Saturday, September 10, 2005
(11:51 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
The Tragedy of Birth
Walter Kaufmann tells us that in Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy, only sections 1 through 15 are worth reading -- and if you're pressed for time, just do 7 through 15. I'll admit that particularly in the second proposed exerpt, there is a high density of really great material, particularly the analysis of Hamlet. Yet, now that I'm forcing myself to read sections 16 through 25, I'm starting to think that those of us who took Kaufmann's word for it (i.e., probably all of us) were missing at least something. Admittedly, I'm only on section 18, but that in itself is very interesting in its comparison between Alexandrian/Hellenistic civilization and his own -- the diagnosis seems accurate, even if the Wagnerian cure isn't going to be adequate. Overall, I don't feel like I'm sitting through The Phantom Menace here.Questions, comments, points of rebuttal?
UPDATE: I just received an e-mail saying that I passed my German exam. Also, in conversation with the head of the PhD program, he said he didn't foresee any problem with my petition to get out of taking a formal French exam. So now all I need to do is take 14 courses, complete six comprehensive exams, and write and defend a dissertation, and I'm basically finished with the PhD. Awesome.
