Nietzsche and slow reading

This semester I’m taking a course on Nietzsche. I haven’t intensively read much of his works, just a bit here and there in some of my other courses. I’ve always seen Nietzsche’s work as empowering. I read his challenging words and envision him as a general rallying his troops before battle.

Nietzsche fascinates me. What little I’ve read has certainly proved both compelling and challenging. While aware of the stigma associated with his name is multiple Christian circles, in a way I feel drawn to his powerful prose. He writes clearly, powerfully and effectively. Not one for pulling any punches, Nietzsche’s passion is felt throughout his works.

My initial reactions to this course find me fascinated, eager and open. I’m looking forward to learning a lot—not necessarily general knowledge about Nietzsche and his writings but to let his writings challenge me.

One caveat Nietzsche admonishes his readers to do is the art of slow reading. As he says in Daybreak, slow reading is “that venerable art which demands votaries one thing above all: to go aside, to take time, to become slow” (5). It is “delicate cautious work to do and achieves nothing if it does not achieve it in lento” (ibid). Slow reading is slightly challenging for me. Especially when I have other assignments to accomplish. In that past I end up sacrificing one course, skimming here and there to get the general picture of what the author is communicating.

However, skimming only skims the surface of a work. In essence, it doesn’t really do justice to the author or his work. Nietzsche compares those who read quickly to hasty soldiers who pick up just enough to be dangerous and do blasphemy to the author’s original intent. We can see this evidenced in prooftexters who relentlessly rape their sources , arranging each viscera like Dr. Frankenstein to zealously prove their points. In the end, however, all they do is construct a monster.

In contrast to these prooftexters, slow reading is a discipline; it’s a habitual process that requires attention, focus and an open mind. The slow reader both reads and is read by the text. He approaches the text with no preconceived notions. Rather, he engages the text with an open mind, with ears to hear what the author communicates.

So, while I don’t necessarily have any New Year’s resolutions, I do resolve to read all my texts slowly, to really take in what the author is trying to communicate. I’ll conclude with Nietzsche’s final remarks in his preface to Daybreak:

“To read slowly, deeply looking cautiously before and aft, with reservations, with doors left open, with delicate eyes and fingers…My patient friends, this book desires for itself only perfect readers and philologists: learn to read me well!”

WP3

~ by phylakas on January 17, 2010.