Like Slaves At Christmas
How can a man take pleasure
in nonsense?
For wherever in the world
there is laughter
this is the case;
one can say, indeed,
that almost everywhere there is happiness
there is pleasure in nonsense.
The overturning of experience
into its opposite,
of the purposive into the purposelessness,
of the necessary into the arbitrary,
but in such a way that this event
causes no harm
and is imagined as occasioned by high spirits,
delight us, for it momentarily
liberates us from the constraints
of the necessary,
the purposive and that which
corresponds to our experience
which we usually see as our inexorable masters;
we play and laugh when the expected
(which usually makes us fearful and tense)
discharges itself harmlessly.
It is
the pleasure of the slave
at the Saturnalia.*
Human All Too Human, by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by R. J. Hollingdale, aphorism 213
*Saturnalia is an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honor of the god Saturn, held on 17 December through 23 December, for a total of seven days of festivities. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, in the Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival atmosphere that overturned Roman social norms: gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their slaves as it was seen as a time of liberty for both slaves and freedmen alike.
The gifts exchanged were usually gag gifts or small figurines made of wax or pottery. The poet Catullus called it “the best of days”.
-Wikipedia
