Talk:The Twilight of the Idols

Gotzen-Dammerung sounds a lot like Gotterdammerung, the opera created thirty-odd years before. Is there any connection there?

Yes. The connections between Götterdämmerung and Götzendämmerung are huge. The former is the name of an opera (the conclusion of Wagner's Ring Cycle), meaning Twilight of the Gods. Nietzsche's title is an intentional play on Wagner and means Twilight of the Idols. Nietzsche and Wagner were close friends at for a while, but N became dissilusioned with W when W became openly anti-semitic. He also had little patience with W's apparent capitulation to mainstream Christianity in the opera Parzifal.

Incidentally, this article on Twilight of the Idols needs a lot of work. Full of Nazi ideology? Gimme a farking break. Have you read the book?

N broke with W when W adopted Schopenhauer's philosophy. Nietzsche opposed Schopenhauer's notion that the denial of the will to live is good.Lestrade 19:49, 23 April 2007 (UTC)Lestrade[reply]

Editing[edit]

I put some meat in this article. My additions state where Nietzsche said those things, so that anyone who wants to know if they're true, and I'm not merely interpreting, can check them out for themselves.

By the way, I did study Nietzsche twice or maybe thrice as a Sociology major, maybe that gives me more credibility. Moonwalkerwiz 02:57, 14 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like Moonwalkerwiz already improved this quite a bit. I just tried to edit a bit for objectivity of language. Not a bad summary right now. Teaforthetillerman 18:08, 5 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There is a small problem with the first paragraph. Nietzsche wasn't using a hammer in the context of a doctor diagnosing the ills of the world, his metaphor was that of him being in a room of physical idols and using the hammer to test their metal as it were. If they were solid they would ring true, if not you would hear "that famous hollow sound which speaks of bloated entrails." --Joshmoore67 14:21, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

Metaphors are mixed when it is said that the hammer is used to tap the knee (in order to test for a reflex) and is used to produce a sound (indicating the possible hollowness of an idol).Lestrade 19:44, 23 April 2007 (UTC)Lestrade[reply]