An Interview with Friedrich Nietzche, on Wille’s Cafe radio

I-And so, we are sitting here today with the renowned writer of philosophy, Mr. Friedrich Nieztche. Mr. Nietzche, how are you today? Would you like some water?”

FN-Oh please, sir, Mr. Nietzche was my father’s name. Call me Freddy.”

I-Okay, then. Freddy!

FN-Could I actually have a glass of rootbeer? The studies all show that sasparilla is rife with antioxidants for the overman’s nutrition.

I-That’s all very well, Fred, that’s all very well. We’ll brew you a nice cup of old fashioned rootbeer for you. So, Freddy, you’ve been called – now, pardon me for opening this can of worms so early in our little chat here – you’ve been called arrogant and even preposterous by some of your critics in the literary circle…Now, do these claims seem fair to you, I guess I would ask you: what would you say to these people?

FN-Well, first and foremost, sir, I would say that every claim has some context to it. This claim, too, has context. With that in mind, I think it would be preposterous to call them out without knowing said context. Basically, I would have to ask them what they meant.

I mean, wouldn’t you want to know too, if you were called preposterous? Verily, those who are wisest know everything. And to know everything is a great burden. Everything hidden and invisible is now visible, which is both beautiful and an ugly truth-a horrible burden to bear. I would still advocate for knowledge, even if the truth be hard to bear. Such is the will of the overman. Thus spoke me, just now – ah! Could you put some ice in that? Thanks so much.

I-Well, Mr. Nietzche, I would certainly want to have the context told to me, ifI was called arrogant and outlandish, yes. Your language in your book,.the book for None and All, as you subtitled it: Thus Spoke Zarathustra – seems to use metaphor to the extreme, so much so, that to some people, it would go over their heads and make them seems like they’re reading an allegorical sort of poem. Tell me, Mr. Nietzche, were you intending to confuse your readers with poetic language?

FN-Please, call me Freddy. No, not at all! I would say that my allegorical language, as you call it, is a mechanism to make my readers undertand the conntent even more. You see, this book was subtitled None and All because it is indeed a book for all. Or none, if no one has the patience to read it. If I ommitted the imagistic quality of the language and simply wrote in abstract conceptual ideas, only a select few would be able to read the book, and that, I do not want. Plus, all philosophers think in images. It’s not only in our blood, but we understand that images are the most powerful form of word, that a picture is worth a thousand, nay, a million words, and that all people are poets first and analyzers second.

I-Well, we certainly appreciate the images that you have in the book, whether we understand the concepts alluded to or not. A lot of them are very, very beautiful.

I want to talk a little about your conception of women in Zarathustra, Freddy. To some in the 21sat century, the remarks you made about women would seem sexist, mysoginistic, and some are even comparing them to a certain presidential candidate’s own views on women.

FN-Now, see, I think that’s a little unfair. And here’s why: when Donald Trump calls his own daughter a “piece of ass” and says he might want to date a girl like her, this has no context whatsoever, and has no frame of reference besides his own perverted state of mind. When Zarathustra speaks of women being “incapable of friendship”, but only capable of love, and are merely “cats and birds”, or at best, “cows”, he will only say such words with a meaning or purpose or context behind them. It is a complex, intricate context. And no, the context is not: women are cows because they look like them, or are passive and mute. In this particular speech of Zarathustra, On the Friend, there is a deeper complexity to what he is saying. Plus, I was born in a time where the social mores differed from those of today. But the Donald says his daughter is a”piece of ass” most likely because deep down inside, he thinks his daughter is hot. And that’s all there is to that.

I- (Laughing) Certainly bold words need to have some reasoning behind them, especially if they will spark controversy, and if one says something, they better back it up with facts or at least context. As always, Freddy, your words incite passion and curiosity, and so do your words on the air, thank you so much for being here. Your time is very much appreciated.

FN-Thank you so much for having me, Willie.

