Case Study - Interview With Protestant Preacher Dr John Revill

Having re-read the latest draft of my essay, I realise that my reference to an episode of the Simpsons is, while very appropriate, not very academic. I feel the point needs to be backed by a more academic source. My grandad, Dr John Revill, has been a Christian preacher for the majority of his life, and seemed like a good person to talk too about this. The interview went as follows:

*Interview starts by me showing Dr Revill the first 13 minutes and 30 seconds of The Simpsons, Series 2, Episode 13: Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment.

Q: How long have you been a Doctor?

A: 53 Years.

Q: And how long have you been a protestant preacher?

A: A bit longer, 59 years.

Q: If you were Reverend Lovejoy having the conversation with Lisa Simpson, what would your advice to her have been?

A: Certainly is not to watch the forbidden fruit as it were, but then to tell her farther that he ought not to be involved as he may get into trouble with the law.

Q: Is this not going against the fifth commandment?

A: Not really, no. She’s still respecting her father, and he ought to set an example as a father not to encourage his family to use methods of stealing which were dubious.

Q: So does this mean that, on occasion, there are situations where any rule, even one of the ten commandments, will find an exception?

A: Yes. The ten commandments have to be taken together as a whole and sometimes one of them is much more relevant than the others, meaning that sometimes you can not obey one of the commandments without breaking one of the others. We call this situational ethics, so stealing a loaf of bread for someone who’s starving isn’t necessarily wrong.

Q: You said something to me the other day about the war with Isis, and how you don’t believe in war, but you believe in peace, and you believe in defending innocent people. In defending innocent people in this instance, to some extent there’s a case of accepting war. Does this mean that you don’t think moral rules should have some wiggle room in them?

A: Yes, this is situational ethics.

Re-Visiting Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Again) - Friedrich Nietzsche

Reasoning

After reading the journal articles, I decided I should re-visit "Of Self-Overcoming", a phrase mentioned throughout one of the articles, and "Of the Vision and the Riddle", a chapter referred too in one of the articles as the key chapter in Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

My previous notes on Thus Spoke Zarathustra can be found here and here.

What I Gained

Re-reading these chapters has jogged my memory, and some of the points raised in them can be used to improve the triangulation in my essay.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

Using these quotes and the journal articles from the previous post, I'm going to strengthen the discussion of the will to power, the Ubermensch, and the eternal recurrence, as well as the general triangulation in my essay.

Nietzsche's Thoughts Portrayed in Popular Film and TV - Fight Club, Citizen Kane, The Lego Movie, and The Simpsons

Reasoning

Watching the Turin Horse and reading Spinks' comparison of the eternal recurrence to the film Groundhog Day significantly helped my understanding of the eternal recurrence, and made it much easier for me to articulate my understanding of it through comparison. After reading this article I want to watch Citizen Kane and Fight Club, two films I've never seen before, in the hope that watching them in the mindset of Nietzschean thought will help me.

Another film I want to watch is The Lego Movie, a film I have seen before, but one that I remember bearing relevance to the idea of the Ubermensch. I also remember a particular episode of The Simpsons which illustrates well how it can be difficult to follow religiously based over-simplified idealistic rules in real life.


Fight Club (1999)

• Edward Norton's character (the narrator) is weak, partaking in the spreading of pity in support groups and is thus rejecting his will to power.
• Brad Pitt's character (Tyler) embodies an Ubermensch who's come about having transcended Norton's characters weakness.
• Tyler shows a nihilistic impulse when he says "It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything", and in making the narrator consider that God doesn't like him he's restating Nietzsche's claim that God is dead.
• Tyler's whole way of living is based on ignoring the accepted consumeristic way of living and self-fulfilment by accepting and embracing the circumstances that he is presented with, turning the "thou shalt's" into "I wills" through project mayhem. This isn't to say that the idea of the Ubermensch as a whole is against consumerism, it just so happens to be so in this case.

