More Nietzsche

379 The fool interrupts – The writer of this book is no misanthrope; today one pays too dearly for hatred of man. If one would hate the way man was hated formerly, Timonically, wholly, without exception, with a full heart, with the whole love of hatred, then one would have to renounce contempt. And how much fine joy, how much patience, how much graciousness do we owe precisely to our contempt! Moreover, it makes us the 'elect of God': refined contempt is our taste and privilege, our art, our virtue perhaps, as we are the most modern of moderns.

Hatred, on the other hand, places people on a par, vis-a-vis; in hatred there is honour; finally, in hatred there is fear, a good and ample amount of fear. We fearless ones, however, we more spiritual human beings of this age, we know our own advantage well enough to live without fear in this age precisely because we are more spiritual. We shall hardly be decapitated, imprisoned, or exiled; not even our books will be banned or burned. The age loves the spirit; it loves and needs us, even if we should have to make clear to it that we are virtuosos of contempt; that every association of human beings makes us shudder slightly; that for our mildness, patience, geniality, and politeness, we cannot persuade our nose to give up its prejudice against the proximity of a human being; that we love nature the less humanly it behaves, and art when it is the artist's escape from man, or the artist's mockery of man, or the artist's mockery of himself.

Time for some drawings

And another for the night

310 Will and wave – How greedily this wave approaches, as if it were after something! How it crawls with terrifying haste into the inmost nooks of this labyrinthine cliff! It seems that it is trying to anticipate someone; it seems that something of value, high value, must be hidden there. – And now it comes back, a little more slowly but still quite white with excitement; is it disappointed? – But already another wave is approaching, still more greedily and savagely than the first, and its soul, too, seems to be full of secrets and the lust to dig up treasures. Thus live waves – and we too who will – more I shall not say.

So? You mistrust me? You are angry with me, you beautiful monsters? Are you afraid I will give away your whole secret? Well, be angry with me, arch your dangerous green bodies as high as you can, raise a wall between me and the sun – as you are doing now! Truly, even now nothing remains of the world but green twilight and green lightning. Carry on as you like, roaring with overweening pleasure and malice – or dive again, pouring your emeralds down into the deepest depths, and throw your infinite white mane of foam and spray over them: Everything suits me, for everything suits you as well, and I am so well-disposed toward you for everything; how could I think of betraying you? For – mark my word! – I know you and your secret, I know your kind! You and ! – are we not of one kind? – You and I – do we not have one secret?

Time for a Nietzsche quote

283 Preparatory human beings – ...For believe me: the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is – to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships into uncharted seas! Live at war with your peers and yourselves!

Shameless

No adequate images

We live in a society that has no adequate images any more, and if we do not find adequate images and an adequate language for our civilisation with which to express them we will die out like the dinosaurs.

- Werner Herzog

Quotes of the last few days

You're a cunty cunt cunt.

You can't rely on Nietzsche.

– Rose Miller

Well, I thought they were funny. But then I've been drinking a lot.

Herzog's Lessons of darkness

I've just watched Herzog's Lessons of darkness. I've only seen it once before, and it bears repeated viewing. I want a copy of my own. It is one of the best documentaries ever, exemplifying Herzog's idea of the ecstatic truth.

It starts with a quote, allegedly from Pascal: 'The collapse of the stellar universe will occur – like creation – in grandiose splendour.' The quote was actually written by Herzog.

Then, to shots of an alien-seeming landscape, Herzog's voiceover: 'A planet in our solar system. Wide mountain ranges, clouds, the land shrouded in mist. The first creature we encountered tried to communicate something to us.' The creature is a fireman in front of one of the fires in the oil wells after the first Gulf War.

Kuwait and the war are never identified. Given this subject matter, most people would use it for petty political point-scoring, but not Herzog, oh no. It's all about the 'grandiose splendour' of a brutalised landscape, and the folly and madness of humanity. And it is grandiosely splendid. Giant machines become dinosaurs. The fires of the oil wells the fires of hell.

At the end, after a long sequence showing a fire being put out and the well capped, 'Two figures are approaching an oil well. One of them holds a lighted torch. What are they up to? Are they going to rekindle the blaze? [The torch is thrown into the oil, which reignites.] Has life without fire become unbearable for them? Others, seized by madness, follow suit. [Another torch is thrown into another well.] Now they are content. Now there is something to extinguish again.'

Now for a nice cigarette and then Fata Morgana.

Doctor Who

I'm watching the classic Doctor Who episode Stones of blood. It's research for my literature review, don't you know. (Fuck, I love being a fine arts student!) The actress Beatrix Lehmann, as Professor Amelia Rumford, steals the show, even from Tom Baker, which is no mean feat.

Some quotes:

Professor: 'Doctor, I know you're under a lot of strain, but don't you think you should get a grip?'

Professor: 'Are you from outer space?'
Doctor: 'No. I'm from what you might call inner time.'

Doctor: 'You know what they say about hyperspace?'
Professor: 'No.'
Doctor: ' They say it's a theoretical absurdity, and that's something I've always wanted to be lost in.'

Wall Works at the Adam Art Gallery

From the invite:

The Adam Art Gallery opened on 21 September 1999. To mark this occasion and to celebrate our first ten years, we have invited eight artists to spend ten days working directly on the walls of the gallery.

The exhibition runs from 8 September to 4 October. The artists are Michael Harrison, Patrick Lundberg, Julia Morison, Simon Morris, Reuben Paterson, Kim Pieters, Jeena Shin, and me. I was invited because Tina Barton thought there was a particular space that I'd be particularly suitable for – the toilets.

I think I'll have fun with this. The first ten days of the show are when we'll be working on the walls, so if you want to come and harass me you'll know where I'll be. Rather than an opening at the start, there'll be a party (with a $5 door charge) in the middle, at 8pm on Saturday 19 September, featuring performances by Bek Coogan, Torben Tilly, and Double Ya D.