I-So, that was Mr. Friedrich Nietzche on his book for None and All, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Coming up next, here is a tune by A Tribe Called Quest. They have a new album coming out, the first one they’ve released in 19 years! I recommend listening to these guys if you love the classic gold oldies hip-hop. Once again, I’m William “Willie” Hanslick, I hope you tune in next time to Willie’s Cafe on 107.5, The End in Sacramento, 103.5 the Bomb in Salinas, and V101.1 in San Francisco, this is your place for Non-Profit radio and defineitely not all the greatest pop singles of the 21st century, ad-nauseum. We’re coming back after some short messages with the one and only Malcolm X, don’t you touch that dial!

A Tribe Called Quest – Check the Rhime

From the Top – But Have They ‘Gone Under?’

From the Top – Webpage

The inverse of From the Top…this would be something interesting, would it not?

What if an audience of younger people, teenagers and children, were to see the great masters play music for them, the musicians over fifty, instead of the other way around? Wouldn’t that be something? Why must the young inspire the old, who are on their way out, rather than the old inpiring the young, the latter having their whole lives ahead of them?

I don’t know. Another mystery of life that could be figured out eventually (but figuring it out depletes one’s entire life, as Gustav Mahler realized too late after his death). I mean, these kids are great players, I get it. They deserve attention, yes. Am I jealous that they are coddled and pampered and treated verily like royalty on that show? Yes. And the old masters of music and art are ignored and forgotten as their bodies slide slowly into decrepitude. I may be wrong about that, but that’s the way it seems. This is why I enjoy stories of struggle a whole lot, and From the Top doesn’t seem redeeming in any way, shape, or form because what kinds of struggles besides working a lot and maybe having less raucous social lives have these kids had? They know how to be alone. But do they know the utter loneliness of Nietzche, his concept of struggle with your inner chaos? Or that Schumann was severely mentally ill, suffering from psychosis and depression? Or that Ravel never married because he hadn’t the nerves to tell the women he loved throughout his life the way he felt about them? Or of Peter Tchaikovsky, the gay composer of Czarist Russia who could never tell people that he was attracted to men because the consequence was pain of exile or death? What that struggle, of perpetual silence and restraint, might have felt like?  Of the philosophical neurosis of Gustav Mahler, of the mute cries of the deaf Beethoven, who failed over and over at life in general, and yet triumphed in his search for the sublime in art?

THIS IS WHAT MAKES ART, ART.

Not skill. Not virtuosity. Not mere flair with the audience and stage, and most definitely not the cutesy sort of naive innocence and trite, cliche words that some of those young musicians say on their interviews. True virtuosity is transparent expression and expressivity of your feelings, how one chooses to do it is merely the means, the vehicle. The end result is what makes the audience cry and cheer in jubilation.

Not to say they are bad people, nor are they spoiled brats. No, most of them have done a lot for the world of classical music, or are on their way. They are none like a Kim Kardashian or a Donald Trump. They try to be philanthropic and often succeed, and yes, they deserve the attention they receive. This is a systemic problem, as everything usually is. It is, in the end, the adult that teaches the kid how to behave, and not the other way around. Christopher O’ Riley, in my view, babies these young kids. You can hear it in his words and his tone of voice. He tells them what they want to hear, first and foremost, and then does not criticize them, does not question them, feeds them things that obviously they’ve heard thousands of times before from friends and family. Their stories are told briefly on the show. As far as I can tell, everyone suffers at least somewhat. But all of this is rendered invisible on the show. Everything about these young musicians seems immaculate, perfect in every way; they are shy but have achieved much; down to earth, and yet they can play in circles around the less talented ones in music; they have parents that have given them the world and more. It seems like they have everything. I know most of them have a vague idea of what the men who have written the music they now play have had to endure in order to even conceive the ideas of their compositions, and the solitude they’ve had to cultivate, they definitely are aware of and even know something about. They need to have at least cultivated solitude, because becoming a virtuoso demands that. The practice room is a familiar place to all serious musicians, whether they like that or not. It is their safe haven, their Dojo, and their cave.

The thing is, though – the problem, I think, is me. You see, I never like to write anymore in order to rant, because usually this leads to propaganda, to rhetorical writing, and everything is said, but nothing is learned from either reader or author. Such rants lack grace and even depth.

