Member Introductions

[phy]

lol, Like Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?

[Enjolras]

Hello!
After seeing some quality posts on this forum, I've decided to join and perhaps share some of my aphorisms.
I've been studying philosophy - among other things- for a long time. But I couldn't possibly write anything longer than an aphorism. I find the experience to be much more fruitful. I cannot sit down long enough, as our old friend Nietzsche once said.

"Here I have got you, you nihilist! A sedentary life is the real sin against the Holy Spirit. Only those thoughts that come when you are walking have any value."

Hello and Welcome!

Enjolras.

[ewomack]

Hi!

I'm Ed, a longtime Nietzsche fan. Unfortunately, I've read more about Nietzsche than Nietzsche himself. But I'm trying to remedy that lacuna. While quite young "Zarathustra" smashed the last vestiges of religion left in me. They haven't returned except for some periodic bouts of romantic fervor that seem related to ingestion of excess soy. No one talks about the mind/stomach connection. I'm a Cartesian digestivist. In any case, I'm happy to have run into this forum. I hope to whet my brains conduits to saturation here.

Hello!

[Carl G.]

Welcome!

[sunwolf]

Just joined, hi.

I've read most of Nietzsche's works several times each and probably need another read or two before I understand as much as I'd like to. Unfortunately he's one of the few philosophers I've gotten around to reading though I have a lot of more recent books waiting on my shelf that will probably never be opened.

[Rakshinra]

Gents! I welcome myself to your board.
I'm of pan-European origin (part Greek, part Dutch, born in Germany and grown up in both Berlin and Athens), currently residing in the Netherlands, were I study philosophy at the Leiden University (I'm currently in my second year). I have read, or better devoured, most of Nietzsche's work the past three years or so and consider myself lucky enough to be able to read him in German (since I've come to believe philosophical texts to be absolutely untranslatable). I have come to consider Nietzsche -- and I'm probably not the only one in claiming this -- as a close friend and mentor, having experienced, and continuing to experience, many enlightening moments through his writings. His way of thinking often seems to fit me like a glove; somehow I can associate with him perfectly on a personal level, which part of my reading of him fascinates me the most. -- simply because few people seem to understand him in things which to me seem obvious...
Other than Nietzsche, I am, of course, deeply interested in all kinds of different philosophers, psychoanalysts, mystics, poets and other writers, although currently my taste seems to have me stranded with a very select few of them whom I can (allow myself to) read. Some of my favourites include: Wittgenstein, Sloterdijk, Kierkegaard, Jaspers, Heidegger, Evola, Gurdjieff, du Bouchet, Celan, Schopenhauer, Baudelaire, Baudrillard, Foucault, Rilke, Jung, Pound, Camus, Sartre, Nishida, Spinoza, Musashi, Gracián, La Rochefoucauld, von Ranke-Graves, Barthes, Bachelard, Palamas, Kazantzakis and others. -- of course, the 'to read...'-list keeps growing and growing.
Other than that, (that is, other than reading,) I write poetry and sometimes aphorisms in my free time (Greek for the most part, but also in Dutch, English and German), I fence, toil around with musical instruments and programs, and, from time to time, I also paint (although I have less and less time for that, lately).
So, anyway, that's about most there is to say about me... I'm sure we'll have some great time here.
Greetings,
Rakshinra

[phy]

I have read, or better devoured, most of Nietzsche's work the past three years or so and consider myself lucky enough to be able to read him in German (since I've come to believe philosophical texts to be absolutely untranslatable).

This is the trouble I am having, I just got this Nietzsche, The Portable Nietzsche, but it is translated by Walter Kaufmann. How do I know if this translator isn't some kind of late neo femenist trying to make Nietzsche into some kind of panty-wielding fanatical untermensch? I can't, it scares me. I'm just beginning to tackle the guy, and the book was kindly given to me for free from a cafe worker who thought for some reason I might like it, even though we'd hardly talked.

Fortunately for me your comment in parentheses isn't true. O god in heaven, fortune is me.

And a merry welcome parade to you being here.

[Onasander]

I got a massive amount of books like that over the years- and gave out quiet a few under the same circumstance. It's a bit odd how socialistic people are with books that they don't care to have anymore.... that and sweaters from widows.... I'll take the books, but I really don't want the sweaters- but end up taking it because if I don't, there will be a sad.... and no one wants to make a widow sad,,,, so I have some odd clothes I never touch.

[Airburst]

Hello everyone! I consider myself a tragic philosopher like Nietzsche, definitely I am a Nietzschean. My latest thoughts have been pondering the difference between Zeus and the Apollonian Dionysus, virtù and moderate super-abundance...

[CLNT!]

I've joined here because I read Nietzsche and consider him as a focal point through which all that came before him reached conclusion, and all that has followed finds preclusion in at least some small degree. I see it as our task to succeed him in establishing a new paradigm to bring the postmodern age to a close and invoke the next renaissance.

Of his books, I have read Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Birth of Tragedy, Antichrist, Genealogy of Morals, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, as well as bits of most of his other writings--Kaufmann and Hollingdale being my translators of choice.

Apart from Nietzsche, I am fond of the writings of Yukio Mishima (particularly Sun and Steel and Runaway Horses), Hermann Hesse, Albert Camus (particularly, The Rebel), Dostoevsky, Ernst Junger, Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, and Salinger. Some of my favorite books not by those authors would be Fight Club, Starship Troopers, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Jarhead, Heart of Darkness, The Road, and The Electric Koolaid Acid Test. The most influential films I have viewed were "Apocalypse Now," "El Topo," "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters," as well as a slurry of documentaries. My favorite lecturers include Alan Watts, Robert Solomon, and Slavoj Zizek.


I proudly consider my own philosophical conceptions as Nietzschean, but strive to surpass that. I had my philosophical beginnings with Daoism and Transcendentalism, but shortly after starting to cultivate an earnest interest in Zen Buddhism, became an admitted nihilist and began a foray with the darker, more brutal side of philosophy, which eventually lead to dropping out of college and joining the Marine Corps. Today, I focus mostly on creative endeavors, engage in a wide variety of employment, and sometimes decide on a new degree to pursue. My primary focus in life is the cultivation of my philosophy through writing, collaboration, artistic endeavor, thought experimentation, and pursuit of physical, practical, and intellectual competency and prowess.