Political Crossfire Forums

[Phædrus]

This is the title of an intriguing book that claims to be the final supressed work of Friedrich Nietzsche. The current edition was published by Amok Books (LA) in 1991 and contains a number of associated articles as well as the text itself - which survives only in a rather bad translation into US English.

Having suffered a mental collapse in Turin at the beginning of January 1889, Nietzsche was removed to an asylum in Jena in his native Saxony. It was here that he is alleged to have written My Sister and I, wherein he describes his relations with the signifiacnt women in his life - in particular Cosima Wagner, Lou Salomé and his sister Elizabeth - and how these have affected his philosophy..

Opinion is bitterly divided about the authenticity of this book. Sceptics follow the self appointed expert of all things Nietzschean, Walter Kauffman, by pointing to anachronisms and places in the text where the English simply could not have been traslated out of German. Adherents for its authenticity are few and far between, but focus largely on the sheer Nietzschean quality of the text as well as on places in the text describing things that could not possibly have been known by anybody other than Friedrich Nietzsche.

Has anybody here read it?

And if so, what do you think?

[Seapearl]

Well, no, I haven't read it but our philosophy tutor at University always underlined the problematic relation that Nietzsche had with women, how frightened he was of them....His sister and his mother played an important role in his life so I would be interested in reading the book.....Have you read it?

[Saf]

Never heard of it, but that is very interesting.

[Phædrus]

Yes I have read it. It is quite compelling, but in a very different way from the accepted work of Nietzsche. Most people believe that the book is a fake and dismiss it out of hand. I am undecided, and feel that it is interesting as a work of philosophy on the assumption that it is "authentic" - in the same sort of way that Peter Schaefer's Amadeus is an interesting exercise in history even though it is not entirely historically accurate.

I am new here, this place has a reputation for freedom of expression, intellectual integrity and fair moderation, so I though there might members here who had read the book.

The book can be read in many ways, but emotionally it is an apology to Lou Salomé ...