Chapter 35 twenty four

Among the artistic effects peculiar to musical tragedy, we emphasize the Apollonian phantasm, by means of which we are saved from being directly one with Dionysian music, and our musical excitement is able to move in the Apollonian sphere by means of movement. A visible middle world gets catharsis.Yet we think we see that it is through this catharsis that the middle world of the action and the whole drama become visible from the inside out, intelligible to a degree that is beyond the reach of all other Apollonian arts.When, therefore, we see this middle world elevated as if by the spiritual lightness of music, we are compelled to admit that its powers have been most heightened, and that, therefore, both Apollonian and Dionysian art are in the hands of the brothers of Apollo and Dionysus. The alliance has achieved its highest goal.

Of course, the picture of Apollinian brilliance illuminated by the inner light of music does not achieve the effect peculiar to the lesser degrees of Apollinian art.Epic poetry and sculpture enable the eye to play with an individualized world in tranquility, which drama, despite its higher vividness and vividness, cannot do.We watch the play, penetrating with insight into its turbulent inner world of motives--it seems to us as a mere metaphor passing before our eyes, we are convinced that we have guessed its deepest meaning, and we just want to Rip it off like a curtain to glimpse what's behind it.The clearest picture does not satisfy us, for it seems to reveal something as well as conceal it.Just when it seems, with its allegorical revelation, it urges us to tear down the veil and reveal the mysterious background, the brilliant and vivid picture captivates our eyes again, preventing them from looking any further.

Whoever has not experienced at the same time the desire to see and to go beyond seeing will find it difficult to imagine how, in the viewing of tragic myths, these two processes co-exist clearly and are felt at the same time.On the contrary, a true aesthetic spectator will prove to me that, among the effects peculiar to tragedy, this coexistence is the most remarkable.Now the origin of the tragic myth can be understood by translating this phenomenon of the aesthetic audience into a similar process in the tragic artist.The tragic myth has the full pleasure of appearance and contemplation in the field of Apollonian art, but at the same time it denies this pleasure and derives a higher satisfaction from the destruction of the visible world of appearance.The content of the tragic myth begins with the epic events that celebrate the heroes of battle.But the misery in the hero's fate, the most tragic conquest, the most painful conflict of motives, in short, the illustrations of the wisdom of Silenus, or, in aesthetic terms, ugliness and dissonance, are constantly cited innumerably. Is it not that people feel a higher pleasure in all this, especially in the most prosperous and young age of a people?Where does this enigmatic character of tragedy come from?

Because life is indeed so miserable, it is difficult to explain the emergence of a form of art; on the contrary, art is not just an imitation of natural reality, but a metaphysical supplement to natural reality, and it is placed as a conquest of natural reality. next to it.Tragic myth, in so far as it belongs to art in general, participates fully in the metaphysical beautifying purpose of art in general.But what does it glorify if it presents the phenomenal world in the image of the suffering hero?It does not glorify the "reality" of the phenomenal world, because it says to us directly: "Look! Look carefully! This is your life! This is the hour hand on the clock of your existence!"

Does myth, then, indicate this life in order to glorify it before us?If not, where is the aesthetic pleasure we feel when we see these images?I'm asking about aesthetic pleasure, though I'm also well aware that many of these images also occasionally evoke a moral pleasure, in the form of, say, pity or the celebration of moral victories.But whoever derives tragic effects merely from these moral roots, as has long been fashionable in aesthetics, let him not think that he has thereby done something for art.Art must first demand purity within itself.In order to account for the tragic myth, the first requirement is to find its proper pleasure in the realm of pure aesthetics, without intruding into the realm of pity, terror, moral sublime, and the like.So, how can ugliness and disharmony, the content of tragic myths, arouse aesthetic pleasure?

Now, here we must take a bold leap into the metaphysics of art, and for this I repeat the proposition I made earlier: life and the world appear justified only as an aesthetic phenomenon.In this sense, the tragic myth is precisely to convince us that even ugliness and disharmony are an aesthetic game in which the will, in its perpetually overflowing joy, amuses itself.But this elusive primordial phenomenon of Dionysian art is at once grasped with the utmost clarity and directness in the strange sense of musical dissonance, as in general only music juxtaposed with the world can provide. A notion of what it means to be justified in the world as an aesthetic phenomenon.The pleasure aroused by tragic myths has the same origin as that evoked by dissonance in music.The Dionysian impulse, with its primordial joy felt in pain, is the common womb of birth music and tragic myth.

Have we not thus radically simplified the problem of tragic effect by means of the relation of dissonance in music?Now at last we know what it means to be both looking and wanting to be beyond looking in tragedy.For dissonance, which is of the same artistic nature, we characterize this state in this way: we want to listen and at the same time want to go beyond listening.At the same time as the highest pleasure in the clearly felt reality, the fascination with the infinite, the flight of the longing heart, reminds us to recognize a Dionysian phenomenon in the two states: it constantly shows us the individual The ever-new game in which the world is built and destroyed is like a kind of primitive joy flowing straight down.In a similar way, it is as if the obscure philosopher Heraclitus compared the power that created the world to a child who playfully piles and unloads stones, builds and overturns heaps of sand.

Therefore, in order to correctly evaluate the Dionysian ability of a people, we cannot only consider the music of the people, but must consider the tragic myths of the people as a second evidence of this ability.In view of the close kinship between music and myth, it is equally fair to speculate that the degeneration of the one will be linked to the withering and decay of the other.In general, the weakening of the myth indicates a weakening of Dionysian powers.Of both, a glimpse of the development of the German national character leaves us in no doubt.In opera, in the abstract nature of our mythological existence, in art degraded into entertainment, and in life guided by concepts, Socratic optimism exposes to us both the denial of art and the destroy the nature of life.There are consoling signs, however, that the German spirit, with its beautiful health, depth, and Dionysian strength, has not been destroyed, like a sleepy knight in the depths of the unreachable Rest and sleep soundly.The song of Dionysus floats to us from this abyss, in order to let us know that the German knight still dreams of his old Dionysian myth in happy and solemn visions.No one will believe that the German spirit has lost its mythical homeland forever, because it understands so clearly the nostalgic cry of the spirit bird.One day, it will wake from its slumber, full of vitality, and then it will slay the dragon, sweep away the villain, and wake up Brunhilde-not even Fudan's spear will stand in his way!

My friends, you believe in Dionysian music, and you know what tragedy means to us.In tragedy we have the tragic myth reborn from music, and in tragic myth you can wish for everything and forget the worst!However, for all of us, the most painful thing is-long-term relegation, so the German creative spirit left home and lived in the service of evil villains.You know this, as you will eventually understand My Hope.