Stranger on Earth

Perhaps the biggest surprise to the 21 st century reader of Twilight of the Idols , assuming he has not read its predecessors, is its aggressive attack on ideas he holds dear and never thinks of challenging. Nietzsche never had an appreciation for liberal politics. This is expressed in clear and therefore philosophically atypical language in Section 38 “My Conception of Freedom.” Of liberal institutions, Nietzsche opines that they “cease to be liberal as soon as they are attained: subsequently there is nothing more thoroughly harmful to freedom than liberal institutions” (103). The reason why Nietzsche distrusts liberalism is consistent with his philosophy: liberal ideas “undermine the will to power, they are the leveling of mountain and valley exalted to a moral principle, they make small, cowardly and smug – it is the herd animal which triumphs with them every time” (103). Since liberalism preaches equality, harmony, and attempts to erase dissonance, it is seen by Nietzsche, who...

And the sky, the light, the trees, the whole of Nature would be, as always, in league with them: Daniel was a man of evil will. (136)  This curious line describes Daniel, the only homosexual character in The Age of Reason , and his perception of himself. It is an unflattering image imbued with self-loathing, indicative of a mind that views its perceiver as a social outcast and a victim of universal oppression. It is interesting to note that Daniel’s homosexuality is hidden from the public, and that there is no indication that he has been openly discriminated against – and yet, what we have here is a young man in his prime, possessor of a “dark, handsome, blue-jowled visage,” whom Marcelle ironically calls “her dear archangel” (82), grappling with a self-hatred so powerful that every thought crossing his mind is associated with destruction and death. Our first proper introduction to him takes place in Chapter 7, and it is here that we find Daniel shaving “naked to the...

The first instalment of Jean-Paul Sartre’s trilogy Roads to Freedom , The Age of Reason ( L’ Â ge de Raison , 1945), compels the modern reader to re-define the idea of freedom, conventionally worded as “the condition of being free of restraints” (The Free Dictionary). “Free of restraints” is murky waters when it comes to Mathieu and Daniel, the two main characters of Sartre’s soul-searching work.  Sartre’s characters are primarily “for-itself beings,” existentially free persons who act according to the choices that have moulded them. The words “existentially free” are oxymoronic, and the phrase “free persons who act according to the choices that have moulded them” is painfully paradoxical. This is classic Sartrean paradox: it tells you that as an individual you are “free” to make choices, but these choices are pre-determined by a whole other set of choices beyond your control or manipulation. Mathieu Delarue has made the mistake of impregnating his mistress of seven ...