the beginning to the end.

How else could he have placed such a weight

on genre in BT, where the fact that a work is a drama rather than a n
epic poem makes the whole difference to its impact? It c a n o n l y be
explained by his extreme turning-away from Romanticism: everything
now had to be seen i n the clear light of day, at the same time that it
should be infinitely suggestive. I n HAH he is more preoccupied with the
former than the latter, and the result is that one feels, certainly in the
light of his later work, that he is constraining himself, surveying the
scene - human nature in its manifestations as social l ife, passion, the
psychology of artists, solitude - without the will to transform which is
his defining characteristic. So, to take at random one of his oper�us:

Thirst for profound pain. - When it has passed, passion leaves behind an
obscure longing for itself and even in departing casts a seductive
glance. To be scourged by it must have afforded us a kind of joy, The
milder sensations, on the other hand, appear insipid; it seems we
always prefer the more vehement displeasure to a feeble pleasure.
(HAH I. 606)

That is quite(d'eep, and produces a sense, rather than a shock. of

recognition. 'Elsewhere the accuracy can be painful: 'Compelling oneself
to poy ottention. - As soon as we notice that anyone has to compel
himself to pay attention when associating and talking with us, we have
a valid proof that he does not love us or loves us no longer' (HAH 11.
2 47) ·

Writing HAH, a book which Wagner said, on receiving his signed copy
of it, N ietzsche would one day thank him for not reading, revealed to
Nietzsche some aspects of himself he must have been pleased to
discover. First, that he belonged to that rare breed on whom nothing is
wasted. His range of experience was, in many respects, extraordinarily
narrow, but it was adequate for him to view his culture and his
acquaintances and produce unnervingly comprehensive accounts of
them. In Ecce Homo, his bizarre autobiography in which the mood

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