Gast and Madness

"To my maestro Pietro.Sing me a new song:the world is transfigured and all the heavens rejoice-The Crucified". [Nietzsche,letter to Peter Gast,Oct.18th 1888]

Peter Gast was one of the few who stuck with Nietzsche through thick and thin.As we all know,Nietzsche was necessarily solitudinous,and carefully selected the few around him who he could treat as equals;
Gast was one of those.
Others included Paul Ree,and Lou von Salome.
Nietzsche wrote;
"As for Gast,he is my second marvel of this year.Whereas Lou is uniquely ready for the until now almost undisclosed part of my philosophy,Gast is the musical justification of my whole new praxis and rebirth--to put it altogether egoistically.Here in Gast is a new Mozart...I already want to hear no other music than his..." [Nietzsche,letter Oct. 1882]

Nietzsche did not suffer fools gladly,and he certainly valued the highest talent when he came into contact with it.We can see that in Nietzsche's relationship with Wagner.When the latter began to jar on Nietzsche's sensibilities,he cut him off...Nietzsche the unknown philologist did that to the famous Wagner!
Nietzsche,like his philosophy,is typified by a brutal honesty.

Writing to Peter Gast,Nietzsche says;
"We two belong once and for all to the knightly brotherhood 'of the gaya scienza' and take deep comfort from this good year,which has shaken your Opera 'The Lion of Venice' and my 'Zarathustra' from one and the same tree.I am nursing the hope that a small,extremely GOOD society of this faith in the 'gaya scienza' will take shape in Nice,and in my thoughts I have already dubbed you as the first knight,by way of consecrating that Order.." [Nietzsche,letter Sept. 2nd 1884]

The 'gaya scienza' referred to the warrior poets of Provence in the early Renaissance,and was used as the title for his book which Preceded Zarathustra,called in English,'The Joyful Wisdom'.
Notice how he equates Gast's music with his philosophy,and meant what he said when he talked about assembling a group of Free Spirits.
To The Order.

Nietzsche's friends,those dear wights,chosen carefully by him to people his existence!-

"I applaud the brave and innocent music of my pupil and friend Peter Gast,an AUTHENTIC musician". [Nietzsche,letter March 13th 1885]

That Nietzsche reciprocated philosophical teaching for musical with Gast is clear.We should be grateful for this,because after Nietzsche's death,Gast worked on the unfinished magnum opus which was later published as 'The Will To Power'.Gast knew what Nietzsche was working towards here and was able to put it into the sort of shape that Nietzsche would have approved of.
"Gast's letters breathe the best state of mind one could wish for on earth". [Nietzsche,letter Oct.18th 1888]

In recognition of this largesse,Nietzsche pushed Gast's music to all who would listen;
"Herr von Holten had studied a composition by the only present-day musician who has for me any significance,my friend Peter Gast,and he played it to me 'privatissime' six times,from MEMORY,enchanted by 'the charming and intelligent work' ". [Nietzsche,letter Oct. 18th 1888]

Nietzsche's respect for his friend cannot be any clearer.

How much we can learn from this relationship between Nietzsche and Gast;how instrumental Gast was in preserving Nietzsche's heritage,and yet Nietzsche called Gast his maestro!
The generosity of Nietzsche's spirit is astounding;but always remember that this was inter pares,among equals.

Look how Nietzsche helped his friend;
"Dr. Widmann of Der Bund has written me an enthusiastic letter,also concerning Brahms,with whom he is keeping company [the latter 'most interested in Beyond Good and Evil'].Could I do anything in this direction for your Opera 'The Lion of Venice'? ". [Nietzsche,letter to Gast,July 18th 1887]

Six years earlier,Nietzsche had written Gast;-"Consider again whether you will not sell to me and two of my friends the score of your 'Matrimonio'.I offer you 6,000 francs payable in quarterly installments of 1,500 francs...";-Here Nietzsche made this offer to help Gast out financially.

In Nietzsche and Gast we can see the revival of a classical type of friendship.

This has some of the quality of a warrior elite,and so does not flinch at the cut and thrust of criticism inter pares.Nietzsche gave his self and work over to harsh criticism;
"I confess that it gave me a real fright to realise HOW closely I am AKIN to Wagner.Later I shall not conceal this curious fact from you,and you shall be the ultimate court of appeal on the matter". [Nietzsche,letter to Gast,July 25th 1882]

Nietzsche highly respected Gast as a critic of his philosophy;
"For your other suggestions [re. 'Human All Too Human'] as to gaps in my thinking,I am also grateful". [Niet. to Gast,Oct. 5th 1879]

So Gast is there right through Nietzsche's mature period,from 'Human' to 'Ecce Homo';always held in the acme of appreciation;
"Once more sincerely:I believe you to be better and more gifted than I am".[ib.]

