God is dead - Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Nietzsche abandoned religious believes at an early age, and replaced it with ‘freelancing philosophy’. His ideas were, as many philosophers, very complicated and revolved around common philosophical topics, such as whether the truth is actually discoverable, the different types of errors mankind goes through throughout their life and how they manage, or more likely not manage, to correct these errors. Nietzsche is a nihilist, just like Kierkegaard, which means that he believes that “life is without objective meaning, purpose or intrinsic value”. He was very fond of sexual relationships and over the years he seemed to have one too many humiliating affairs. Nietzsche explains fear as the feeling of abscence of power.

What is truth?

Meaning of life?

In a man who thinks like this, the dichotomy between thinking and feeling, intellect and passion, has really disappeared. He feels his thoughts. He can fall in love with an idea. An idea can make him ill.

Goethe once wrote an essay on Winckelmann, and this came to be kind of the motto of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. "Zarathustra is the founder of of the ancient Persian religion" (p30) and his religion is basically built on conflicts between the Gods of good and light, and the Gods of darkness and evil. Even though the book is kind of loose with no real storyline as we are used to in novels written today, there is still something similar to a plot. Through the four different parts of this book his message about how man is something that must be overcome.

This is just a short summary of what the book is about, what I have managed to find out about it from reading the introduction, different reviews and blogs on the internet and also by talking and philosophising with friends about his ideas and work. I can't say I am more enlightened in the different topics being discussed in the book, but I do now have a better understanding of the various aspects of philosopy from a nihilists point of view - just like I got a wider understanding on architecture from reading From Bauhaus to Our House (see previous blog post) than I would have had about architecture if not reading it. The more time I spend reading works written by well known philosophers, the more knowledge I gain - but at the same time, I also seem to confuse myself even more, as new theories and ideas appear in my head.

Starting from Zero! as Gropius would have said

Tom Wolfe is probably one of the biggest journalists from our time, who is most famous for his very controversial bestselling books Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, The Painted Word and the book I have been asked to read for my journalism course; From Bauhaus to Our House which discusses the world of American architecture, especially after the First World War. It addresses the way architects, such as Walter Gropius (founder of the Bauhaus school in Germany, Weimar), influenced Modern Architecture; this from the new concept - 'Art and Technology - a new unity' - that he 'dreamed up'. Bauhaus was more than just a school, it was a commune, a spiritual movement, a radical approach to art and a philosophical centre. The young American architects roamed through Europe on a pilgrimage during the years after the First World War, and they changed the way architecture had been approached to, and put a modern twist to it that still exist in European cities nowadays.



Within the Bauhaus community different experiments took place, as long as they were pure and clean, so for example, for a period of time no other food than pure vegetarian meals, were served. Also, when working with materials and such it was supposed to be as natural and pure as possible. The brotherhood of man (because they were true socialists) also agreed to pure, straight angles in architecture, flat roofs and no nobility crowns on top of the houses, this was a symbol of the nonbourgeois architecture. But, this was not, as we all can imagine, not a very functional solution since it is raining and snowing quite a bit in Europe.

After this 'The International Style' followed, which was one of the most influential documents written in the history of colonial complex (p.37). It was written by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson and they aimed to introduce, with help of this document and photographs that followed with it, the work of Gropius (The Silver Prince) in New York. The American pride of the 20th century within architecture was the skyscraper, and Wolfe talks about them very unimpressed as 'empty, zigzag trimmings' - even though they are actually quite functional... In Europe artists and architects began moving towards a new era, the avant-garde. With this the European modernism followed in arts, and the Museum of Modern Art opened as this concept was established.

As the Nazi's rose in Germany, just before the Second World War, Gropius fled from Germany, via Britain, to the United States and made the head of the school of architecture at Harvard. A New Bauhaus was opened, and over time the ways of teaching architecture changed to become more similar to the ways it was taught in Europe. In the 1940's the first American Art compound was established, and Arnold Schönberg - the white god of European music - arrived as a refugee. With these important persons influencing the teaching processes, Harvard transformed and everyone, and everything started from zero.

Finally, with these movements, a new architecture started to become recognised in America - which came straight in from Germany, Holland and France. With the depression going on, the architecture business wasn't doing too well and new buildings were basically not set up, which made the European model (to start from zero) easier to adapt to. In the late 40's, early 50's a new fashion arrived in America, as the inventor Buckminster Fuller created 'large structures with light surfaces out of machine-made materials' (p.56). Yale became the future vision of the rich people's kids. Straight lines, beige colours and blank walls were found within architecture, because of Kahn.

This book, From Bauhaus to Our House, consists of a lot of weird concepts and words that I do not know of, which made the reading experience very tough to deal with - but on the other hand I have learnt so many new things that I would most likely not have if not reading this book. Art and technology as concepts have never really been very fascinating, as I am more interested in sports and music, action based concepts where I can express my emotions more directly. I guess the beauty of art and technology is the absolute opposite, very timid and subtle, but the passion for it expressed in the same way from the people who feel emotionally connected with these concepts.