Saturday 22 March 2008

Apocalypse Now / Eternal return - Julian Baggini


First off let me highly recommend the amazing book by Julian Baggini "The pig that wants to be eaten" and 99 other thought experiments. It gives sevreral philosophical ponderings and ethical dilemas, it's one of the best books i've read in ages (*coughs*, oh apart from this one book, i forget the name of it).

Anyway number 69 (no serioulsy) The Horror makes an interesting speculation about the end scene of Apocalypse now:

" 'The horror! The Horror!'
Many have speculated about what inspired Colonel Kurtz to utter those famous last words. The answer lies in what he realised just before he let out his last breath. In that moment, he understood the past, present and future were all illusions. No moment in time is ever lost. Everything that happens exists for ever.

That meant his impending death would not be the end. His life, once lived, would always exist. And so, in a sense, the life he had lived would be lived again and again, eternally recurring, each time exactly the same and thus with no hope of learning, of changing, of righting past wrongs.
Had Kurtz made a success of his life he could have borne that realisation. He could have looked upon his work, thought 'it is good' and gone to his grave serene in triumph over death. The fact that he instead reacted with horror testified to his failure to overcome the challenges of mortal existance.
'The horror! The horror!' Would you react to the thought of eternal recurrence any differently?


Sources: Thus Spake Zarathustra by Fredrich Neitzsche (1891); Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1902)

Baggini goes on to point out 'Even if our lives are not fated to be infinitely repeated, whether or not we can bear the thought that would be is, for Neitzsche, a test of wether we have 'overcome' life. Only the 'overman', who has complete self-mastery over his fate, could look upon his life with enough satisfaction to accept his eternal recurrence.

It is important to remember that what Neitzsche is talking about is not a kind of Groundhog Day. IN that film, Bill Murray found himself in the same day again and again, but each time he had the opportunity to do things differently. Hence he had the possibility of redemption, of escaping the cycle, by finally learning how to love. Neitzsche's form of recurrence is one in which there is no awareness that one is doing the same thing again, and there is no opportunity to do it differently. It is literally the exact same life, lived again and again...

The overman accepts the idea of recurrence without the blinkers and filters that protect us from the pain of remembering. That is why Neitzsche believed the overman was so rare, and why the rest of us would react like Kurtz to the thought of history repeating itself again, and again and again.


Overman. Interesting. Discuss (my fingers are tired)

10 comments:

Karl Le Marcs said...

At fear of over repeating myself from previous posts I shall but say.......
Übermensch

Hurlyburly said...

I must have missed those posts.

Tell me, were they witty or sarcastic in nature? If so, that may be why they didn't stand out?

I'm sorry Karl, let it be known, i'm currently slapping my own face repeatedly...

Karl Le Marcs said...

Saves me the job!
PAY ATTENTION
*smile*
Off the top of my head (as I don't have time to trawl through everything at the moment), three relevant recent topics of post are:

http://cheatingtheferryman.blogspot.com/2008/03/nietzsche-three-metamorphoses.html

http://cheatingtheferryman.blogspot.com/2008/03/peakeian-daemonology.html

and

http://cheatingtheferryman.blogspot.com/2008/03/vision-and-riddle.html

BUT you and I have previously also discussed Baggini haven't we (unless I've been dreaming about you again)

*aarrrggghh*

But well posted HB as I have read most of Baggini's stuff but had forgotten about "The Horror"

SM Kovalinsky said...

Hurly--I wish I could rememeber the exact tile/author of the essay I read in which the author points out that Nietzsche's test has a flaw: Those who would be able to bear this greatest weight would not be those who had lived well, or had TRIED to. But would be the vulgar well-heeled, those who had made life miserable for others; the sowers of discord with their pettiness, hypocricies, and paltriness. The very politicians and media and corporate hacks for whom -- if Dante is to be believed -- the hottest places in hell are reserved. Those who maintained neutrality in the face of moral offense, who are delighted with themselves as they are. That is why I cling to Tony's idea of mutation and change. As to a life raft. Most of the time, it is OTHERS who prevent us from living well. Who expose us to their rancor and deprive us of our true possibilities.

Karl Le Marcs said...

Susan Marie,
What a beautifully crafted comment. I felt I was floating in the sea of existential tranquility as I rose and fell on the surf of your words.

Karl Le Marcs said...

Was the essay you read either Andre Suares on Nietzsche's Myth of the Eternal Return or Gerry Goddard on The Eternal Return of Friedrich Nietzsche?

SM Kovalinsky said...

OH, hush, Karl. If you see my reply to you on your post above, you will understand that I am in the middle of a nervous breakdown, brought on by the vulgar U.S. political scene over here. They are crucifying Barack Obama, and it has made me ill. MY APOLOGIES TO THE YOUNG AND DECENT HURLY.

Hurlyburly said...

I feel tainted...

;0)

SM Kovalinsky said...

And I simply cannot live if I did the tainting with my rant. Please become again your young and innocent self, unschooled in baser matters.

Hurlyburly said...

Maybe i will Millhouse...

Maaaaaaaaaaaaybe i will.