Notes from Early "Nietzsche" coinciding with my exprienced reflections and flashs frequently coming and going. -Further more with its association of the divided brain (Iain McGilChrist):
The Appolinian Genius for the Left Hemisphere of the Human Brain (LHHB)
The Dionysian Genius for the Right Hemisphere (RHHB)
Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/human_superhuman/message/65
The Greek Woman
"He to whom now, by the hitherto given characteristic, the sense for
the two antagonistic and yet together-belonging worlds of the
Apollinian and the Dionysian has been opened [like an eye], he will
now go one step further and, from the point of view of that insight,
understand _the Hellenic life_ in its most important aspects as a
_preparation_ for the highest expressions of those drives, for _the
birth of the genius_. For whereas we have to think of those drives _as
forces of nature_ outside any connection with social, state-, and
religious orders and customs, there is yet a much more artistic and
more deliberately prepared, as it were indirect revelation of those
drives, through the individual _genius_, regarding whose nature and
highest significance I at this point have to allow myself a
semi-mystical speech of figures [Bilderrede]."
Birth of Tragedy
"The _human being_ [Mensch] and the _genius_ do in so far stand
opposite each other as the former is wholly a work of art, without
becoming aware of this, because the satisfaction at him as at a work
of art belongs wholly in a different sphere of knowledge and
observation: in this sense he belongs to Nature, which is nothing but
a vision-like reflection of the Primordial One. In the genius on the
other hand there exists - besides the significance inherent to him as
a human being - at the same time yet that power proper to the other
sphere, the power to feel the rapture at the vision himself. Whereas
the satisfaction the dreaming human being derives from himself only
opens itself to him in a dawning manner, the genius is at the same
time capable of the highest satisfaction at this state; even as he on
the other hand has control over this state and can induce it out of
himself alone. After what we have noted about the paramount
significance of the dream for the Primordial One, we may see the
totality of the _waking_ life of the individual human being as a
preparation for his dream; now we can add that _the totality of the
dream-life of many human beings_ is in turn the preparation of the
_genius_. In this world of non-being, of appearance, everything must
_become_: and thus the genius, too, _becomes_, when in a
humanity-complex, in a great individual, that dawning feeling of
pleasure of the dream builds up evermore, up to that enjoyment proper
to the genius: which phenomenon we can make visible to ourselves by
comparing it to the gradual rise of the sun, which announces itself
with red skies [Morgenröte] and light-beams sent ahead. Mankind, with
all of Nature as its to be presupposed womb [Mutterschooß], may in
this broadest sense be characterised as the continuous birth of the
genius: seen from that monstrous omnipresent perspective of the
Primordial One, the genius is attained at every moment, the whole
pyramid of appearance is perfect up to its apex. We, in the narrowness
of our view and within the perception-mechanism
[Vorstellungsmechanismus] of time, space, and causality, have to take
a back seat when we recognise the genius as one among many and after
many human beings; yea, we may be glad when we have recognized him at
all, which can at bottom only happen by coincidence and has in many
cases certainly never happened.
"The genius as the "not waking but only dreaming" man [Mensch] who, as
I said, is prepared and comes about in the at the same time waking and
dreaming man, is _Apollinian_ nature through and through: a truth
which, after the characteristic of the Apollinian which we have
observed in advance, becomes clear automatically. With that we are
urged toward defining the _Dionysian_ genius as the man who has, in
total abandon [völliger Selbstvergessenheit, literally "total
self-oblivion"], become one with the primordial ground of the world
and who now, from out of the primordial pain [i.e., the pain of the
"Primordial One"], creates the reverberation thereof for the sake of
his [own] redemption: as we have to venerate this process in the
_saint_ and the great _musician_, who are both simply replications and
second castings [as in a mould] of the world.
"When this artistic reverberation of the primordial pain brings forth
yet a second reflection, as a side-sun [Nebensonne], from out of
itself: then we have the conjoint _Dionysian-Apollinian work of art_,
to whose mystery we seek to come closer in this metaphorical language
[Bildersprache].