Citizen Kane (1941)

• Charles Kane is a strong example of a the will to power in action in that his life is lived in the pursuit of self-empowerment.
• By initially rejecting interest in his money in favour of taking control of a newspaper to empower and lead 'the people' (or the slaves, as Nietzsche would call them) in order to gain favour with them so as to gain further power through politics, he is rejecting the religious ideas goal of self-preservation (through initially rejecting his opportunity for wealth), instead choosing the Nietzschean goal of self-empowerment.
• Despite exercising his will to power, he falls short of becoming the Ubermensch by not leading the people in a selfless manner, caused by his desire to be loved without being able to love in return, which is caused by his inability to transcend his childhood emotions through the three metamorphoses described by Zarathustra.

The Lego Movie (2014)

• Emmet (Chris Pratt) wakes in a world where everyone follows the same routine every morning and 'follows the instructions' set by President/Lord Business (Will Ferrell) in a world where day-to-day life varies so little that it's symbolic of a dystopian eternal recurrence. 
• The master builders find creativity through re-appropriating existing lego pieces to make them useful to them, in a practice that is similar to pastiche. In this sense the master builders are examples of the Ubermensch.
• The examples the film uses as mast builders (Nietzsche's Ubermensch) are people who have transcended beyond regular humanity through either achievement, history or power, be they fictional or non-fictional, such as Shaquille O'neal, Cleopatra, Michelangelo, Superman and Professor Dumbledore.
• In the re-appropriation of these existing characters/figures is as an example of the film itself practicing it's teaching of the Ubermencsh, as are it's re-appropriations of scenes from other films such as Emmet grabbing his hat dramatically like Indiana Jones or Captain Jack Sparrow,  and Bad Cop (Liam Neeson) kicking a chair a long distance in a parabolic path to hit a moving object like Mick in Crocodile Dundee.
• The wise old character who guides Emmet in his journey to becoming a master builder, Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) has a strong resemblance to Yoda (Star Wars) in his wise words, walking with a stick, and reappearing after his death in a ghostly form, with his teaching of free creation he resembles Nietzsche's Zarathustra.
• Part of Vitruvius' prophecy is that he who becomes 'the special' (the leader of the master builders in the fight against Lord Business' eternal recurrence) will be "the greatest, most interesting, most important person of all times", giving Emmet reasons to strive for the individual success that is important to Nietzsche's thoughts.
• Vitruvius, when seeing a visual representation of Emmet's empty mind, says the following: "Master builders spend years training themselves to clear their minds enough to have even a glimpse of the man upstairs, and yet your mind is already so prodigiously empty, that there is nothing in it to clear away in the first place. With proper training, you could become a great master builder", showing his appreciation of values needing to be destroyed/cleared before new ones can be made, if indeed there are any existing values in the first place.

The Simpsons - Homer vs Lisa and the 8th Commandment (S2 E13 - 1991)

• After Homer acquires 'cable' TV illegally and Lisa gets scared after being taught in church that anyone who breaks one of the 10 commandments goes to hell, she questions Reverend Lovejoy about Homer illegally getting cable.
• "So, even if a man takes bread to feed his starving family, that would be stealing?" "No, well it is if he put's anything on it, jelly for example."                                             "I see."                                                                                                                        "Oh come on Lisa, now you're here for a reason. Is your father stealing bread?". "Maybe, I don't watch him every minute, but what I am sure of is, we're getting cable for free."                                                                                                                    "Well I'm afraid that is stealing Lisa, and I think you must do something". "Should I have my father arrested?"                                                                                        "Well Lisa on the surface that would appear to be an ideal solution to the problem, but remember the fifth commandment, honour thy father and thy mother. Lisa, I would like to see you set an example by not watching the offending technology yourself".                                                                                                                "Thank you Reverend Lovejoy".
• This shows how religion-based, simple idealistic rules can make for difficult situations, as also illustrated by Abraham being told by God to kill his soon Isaac, and similar to how the three laws of robotics end up contradicting each other in iRobot.
• After being questioned on the new locks on the door and railings on the windows, Homer says, "Marge we can't be too careful, there are thieves everywhere, and I'm not talking about the small forgivable stuff." which suggests that the religious ideal is no longer universally applicable.
• After Bart is caught watching adult TV with his friends, he says, "I wish I was adult so I could break the rules", exemplifying the hypocrisy of religious based society that teaches children it's religious based rules.

