Yup, I don’t understand.

Why is Nietzsche important?

Why is thinking important?  Why is questioning important? Why is not knowing just as rewarding and terrifying as knowing?  That is why Nietzsche remains relevant.

I don’t claim to know everything about Nietzsche’s work.  And it’s not that I don’t want to know everything about his work; I just don’t believe that such a state is even possible.  These texts are not intended to be entirely understood – and that is the key to their beauty.

Wrestling with a thought, text or concept is not appealing in the modern world.  Neither is admitting that we do not know the answer to a question.  But, after reading – and failing to understand, then understanding, and finally re-understanding – a fair amount of Nietzsche, I began to realise the benefits of not immediately ‘understanding’ something.

Modernity has us believe that in order for something to be fulfilling it has to be begun, experienced, and then clearly ended.  But that is not what life is like.  Besides, that which is experienced is not necessarily enjoyed.

So, rather than aiming to blog about the totality of a single person’s work, over the next few weeks I will attempt to approach new writers in an honest and sincere way – fully prepared not to understand them immediately.

Hopefully, this will begin with an exploration of Zizek’s Trouble in Paradise (if the postman hurries up and delivers it).  I will read it.  I will have honest thoughts about it.  And then I will write about them.  Even if they seem inadequate in comparison to others’.  They are mine, and as Nietzsche has taught me, that is enough.

Woo.

EE.