"For that single eye of the world, before which the empirical-real
world _together_ with its reverberation in the dream pours itself out,
that Dionysian-Apollinian union is consequently an eternal and
unchangeable, yea single form of enjoyment: [for that eye] there is no
Dionysian appearance [Schein] without an Apollinian reverberation
[Widerschein]. For our shortsighted, almost blind eyes, that
phenomenon falls apart into purely individual, partly Apollinian
partly Dionysian enjoyments, and only in the work of art that is the
tragedy do we hear that highest twin art which, in its union of the
Apollinian and the Dionysian, is the image [Abbild] of that primordial
enjoyment of the eye of the world. Even as the genius is the apex of
the pyramid of appearance for this eye, so we may regard the tragic
artwork as the apex of the pyramid of art that our eyes can reach."
*
I will now make a first, orienting study of the second paragraph.
"The _human being_ [Mensch] and the _genius_ do in so far stand
opposite each other as the former is wholly a work of art, without
becoming aware of this, because the satisfaction at him as at a work
of art belongs wholly in a different sphere of knowledge and
observation: in this sense he belongs to Nature, which is nothing but
a vision-like reflection of the Primordial One. In the genius on the
other hand there exists - besides the significance inherent to him as
a human being - at the same time yet that power proper to the other
sphere, the power to feel the rapture at the vision himself."
Here we have the idea that the whole of Nature, including man, "is
nothing but a vision-like reflection of the Primordial One." But
contrary to the average man, the genius is capable of regarding
Nature, including himself, as such. This already implies that the
genius can somehow put himself in the place of the Primordial One,
which idea is made explicit in paragraph 3:
"[W]e are urged toward defining the _Dionysian_ genius as the man who
has, in total abandon, become one with the primordial ground of the
world".
This is described at length in The Birth of Tragedy:
"[The lyrical poet] is, first and foremost, a Dionysian artist, become
wholly identified with the original Oneness, its pain and
contradiction[. … He] himself becomes his images, his images are
objectified versions of himself. Being the active center of that world
he may boldly speak in the first person ["Ich" sagen], only his "I"
[Ichheit] is not that of the actual waking man, but the "I" dwelling,
truly and eternally, in the ground of being. It is through the
reflections of that "I" that the lyric poet beholds the ground of
being. Let us imagine, next, how he views _himself_ too among these
reflections - as non-genius, that is, as his own "subject" matter, the
whole teeming crowd of his passions and intentions directed toward a
definite goal[. …] The man Archilochus, with his passionate loves and
hates, is really only a vision of genius, a genius who is no longer
merely Archilochus but the genius of the universe, expressing its pain
through the similitude of Archilochus the man. Archilochus, on the
other hand, the subjectively willing and desiring human being, can
never be a poet. Nor is it at all necessary for the poet to see only
the phenomenon of the man Archilochus before him as a reflection of
Eternal Being: the world of tragedy shows us to what extent the vision
of the poet can remove itself from the urgent, immediate phenomenon.
[…
… T]o the extent that the subject is an artist he is already delivered
from individual will and has become a medium through which the true
subject celebrates his redemption in illusion. For better or worse,
one thing should be quite obvious to all of us: the entire comedy of
art is not played for our own sakes - for our betterment or education,
say - nor can we consider ourselves the true originators of that art
realm; while on the other hand we have every right to view ourselves
as aesthetic projections of the veritable creator and derive such
dignity as we possess from our status as art works. Only as _aesthetic
phenomenon_ can the world be _justified_ to all eternity—although our
consciousness of our own significance does scarcely exceed the
consciousness a painted soldier might have of the battle in which he
takes part. Thus our whole knowledge of art is at bottom illusory,
seeing that as mere _knowers_ we can never be fused with that
essential spirit, at the same time creator and spectator, who has
prepared the comedy of art for his own edification. Only as the genius
in the act of creation merges with the primal architect of the cosmos
can he truly know something of the eternal essence of art. For in that
condition he resembles the uncanny fairy tale image which is able to
see itself by turning its eyes. He is at once subject and object,
poet, actor, and audience."
