A Dionysian moment?

Here is the example I mentioned that we went towards at the end of class. If you start at the 20 minute mark, you'll know it when you get there. You will, of course, have more context if you start at the outset, as what Lacan is speaking about is relevant to the situation. But the question stands, is this consistent with Nietzsche's sense of a Dionysian moment/situation?



Also, if you want to post other examples to give us some grounding, do so below in the comment section. That way all of us - including those who the snow took special revenge on - can reflect on these examples and turn them over in our minds in relation to the readings. Great discussion today on Rancière and Nietzsche.

Hypomnemata

Here is the piece I mentioned in relation to our reading-writing practices for this course, entitled Self-Writing. In looking at the practices of these Greek and Roman philosophers (thank you Kyle) that Foucault discusses, I came across an interview on foucault.info where there is a clearly relevant sense to which this notion of Hypomnemata coheres with the collection of assignments you'll be responsible for. Note in particular this excerpt from the excerpt:

In the technical sense, the hypomnemata could be account books, public registers, individual notebooks serving as memoranda. Their use as books of life, guides for conduct, seems to have become a current thing among a whole cultivated public. Into them one entered quotations, fragments of works, examples, and actions to which one had been witness or of which one had read the account, reflections or reasonings which one had heard or which had come to mind. They constituted a material memory of things read, heard, or thought, thus offering these as an accumulated treasure for rereading and later meditation. They also formed a raw material for the writing of more systematic treatises...

So it is in this light I'll point you back to this mode of writing as a way for you to consider for yourself the relationship between your journaling, your critical responses, your examinations and your essay. If you are looking for a free tool for writing that is not word-processing centric, I'd suggest Evernote.

Nietzsche the 21st century Philosopher

Nietzsche died in 1900, so technically there is no truth to the fact that Nietzsche is a 21st century philosopher. But what is time to the pertinence of ideas and why should such a technicality matter for us?

"The person who is responsive to the stimuli of art behaves toward the reality of dream much the way the philosopher behaves toward the reality of existence: he observes exactly and enjoys his observations, for it is by these images that he interprets life, by these processes that he rehearses it." (Birth of Tragedy 21).

So, try watching that show you are currently into with Ornette Coleman's "at the 'Golden Circle': Stockholm" on in the background. This collision of worlds exemplifies Nietzsche's attempt to reveal the Apollonian world we share with the ancient Greeks.

For a somewhat humorous, accessible overview of Nietzsche the person, writer and philosopher, listen to this lecture given by Rick Roderick entitled "Nietzsche: The Myth and the Mythmaker".