Twilight of Idols and Anti-Christ (Penguin Classics S.)

“Have I been understood? Dionysos against the Crucified…” ~ Ecce Homo Nietzsche’s The Anti-Christ (1888) is the philosopher’s final and perhaps most powerful, detailed, and sustained psychological attack against systematic, institutionalized Christianity – the final assault on what Nietzsche dubbed a decadent form of life-negating beliefs, the ultimate exercise in décadence and ressentiment that robs the superior individual of his strength and creativity. This book offers Nietzsche’s view of the troubled and dangerous psychology of Christianity, develops a unique portrait of Nietzsche’s (or Dionysos’) worthy adversary, Jesus, the Nazarene, the “redeemer,” the “Crucified,” the "bringer of glad tidings," in a manner similar to the portraits of Jesus and his ethical philosophy found in the writings of Jaspers, Tolstoy, Jefferson, and most recently, Mailer. Readers are familiar with many of Nietzsche’s other infamous opponents: Schopenhauer, Wagner, Strauss, and of course, through the protracted engagement or critical confrontation (Auseinandersetzung), Socrates. The values that Christianity embraces and thrusts upon its devotees and believers, through the strict mediation of the cunningly sinister activities of what Nietzsche dubs the priestly caste, stands antithetic to the values Nietzsche embraces – as the “Revaluation of all values!” – linked to the efficacious discharge of the will to power (§62). What is good, bad, and what counts as happiness is defined by Nietzsche, good is: “All that heightens the feeling of power, the will to power,” and happiness lies in the “feeling that power increases that a resistance is overcome,” and all that is bad and of no value, is all that “proceeds from weakness” (§2), all that hinders the efficacious discharge of one’s will to power. Dr. James M. Magrini Former: Philosophy/ College of Dupage NCIS

Nietzche, it has been said, is a character in Dostoevsky's world. With this, I agree. Nietzche is an energetic and times insightful writer, who ultimately lacks the self awareness he so desperately needs. By choosing to be so flagrantly disrespectful of Gd, Nietzche, unlike Dostoevsky (who he greatly admired), alienates himself from the clear solution to his dilemma. It's as if Nietzche forcibly, or involuntarily, stops short just before the finish line of true self-actualization, and I don't know if it's spite (Think Underground Man from Notes from Underground), fear, or madness. Be that as it may, Nietzche is a great writer and, if we apply his own view of exercising an acquired taste for ideas that we find wrong, we can see past this tragic lapse of Nietzche's and in so doing, derive pleasure and insight from his offerings.

There were meant to be two separate books The first is just Nietzsche being fervently Nietzsche, which just a pleasure to behold The second is a very concentrated dose of Nietzsche against Christianity and should encourage all but the most offended to read his more scholarly rebuke in ‘The Genealogy of Morality’ 5/5 Stars

Common doesn't get overly fancy, conveying in plain sophistication. Not Kaufman's often over-verbiated technicalism; sapping the lightness and soul of Nietzsche's work. I practically carry this small book around like a portable bible. Some of N's best stuff, easily.

Twilight of The Idols is an unpleasant, though necessary text, especially in light of recent events. I highly recommend anyone questioning the increasingly ideologically conformist society we are a part of to read and question. Regardless of whether the reader accepts or rejects Nietzsche's claims, one is better for having been exposed to his thought (or madness as the case may be). Examples- "Freedom is the will to be responsible for ourselves," or when "...the mouthpiece of the decaying strata of society, raises his voice in splendid indignation for "right", "justice", "equal rights", he is only groaning under the burden of his ignorance, which cannot understand why he actually suffers..." Highly recommend for anyone trying to understand Nietzsche, life, independent thought, and how fascism perverted Nietzsche's ideas.

The brilliance of this book astounds me. This is the kind of book you have on your shelf for years and go back to - find something new that resonates for you or rediscover something that didn't grab you on the first reading.

Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ show Nietzsche at his most fierce and precise. These works distill his ideas into sharp, almost musical sentences — a mix of philosophy, poetry, and provocation. He dismantles the moral assumptions of Western thought with ruthless clarity, forcing the reader to confront what they actually believe rather than what they’ve inherited. It’s not an easy read, but it’s electric: raw intellect, self-interrogation, and courage on the page.

So after ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ there was only one book I could go to. Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ. Anything with Anti-Christ in the title is going to make you hesitate, suck in a deep breath and have a vision of the eternal torture of your own soul within hellfire and brimstone, just for reading it. Quotes from the book like ‘The concept of God has hitherto been the greatest objection to existence. We deny God; in denying God, we deny accountability: only by doing that do we redeem the world’ also helps to reinforce the guilt you feel from reading it. However powering through that I found this the most enjoyable of the three books of Nietzsche I have read (so far). Getting used to the way Nietzsche writes is a lovely thing you truly start to appreciate the flow of his works. Where ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ was a hard slog, this was easy, shorter, far more direct and far more antagonistic. Even with its utter contempt for actual grammar, which isn’t too much of an issue with me - if you can say what you have to say without putting a comma in the right place or a full stop, then fair play to you- it was a great read. To sum it up- The inebriated chap has moved from his seat in the pub (Read my review on ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ to understand what I mean here) and has moved out onto the street, right in front of those Bible people that get in the way in the High Street who find it enlightening to condemn your immortal soul for not listening to them, and is destroying them on every level of argument they have tried to attack him with. Kant, The British, The Germans, Christians, Jews, Marx, Socialists, Plato, Buddha, the apostles and even Christ himself- all are scrutinised for their oppression of the development of man. Their denial of everything desirable to humanity and their oppressive virtue and morals are fiercely attacked in a poetic, uncompromising and merciless way but, surprisingly, quite respectful. Indeed Nietzsche, through the Archetype of Dionysus, the horned God, dare I say it, the anti-Christ criticizes everything, dancing all the time and laughing crazily as the foundations of existence start to crumble around him. In fact the feeling you get from this book is one of a last stand. The final warrior of a defeated army, facing overwhelming odds attacks everyone and everything in his vicinity, killing or wounding them all before he falls. And in a sorts, it was. Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ was originally two books, only one more book was published publicly after this before he died, something to do with Wagner who he used to be friends with (don’t hold me to that but that’s what I read) and that was privately published before Anti-Christ was publicly published. This is effectively his final work and undoubtedly you feel that this is the absolute end and he will go down in a blaze of glory. Though his attacks are slightly less structured than 'Beyond Good and Evil' and even less coherent in some places, the passion in his words keeps you reading, me, in almost one sitting, and when it finally ends you feel exhausted, like you have been battling with him against these symbols of oppression. Though it ends almost abruptly, it is clear that he has said his piece, faced his demons (well saints I suppose- he really doesn’t like St Paul) and has brought to an end the long, frustrating journey of man’s self-limitation imposed by religious dogma. You feel he has given you the keys to the prison with his dying breaths and it is now for you to take that step and free yourself from everything holding you back. Inspirational, enlightening and enjoyable, in a very guilty, I shouldn’t really like this but I do kind of way. I’m quite sure that my soul will be damned for eternity for reading this….. Oh well. Five stars to you, sir.

A leitura é mais confusa, ao menos para mim. O assunto abordado é complexo, concordo com muitas coisas mas acho que mesmo quem não concorda com os temos abordados deveria ler pois é importante conhecer o ponto de vista de quem pensa diferente de você, isso te faz crescer mentalmente e espiritualmente.