Next Steps

Before watching The Lego Movie, I looked online to see if there were any articles about it's resemblance to Nietzsche given that it wasn't on the article I first mentioned. I found this article, which, despite not mentioning Sartre in the article, tagged his name in the post, which has made me inquisitive and want to look into Nietzsche's relation to him.

First Thing First Manifesto 2014 - Cole Peters

Reasoning

After reading about a 2014 FTF Manifesto, I looked it up to see if it had any major differences from the 2000 and 1964 manifesto's that were noteworthy or potentially useful. I found it here, and after trawling through the signatories for a considerable amount of time, as well as more general searching on the internet, interestingly enough, Ken Garland doesn't seem to be a signatory, nor is he acknowledged at the bottom of the site as having shown 'overwhelming support' or providing 'promotional support and coverage'.

What I Gained

I found that it continued the change made from 1964 to 2000 in it becoming increasingly political and reinforcing the feeling of blaming designers. The main difference this time was it's focus on technology in an attempt to make it more relevant to more people outside the industry. Key points were: 

1. Inclusion of 'creative technologists' in the 'we are' section.
2. Lack of gender, race and age diversity in creative industries.
3. Accusing some designers of aiding the abuse of the law and human rights.
4. The re-inclusion of not wanting to take the fun out of life.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

Having established that there's nothing particularly groundbreakingly useful or interesting about FTF 2014 in relation to my topic, I don't feel the need to look into it any further, and will return to looking at how Nietzsche's ideas have been reflected in film to assist my ability to articulate them in the future.

First Things First Manifesto - Ken Garland, Adbusters, and Rick Poynor

 

Reasoning

It'd been a while since I'd looked at the First Things First Manifesto, so I printed out copies of the 1964 and 2000 Manifestos to make notes on, as well as an article supporting it by Rick Poynor, a signatory of the 2000 Manifesto. 

What I Gained

I'd written down noted down presumptions about the Manifesto that I'd remembered thinking from last time I read it, and was looking for quotes that backed them up. I started with the 2000 manifesto because I remember it being a bit more negative than the original. I found that all the points I made in my notes were backed up by particular parts of the 2000 manifesto, and so in the 1964 one I looked for bits that were missing in the updated one to identify which of Garland's thoughts Adbusters deemed to be unnecessary, and then looked for explanations in Poynor's article. This is what I found: 

1. 1964's Manifesto explicitly states that they don't want to get rid of consumerism, and tends to have a more positive attitude in general.
2. 2000's Manifesto is very accusational of designers, blaming them for the growth of consumerist culture.
3. 2000's Manifesto is a lot more politically based than 1964's.
4. The 1964 Manifesto wasn't pre-planned and was a "heat of the moment" thing.
5. Ken Garland was an active member of the Labour Party at the time of the 1964 Manifesto's publishing, and it gained the attention of Labour MP Tony Benn.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

Poynor was supportive of FTF, as would be expected from a signatory, so I now want to look for a fairly high-profile person who's critical of the manifesto to balance this out a bit, Michael Bierut seems like a good place to start. I also want to look into Johanna Drucker, the aritst/critic mentioned by Poynor who suggested that "the life and consciousness of the designer" are at stake by not following FTF.

Fear and Trembling - Søren Kierkegaard

Reasoning

I remember reading last year in that Soren Kierkegaard is often considered similar to Nietzsche, and so I thought he might be a strong place to look next, especially after reading this article, where his wording under the subtitle 'Of Observing Scripture' he uses the phrase "we Christians", which supports the general information I found online about him being a Christian. I chose this book particularly because it's a discussion of the story of Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac to God in the Bible, which means that it's inevitably going to have some sort of philosophical discussion of Christianity with it.

