Scary Story
Could Halloween as a matter of fact be a religious festival? I mean that taking stock of the otherworldly, that sense of life when touched by ghostly, supernatural presence, – a frank admission of fright, of something inscrutable about what life and death means…
Nietzsche writes a speculative account of someone who experiences a vision of spiritual insight, who concludes that he/she is a messenger, a conduit of divine intention.
Forgive me, but the passage strikes me as supremely ironic and scary, a pretty good Halloween story. I visualize Nietzsche’s tale unfolding in a Stanley Kubrick-style noir genre… There was this guy or gal who…
How can any one
regard his own opinion of things as a revelation?
This is the problem
of the formation of religions:
there has always been some man
in whom this phenomenon was possible.
A postulate is that such a man
already believed
in revelations.
Suddenly, however,
a new idea occurs to him one day,
his idea;
and the entire blessedness
of a great personal hypothesis,
which embraces all existence and the whole world,
penetrates with such force into his conscience
that he dare not think himself the creator of such blessedness,
and he therefore
attributes to his God
the cause of this new idea
and likewise the cause of the cause,
believing it to be
the revelation of his God.
How could a man
be the author of so great a happiness?
ask his pessimistic doubts.
But other levers are secretly at work:
an opinion may be strengthened
by one’s self if it be considered
as a revelation;
and in this way
all its hypothetic nature is removed;
the matter is set beyond criticism
and even beyond doubt:
it is sanctified
The Dawn of Day by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by J. M. Kennedy, aphorism 62
2 thoughts on “Scary Story”
This reply has more to do with the metamorphosis of the concept of All Hallow’s Eve than the quote from our friend, Fred.
Something struck me recently, especially in the juxtaposition of Halloween decor versus the items meant for display on Dia de los Meurtos. The Day of the Dead in Mexican culture is a celebration of those who have passed away. Likenesses of loved ones are proudly on display and the skeletons that a part of the decor are festooned with flowers and are more often than not, happy. On the other hand the ghouls that populate Halloween are mean-spirited and appear ready to disembowel the living, as if they are out for revenge.
I get that death is a fearsome thing for most of us, yet it is as much a part of life as breathing. And add to that the unfounded fear that those who have already died would like to either eat our brains or butcher us in our sleep, makes the end of life and the remembrance of those who’s journey has been completed seem unsavory at best.
I prefer the Day of the Dead to Halloween. Let’s celebrate life and those who have gone before. There’s already enough to fear for those of us who are still standing upright.
Well expressed. Let’s learn and become more open to the culture of Mexico, Dia de los Muertos especially.