Nietzsche in Turin: An Intimate Biography

Rating:
Summary: A sensitive re-appraisal of a great thinker...
Review: Nietzsche's writings have been interpreted, misinterpreted, translated, mistranslated and mutated to serve many individual interests - from the evils of the Third Reich to the man's only sister, 'editing' his work to suit her personal, social and political gains. Like Freud, Nietzsche has been used and abused as a platform in the creation of 'new' philosophies, some citing his work as inspiration, while others, in a fit of intellectual dishonesty, claim his ideas as their own. It has been said many times that he is the most misunderstood philosopher of the modern age. From my readings and experience, this claim is not far from the truth. This brilliant book, however, in a single brush of elegance and heart, re-examines Fredric Nietzsche and his work in a gentle, unpretentious though concise way, and attempts to introduce or re-introduce readers to this intriguing, inspiring and highly complex mind.

Chamberlain writes with passion and intuitive insight about the last sane year of Nietzsche's life while he lived and worked in the beautiful city of Turin. This was more than any other a happy and productive time in the professor's life. This is much more than a biographical narrative, but a brave exploration by Chamberlain into the sights, sounds, thoughts and relationships of this fragile though contradictory philosopher. This book is not so much a cerebral approach to the man and his thought, but an emotional, visceral appraisal of a unique thinker striving to understand the human condition.

Of the many biographical narratives about Nietzsche's descent into madness, Chamberlain is the most sensitive without the sentimentalism or coldness similar to the many other descriptions I've encountered. It strikes at the heart with precision and leaves a lasting impression.

If you are a philosopher or merely interested in a unique approach to telling the story of a thinker who has shaped modern philosophy in the twentieth and twenty-first century, read this text. It will be well worth the time, money and effort.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes chatty, a very human effort
Review: Subtitled "An Intimate Biography," NIETZSCHE IN TURIN by Lesley Chamberlain might be considered a new age treatment of a life dominated by the urge to write, as exhibited by someone torn by his appreciation of the power of music to make things clearer in a far more artistic fashion, driven by a personal rivalry with Wagner that assumed more importance than his personal relationships, and suffering from a disease which would deprive him of his ability to behave. Big philosophical issues are avoided as thoroughly as Nietzsche is pictured trying to avoid having contact with anyone who would want to discuss Hegel as he takes his daily walk in a city which "has a long reputation for magic and a disconcerting number of writers, from Tasso to Rousseau, J.M. Symonds to Primo Levi, have become depressed or gone mad there." (p. 211). The final chapter, "Collapse into the Beyond," is close to "The role syphilis played in heightening his pronouncements may be glimpsed through a comparison with his fellow sufferer, and ultimate madman, the French writer Guy de Maupassant." (p. 201).

I frequently wished that the book had an index. There is some discussion of Nietzsche's appreciation of the artists of his time, but the names show up as substitutes for some picture, as when Nietzsche, in his autobiography, ECCE HOMO, mentioned the autumn of 1888 as like "a Claude Lorrain thought of into infinity, each day of equal, unbounded perfection." (p. 187). This is so similar to a comment in his letters of October, 1888, about "the leaves on the trees are a glowing yellow, sky and great river a delicate blue, the air of supreme purity - a Claude Lorrain in a way I had never dreamed of seeing him" (p. 167), with a note that only specifies "18.10.88, 19.10.88, 30.10.88" (p. 244), that I wonder if searching the web might give me more information about this artist, and more quickly than looking through the rest of this book.

NIETZSCHE IN TURIN ends with a Bibliography, pp. 253-256, which provides the sources for much of the information in the book and its notes. An American professor has written a biography called YOUNG NIETZSCHE, but NIETZSCHE IN TURIN cites a book from 1912, THE YOUNG NIETZSCHE by Elisabeth Foerster-Nietzsche, which must have at least 330 pages, as the more recent book does not. Page 330 recorded that "Fritz knew only too well how characteristic it was of all three of us in the first flush of our indignation to say and write sharp and unpleasant things which a day or two later we scarcely remembered having thought or written." (p. 239, Chapter 8, note 18). THE SCIENCE OF JOY is also used as the title of a book by Nietzsche known by other translations into English, and THE SCIENCE OF JOY makes so much sense in a new wave understanding of the world that it might lead readers to the conclusion that all of Nietzsche could be understood best in that way.

Nietzsche originally moved to Turin in April, 1888, but this book provides a comparative chronology for philosophical breakthroughs from 1819 to 1930, when Sigmund Freud wrote CIVILISATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS. A far better translation of Freud's title is given somewhere in the text, but not in the Bibliography, and Freud appears offhandedly in the notes often enough that even an index might not clarify how much this book depends on how Freud is affecting new wave thinking recently. Names of people that Nietzsche wrote to in 1888 often appear without any explanation of who they were, and events in 1882 involving Lou frequently appear as explanations for the major forces driving Nietzsche's thoughts as he attempted to turn himself into the culmination of all history, drama, and the ultimate music critic. Even closer to perfection, Nietzsche is described as "delighted in 1888 when Carl Fuchs, well placed in Danzig to know Polish, told him that the name Nietzsche could mean `man of nothing.' " (p. 123). Trying to be Polish, in the April '88 outline of his life that he sent to Brandes, who had begun to lecture on Nietzsche's work, "gave him strength against the world which rejected him." (p. 123).

NIETZSCHE IN TURIN is so sympathetic that it is no surprise to find, "Here is the moral underside of life, in which the good are destroyed by their own goodness: an excess of sympathy." (p. 105). Self-reflection predominates so much that the author pictures herself writing in Turin in the autumn of 1994, hardly modernized by the 106 years which had passed since Nietzsche was putting himself into an autobiography with unusual glee. The world could hardly appear more sane to Nietzsche now, though I think he could have found much better examples of music now, if he was willing to look beyond operas, musical comedy, and what anyone considers classical music. Chamberlain seems more concerned about how "Psychotherapy has become incorporated into the Welfare State. How Nietzsche, with his sensitivity to language, would have baulked even at that name, which might be translated back into German as *der Mitleidsstaat,* and given a Nietzschean reading as the state that killed God." (pp. 105-106).

I read this book looking for things that could remind me of "Harold and Maude," a movie about age and youth in which the young man had an uncanny ability to fake death. What was not even suggested by the plot in that movie was a comic ability to fake the death of God, an accomplishment that Nietzsche might be given credit for, if anyone could figure out precisely how that could be done. This book did not apply itself to that problem, and most readers might not be surprised that such an attempt is missing, but something might still seem to be lacking.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent read for those interested in the great philosopher
Review: The book does not claim to be an introduction to Nietzsche's philosophy. It is important to remember that Nietzsche said there "are no philosophies, only philosophers." Chamberlain does an excellent job of describing the last year of Nietzsche's life, from the cheerful moments to the most painful. It helps all those studying Nietzsche to know more about the life of the great man.