Gast was the only contemporary that actually UNDERSTOOD 'Thus Spake Zarathustra' [Nietzsche says that Burckhardt didn't for instance].It was that response of Gast's to Zarathustra,as I pointed out earlier,that lifted Nietzsche out of his slough of despond;it was Gast's devotion that kept Nietzsche going in the face of an otherwise negative and hostile world.
Nietzsche gave a damn about Gast because Gast gave a damn about Nietzsche.

That relationship,that friendship,WAS real life,and a full understanding of Nietzsche must bear such things in mind.


"This flash of illumination came to me when I strolled beyond the asylum grounds with Peter Gast who told me that I have made a remarkable recovery,and at the same time hinted that I was perhaps shamming madness on the Bauderlarian thesis that the only way to keep sane is to escape a bourgeois civilisation and lock yourself up in a madhouse".
[Nietzsche,'My Sister and I',chapter IX,11-Jena Insane Asylum,1889-90]

From the horse's mouth so to speak!
The whole question of whether Nietzsche was actually ever SANE raises its head here.His earliest experiences as a boy which led to his loss of faith shocked his family;his precocious genius,when genius always borders close to madness,-his first book,'The Birth of Tragedy',was almost incomprehensible to his contemporaries;Nietzsche was seen by his detractors even then as beyond the pale.There is a certain evolution toward madness in Nietzsche's work;from the more sobre writings of 'Human all too Human',to the strident last works such as 'Ecce Homo' and 'The Anti-Christ';Max Nordau was not alone in thinking the last named the product of insanity.
Indeed,it seems that Nietzsche was working towards a progressively insane style.
The philosopher M.Foucault wrote;
"Nietzsche's madness--that is,the dissolution of his thought--is that by which his thought opens out onto the modern world". [Foucault,'Madness and Civilisation']

All this raises the question of who is really sane?-are madmen like Nietzsche,van Gogh,Strindberg,Blake,et al. the sane ones? Perhaps those who spend their lives in conformity,consuming 'pop culture',are the insane ones.
To quote that disputed book by Nietzsche again;
"The doctors here think I am mad because I pound the table and shout for more women,more wine and more song,with a Dionysian frenzy which they mistake for satyriasis and erotomania....How wrong they are--these culture philistines,these savages in white uniforms,who cast their death pallor on the world of the beautiful--the Dionysian world of radiant energy and thundering joy! Their efforts in the mental hospital are devoted to monkey-like imitation of the mad world,outside these walls;they have not yet undergone the process of deintellectualisation which Rousseau saw as the first requirement for the sane mind which seeks to escape the insanity of so-called civilisation.
"Those learned horses with their common horse-sense do not realise that I am trying to LIVE MY KNOWLEDGE,and like Diogenes the Cynic am demonstrating by my wild horse-play my new gospel of ACTING MY BELIEFS..."
[Nietzsche,'My Sister and I',ib.,6]

But even if one were to dismiss 'My Sister and I',one would have to admit that if Nietzsche actually practised what he preached,then his madness would have been subject to his will and amor fati.
To quote from his authenticated works;
"My formula for greatness in a human being is AMOR FATI:that one wants nothing other than it is,not in the future,not in the past,not in all eternity.Not merely to endure that which happens of necessity,still less to dissemble it-all idealism is untruthfulness in the face of necessity-but to LOVE it". [Nietzsche,'Ecce Homo','Clever',10]

Note here it says 'past','FUTURE' and 'eternity';Nietzsche's madness will recur eternally! How could he not love it! How could he not will it!
On the latter point he says;
" 'WILL A SELF' --Active,successful natures act,not according to the dictum 'know thyself',but as if there hovered before them the commandment:WILL a self and thou shalt BECOME a self". [Nietzsche,AOM 366]

So,given all this, it seems that I can confidently reiterate;
'Nietzsche chose his madness...eternally.' [Bill]

When Nietzsche looked back on his life he said he would change nothing and choose it again and again,eternally.As time is circular he saw amor fati as working in both directions;so therefore he would have chose his future.
That is the point.

To quote again [so that it seeps in];
"My formula for greatness in a human being is AMOR FATI:that one wants nothing other than it is,not in the future,not in the past,not in all eternity.Not merely to endure that which happens of necessity,still less to dissemble it--all idealism is untruthfulness in the face of necessity--but to LOVE it.." [Nietzsche,EH,'Clever',10]

To read properly,every word must be weighed;nothing glid over.
Look at the use of 'necessity'.
It is typical of Xtianised freewill merchants to indulge in 'what-ifs';there are no what-ifs,only necessity.
Nietzsche 'went mad';he LOVED that!