Walking the Tightrope

Note: You can read Part One of this aspect of Nietzsche's life here . During his mature and late philosophical years (from 1886) Nietzsche became increasingly isolated. But, he did not become a complete hermit until Turin in 1888-89. The one-time college party boy, crusading professor, and mover and shaker in pre-Bayreuth Wagnerian society, still entertained visitors. Though it is clear that he was, by now, a very lonely person. After a concentrated social life while in Leipzig during 1882, the years following never found him at that level of socialization again. While he could attend such public events as bull fights and opera performances, it was usually alone or with only a couple friends. His interaction with human beings was reduced to 2, 3, or 4 people at a time along with a multitude of letters to still intimate friends like Elizabeth, Overbeck , Milwada von Meysenbug , his mother, among others. Most of what follows are impressions from those who knew him... Fritz met...

The 1885-1886 time period was one of fundamental becoming for Nietzsche. His sister, to whom he was still close despite the strain on their relationship in recent years, would marry a prominent anti-Semite and attempt to form a colony in Paraguay. Fritz would sue his publisher and obtain the sole rights to all his published books along with, relatively, substantial cash. He would finally finish Zarathustra and move on to compose what I consider to be his finest philosophic work, Beyond Good and Evil . He was entering a new phase of his life. Nietzsche's latest work can be considered in conjunction with his next, On the Genealogy of Morals , as a distinctive segment of his intellectual life. "As we have seen, by the mid-1880's Nietzsche had developed a regular routine: Sils-Maria in the summer, the Italian or French Riviera in the winter, with the transitional months of the spring or the fall still a problem. To Malwida von Meysenbug , on December 13, 1886, he wrot...

Fritz returned to Sils Maria again in the summer of 1884. By this time, the Lou Salomé affair had greatly dissipated. Fritz still harbored intense resentment but it was held in check, not the life engulfing abyss it once had seemed. Instead, he focused on his work, expanded his note taking, and even entertained a handful of admirers. One admirer spent the new year with him in 1883-1884. He was a "young Viennese-Jewish zoologist who visited him in Nice." Dr. Julius Paneth wrote about how it was to physically be with Fritz: "...he wanted to write some musical compositions...to go along with his writings. For he could say some things in music which could not be expressed in words....We spent six hours in excited conversation; N seemed very lively and not at all tired. Everything he said was put simply and gently. His behavior is thoroughly natural and unassuming, serious and dignified; he is most responsive to humor, and a smile suits his features well." ( Midd...

Nietzsche's writing desk and washing basin in his small room at Sils-Maria. We briefly carried Fritz’s life forward into 1885 in a previous post .  For the moment I want to back up a bit and begin to reexamine in more detail the years in which he created Zarathustra .  1883 found Nietzsche spending his third summer at Sils-Maria .  He had completed Zarathustra II and was taking extensive notes for the third part.  Five letters to four intimate individuals reveal the full-spectrum of Fritz’s state of mind at this time.  He was obsessed with his writing and enthused about his work.  He was still recovering from the final effects of the Lou Salomé affair , the break-up of his friendship with Paul Rée , and he was quarrelling with his sister, Elizabeth, feeling isolated from the family he loved and, indeed, from the whole world.  They reveal a very human side to Nietzsche as he was conceiving and creating his lofty words and ideas.  As alway...