[The Birth of Tragedy, Chapter 5, trans. Kaufmann.]
************************
Intersting stuff congruent to what I think:
The Appolinian Genius in light of the Left Hemisphere of the Human Brain(LHHB)
The Dionysian Genius through the lens of the Right Hemisphere (RHHB)
FROM ILP
by Sauwelios » Fri Mar 05, 2010 6:40 pm
The fundamental concept of Nietzsche's early metaphysics is the Primordial One. "One" is here a nominalised adjective and is neuter. It may be relevant to note that originally, the word "god", too, was neuter. The Primordial One is the 'God' of Nietzsche's early metaphysics. One should remember at all times though that It is immanent, not transcendent.
The Primordial One has Being (as opposed to "Becoming") and suffers from it. This suffering is a suffering from over-fulness, over-joyedness: the Primordial One aches for lack and woe. It therefore imagines a world of Becoming, lack, and woe. This imagined world, this vision, is not outside It, but It is immanent to it: it is the world as we know it---the world we are a part of. The world as we know it is an imaginary self-fragmentation of the Primordial One; we are really only imaginary fragments, and only have reality in being one with the Primordial One.
This world of Becoming, lack, and woe, which Nietzsche usually calls "Nature" (and which he personifies, hence the capital N), itself also aches for something. Contrary to the Primordial One, Whose ache's alleviation it is, it aches for Being, fulness, and joy. And this ache is again alleviated by imagination: by Apollinian illusion. This illusion is not only the alleviation of Nature, but also the complete redemption of the Primordial One. For the Primordial One delights in seeing Its 'creatures' (most notably human beings) at ease in the illusion of Being. This happiness of Nature/Becoming in the illusion of Being transfigures the Primordial One's own Being: Being now seems something desirable, indeed, the highest good. What delusion! This identication of the good, the beautiful, and the true in Being is the furthest away from the truth and therefore the most desirable. This illusion is truly the highest good and the most beautiful beloved. But only for the Primordial One. For us, it is beautiful and good, but only as a relief from Becoming, not as a transfiguration of Being. In order to partake in the delight of this transfiguration, we must put ourselves in the place of the Primordial One. (my emphasis and italics; see SIDE)
The highest form of the illusion of Being in the midst of Becoming is attained by the Apollinian genius. It is for the sake of this genius that the State exists. All human organisations larger than the family ultimately exist solely for this purpose, and even the
family ultimately derives its worth solely from compensating for any deficiencies the State may have (hence in Plato's perfect State, the family was to cease: for it would no longer have been of any use).
But there is also another kind of genius, and this has in itself nothing to do with the State. It is the Dionysian genius. The genius of the Dionysian genius consists in his being able to put himself in the place of the Primordial One. The supreme achievement of the exclusively Dionysian genius is experiencing the world as we know it as the Primordial One experiences it: as an alleviation of the torment of Being, overfulness, and overjoyedness in the illusion of Becoming, lack, and woe. But this achievement is not the supreme human achievement. The supreme human achievement is the supreme achievement of the both Dionysian and Apolllinian genius. This genius can at the same time put himself in the place of the Primordial One and create Apollinian images.
[N]ow Apollo approaches him and touches him with his laurel. The sleeper's enchantment through Dionysian music now begins to emit sparks of imagery, poems which, at their point of highest evolution, will bear the name of tragedies and dramatic dithyrambs.
[Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, chapter 5.][O]nly in the work of art that is the tragedy do we hear that highest twin art which, in its union of the Apollinian and the Dionysian, is the image [Abbild] of that primordial enjoyment of the eye of the world.
[Nietzsche, fragment of an advanced form of The Birth of Tragedy.]
*
The Appolinian Genius for the Left Hemisphere of the Human Brain (LHHB)
The Dionysian Genius for the Right Hemisphere (RHHB)
*
A Big Reference:
http://www.inp.uw.edu.pl/mdsie/Political_Though/GeneologyofMorals.pdf
http://ia601206.us.archive.org/23/items/NietzscheHomersContestTheGreekState/Nietzsche-HomerThePolis.pdf