At the core of myself, I need – like I need food, love and shelter – affirmation that I am valid. It is like a drug. When I hear music from a suffering loner and it’s honest and from the heart, I can appreciate it more. That affirms me. It is this validation of my ego that makes From the Top contemptible to me. Because I feel that these young  musicians have no deep experiences to draw from in order to put that kind of pathos into their musical instruments, and I feel that any they contrive will be artificial and theoretical at best, not informed by tactile feeling. This isn’t their fault: they are not old enough, they haven’t had the time for reflection and contemplation and rumination, no reason to also. They haven’t had their souls crushed, to have their egos diminished, to have their hopes burned and then finally, have a day at the river to sit and think about the water, how it heals, and it may teach them how to live again. When a person makes music or any kind of expressionistic art, transforming their deep wounds into something to be adored, this is what I love, and what I need.

Friedrich Nietzche, in his Book for None and All, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, speaks of the Overman who longs to “Go Under.” To go underneath it all, all the riff-raff, the bedlam of the multitude, the noise of the herd mentality and look inward to find the original chaos of ourselves. I would argue that Nietzche only did did this (or desired to do this) because he had to, not because it was a casual choice. I mean, if you had a choice – like a choice between buying a croissant or a bagel – a choice between living a lonely life in search of ultimate truth, or living a life of glamor and achievement, I believe any person would choose the last one. Well, at least one man in history chose the first one after experiencing much of the second: his name was Siddhartha Gautama, and he lived around 500 B.C. in India.

And so, yes, in this land of great opportunity called America, many of us have choices we wouldn’t otherwise have.

Then why do some people succeed in music and some don’t?

Bozo Paradzik, the European double bass Virtuoso, one of my favorite bass players of all time, playing Franz Schubert’s “Arpeggione Sonata”

My Dad likes to say: “Just think of how many Edgar Meyers or Bozo Paradziks there are in the world, how many virtuosos to be there are who we don’t know about, that’ll never become virtuosos because they lack the means to buy an instrument, or even go to public school? And all of the Jews massacred under the Nazi Regime? Just think about all the virtuoso musicians and great artists that could have been prominent if that hadn’t happened…”

(My anger needs tempering and soothing. My jealousy needs to be comforted by something. When there is nothing or no one that can help it, I employ the bow and arrow of self – abandonment/vulnerability and then write my musings down, in order to smite the devious demon that is named ‘spite’. What the Buddha calls the ‘afflictive’ emotions. We all need to rant. We all get jealous. Even Donald Trump gets jealous. When one has all the money in the world, they will crave something else, something they don’t have. What he lacks is empathy and emotional intelligence. The grass is always greener on the other pasture, as they say, the one that we cannot see, but know is there.)

So the “systemic problem” that I alluded to before? The inequality of people remains. The systemic economic racism and the racialist attitudes that justify that. It goes beyond race, of course. They are people other than minorities who don’t get attention or resources that they may deserve.

Maybe… all I’m trying to say is “damn, why couldn’t that have been me?” and possibly couldn’t say it in so many words, because I am aware of the fact that reciting a cryptic soliloquy is easier than saying “I love you”, or “I hate you.” The act of being direct is one of the most difficult things to do for me. Perhaps, if I could confront myself like this, I would feel better about From the Top.

This Mahler symphony’s fourth movement is one of the most gorgeous thing ever. They never play this on NPR’s Capital Public Radio’s classical music segment, ever.

Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 9, 4th movement, Adagio, Sehr Langsam, Leonard Bernstein and the Concertgebouw

(By the way, I would avoid reading youtube comments. No matter how smart they sound, they are always, always, always myopic and trite, and were written in about 2 seconds. They lack grace and depth, and especially a consideration of the other side. That’s just my opinion, though. Do what you like. The greatest dagger in the heart we can inflict on ourselves -besides a literal dagger in the heart – is to deny our true desires, for pride or for glory or for some other ideal, which is, in the end, all sound and fury, noise and anger, signifying very little to nothing at all. Remember what Marcellus Wallace said, for he said the same thing to Butch in the bar, except more directly and succinctly than I just did).