The Eternal Hourglass of Existence

Abstract

Knowing no more about the book than its title, Nietzsche's Kisses, this work of fiction triggered in me an association to a line that must have been in my unconsciousness for years, a remainder of a lasting, difficult relationship with the dead man who wrote it: "Der beste Autor wird der sein, welcher sich schämt, Schriftsteller zu werden." The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer. Professional writer, that is, and writer of fiction - the loose translation above misses the finer meanings of Schriftsteller, especially as they are opposed to the less technical and more imaginative and poetic aspirations of a Dichter. Aphorism number 192 from Human, All Too Human haunted me for no other reason than that: I never fully understood it, never got to the bottom of the idea, never seemed to be able to offer possible interpretations, never got beyond feeling that Nietzsche had a point, without me being able to say what it was. And there's Nietzsche for you - the elusive, challenging philosopher who was not ashamed to be literary, the man who was illogical, ambivalent, imprecise, contradictory, and elusive in the expression of his ideas, but who managed to express ideas others did not have the courage to even think, let alone try to find the words that might circumscribe them. This literary philosopher has haunted literature for a century, and Lance Olsen has decided to take a closer look at this ghost in Nietzsche's Kisses, respectful of his spirit, but only enough to bring him down to earth where one can have a better look at him.