some takecareto read"literally" good reasonsfor this: a thinkercan neversay himself what is most properto him: "what is most properto a thinkeris not his possession butthe propertyof Being." Whatis most word receives its determinabecausethe utterable properto him "mustremainunuttered 2: tion from what is unutterable" [nietzsche 484]. This is why one mustfirst try to find Nietzsche's thought,andone must not look for it in the form which Nietzsche intended, the form imposed on his thought by his knowledge [savoir], for this form, the writtenform, can only hide what is unthoughtin "Theburdenof thoughtis swallowed up in his thought,which is its essence and its truth: the writtenscript,unless the writing is capableof remaining,even in the script itself, a progressof thinking,a way" [WhatIs Called Thinking?49]. If Heidegger believes he finds the unthoughttruthof Nietzsche's thoughtin The Will to Power, it is because it is not a finished piece of writing, so that he who chooses form, who knows, who writes, from it, andthe essential movementof the thoughtis preservedin it. Linking disappears backupwith a traditional metaphysicalgesture,Heideggersees writingas a dangerwhich threatensthoughtjust as much as does madness:andthis is clearly no coincidence.69As is well known, if Socratesis for him the greatestWesternthinker,then this is because he did not write anything. ReadingNietzsche,Ecce homo, differentlyto Heidegger,withouttryingto save him fromwhatis called madness,withouttryingto save his "thought"-and thereis morethan

I am herevery 69.Forall this,cf.Lacoue-Labarthe "],whom [ "Obliteration following closely. 68

and one-from writing, requiresus then to go beyond all metaphysicalreappropriations return to the actualliteralityof the text, which leads us precisely firstof all to Scripture.70 Translatedand revised by Duncan Large in collaboration with the author WORKS CITED Derrida, Jacques. "Interpreting Signatures (Nietzsche/Heidegger):Two Questions." Ed. A. Rickels. Albany,NY: StateU of New York Laurence LookingafterNietzsche. 1990. 1-17. P, . Of Spirit:Heidegger and the Question. Trans.Geoffrey Benningtonand Rachel Bowlby. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1989. Diogenes Laertius. Lives of EminentPhilosophers. Ed. and trans.R. D. Hicks. 2 vols. UP, 1925. Cambridge,MA: Harvard "The Anaximander Martin. Early GreekThinking.Trans.David Fragment." Heidegger, FarrellKrell and FrankCapuzzi. New York: Harperand Row, 1975. Nietzsche. 2 vols. Pfullingen:Neske, 1961. . Nietzsche. Trans. David Farrell Krell, Joan Stambaugh, and Frank A. Capuzzi. 4 vols. New York: Harperand Row, 1979-87. -. WhatIs Called Thinking?Trans.FredD. Wieck andJ. Glenn Gray. New York: Harperand Row, 1968. Jeanneret,Michel. La leitreperdue: Ecriture et folie dans l'oeuvrede Nerval. Paris: Flammarion,1978. Kofman,Sarah."Accessories."Trans.DuncanLarge.Nietzsche:A CriticalReader. Ed. PeterSedgwick. Oxford:Blackwell. Forthcoming. . "Etpourtant,elle tremble!(Nietzsche et Voltaire)." Forthcoming. . Explosion I: De l'Ecce homo de Nietzsche. Paris:Galilee, 1992. . Explosion II: Les enfantsde Nietzsche. Paris:Galilee, 1993. "A Fantastical Genealogy: Nietzsche's Family Romance." Trans. Deborah Jenson. Nietzsche and the Feminine. Ed. Peter Burgard. Charlottesville:UP of Virginia, 1994. 35-52. . Nerval: Le charme de la repetition. Lecture de "Sylvie." Lausanne:L'age d'homme, 1979. . "Nietzsche's Socrates:'Who' Is Socrates?"Trans.MadeleineDobie. Graduate Faculty PhilosophyJournal 15.2 (1991): 7-29. . "Le Socrate chimerique de Platon, selon Nietzsche" ["Plato's Chimerical Socrates,According to Nietzsche"]. Socrate(s). Paris:Galilee, 1989. 53-58. Lacoue-Labarthe, Philippe. "Obliteration." Trans. Thomas Trezise. The Subject of Philosophy. Ed. ThomasTrezise. Minneapolis:U of MinnesotaP, 1993. 57-98. Nerval, Gerardde. (Euvres. Paris:Garnier,1987. Nietzsche, Friedrich.BeyondGoodandEvil. Trans.R. J. Hollingdale. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973. . Ecce homo. Trans.R. J. Hollingdale. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979. . The Gay Science. Trans.WalterKaufmann. New York: Vintage, 1974. .Nietzsche: Briefwechsel. Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. 16 vols. Berlin: De Gruyter,1975-84. . Nietzsche:A Self-Portrait from His Letters. Ed. and trans.PeterFuss andHenry Shapiro. Cambridge,MA: HarvardUP, 1971. . Nietzsche: Werke.Kritische Gesamtausgabe. Ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari. 33 vols. Berlin:De Gruyter,1967-.

70. TN: the chapterin ExplosionI immediately discusses "Ecce following this introduction homo et l'ecriture"("Ecce homo and Scripture")[45-54].

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andR. J. Hollingdale. On . On the Genealogyof Morals. Trans.WalterKaufmann the Genealogy of Morals and Ecce homo. Ed. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage, 1967. Middleton. . SelectedLettersof FriedrichNietzsche. Ed. and trans.Christopher Chicago:U of Chicago P, 1969. A Book for All and None. Trans.WalterKaufmann. . ThusSpokeZarathustra: Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978. . Twilightof theIdols. Trans.R. J. Hollingdale. Twilightof theIdols and TheAntiChrist. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968. . UntimelyMeditations. Trans. R. J. Hollingdale. Cambridge:CambridgeUP, 1983. . The Willto Power. Trans.WalterKaufmannand R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Vintage, 1967.

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