What I Gained

I really enjoyed reading this book, more so than any of the others previously, although I do intend to read Thus Spoke Zarathustra again from a far more knowledgable perspective given Nietzsche's pride for it in Ecce Homo. Other than the enjoyment I gained, I found there to be a few declarations and definitions in this book from a Christian point of view, such as: 

1. Spirituality and morality isn't always clear cut in the world and isn't always something that you're able to follow.
2. Something that is ethical is universal, and therefor is always applicable.
3. All duty is ultimately duty to God.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

At this point I want to find a second source of Christianity that backs up Nietzsche's arguments to make for a more convincing argument of my own.

The Wisdom of Life & On the Suffering of the World - Arthur Schopenhauer

Reasoning

I wanted to read some of Schopenhauer's work to try and pick out some similarities between him and Nietzsche. I think it's important to see what Nietzsche's thoughts were developed from Schopenhauer's given his emphasis on creation of individual values.

I chose to read these two books in particular because they touched on the subjects of suffering, happiness, creativity and religion, topics which are appropriate given my subject and my previous readings of Nietzsche, without being too long that they could lead me of topic.

What I Gained

It's clear that Schopenhauer's thoughts formed a basis for Nietzsche to build his thoughts on, specifically that: 

1. All people will react differently to the same scenario, even if they're in the same surroundings. This is because you can only ever react to your own feelings. This idea of following your own instincts and thoughts could have lead to the idea of the overman.
2. Having natural talents and not pursuing them because you've been overcome by external forces to do something else will lead you to be unhappy. This idea of being overpowered by an external will could have lead to the idea of the will to power.
3. Doing evil things is an affirmation of the will to live by the person who does them. This could also have lead to the will to power.
4. The idea that something could be transformed by art from something that existed temporarily into something to exist "time and time again". This could have lead to the idea of the eternal recurrence.
5. On top of all these things, Schopenhauer wrote about how people are looked down on for wanting money above everything else, saying that money is the only true good thing in the world because it can be used to satisfy and need. Whilst the common phrase 'money can't buy you happiness' questions this, it is a strong point to back the consumeristic market the First Things Manifesto tries to subdue.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

I'm satisfied with the amount of reading I've done on Schopenhauer, and now want to look at other philosophers who could have had useful standpoints on either religion or consumerism. It would be particularly useful if they were Christians, as this adds relevance to their thoughts in relation to my project.

Human, All Too Human - Friedrich Nietzsche

Penguin Classics Edition Book Cover

Reasoning

I wanted to see if there was any noticable differences between this book and the others I've read, as this was written 4 years before the Gay Science. Having seen the difference between The Antichrist and the other books I've read so far, I feel like I may find things in Human, All Too Human that I missed in the other books.

I read an online copy of this book rather than a physical copy, as I'd decided to read it quite suddenly, and didn't want to wait for the book to arrive in the post. This is the copy I read.

What I Gained

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of differences between Human, All Too Human and other books, I found it covered the same topics, but often in a less cryptic way, which is to be expected given Nietzsche had at least 4 years more thought go into the other books. I did however find a few passages which supplement previous quotes I've found well, and so it's been useful for this reason.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

There were numerous references to Schopenhauer in this book, a philosopher who clearly influenced Nietzsche, so I want to read some of his work to see how he was influenced.

The Antichrist - Friedrich Nietzsche

Reasoning

I wanted to see if there was a change of tone or approach in this book from the previous ones given the name and the fact that Nietzsche was seemingly writing for himself rather than a specific audience at this point.

What I Gained

This book is noticeably more personal, and doesn't really elaborate in much depth on the will to power, overman, or the eternal recurrence: 

1. A lot of Nietzsche's criticisms in this book are repeated over and over again, it almost seems like he's being aggressive towards Christianity.
2. Many of his criticisms are aimed directly at priests rather than the religion itself, calling them lunatics amongst other things.
3. Some aphorisms contained lines that were anti-nationalist, potentially put in purposely where they otherwise mightn't have been to deter claims that his philosophy that the book promotes through it's distain for Christianity isn't in fact a Nationalist one.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

Having read the books by Nietzsche I had initially earmarked, I'm going to also read Human, All Too Human, as noticing the difference between the Antichrist and his other books, I wanted to see if there was anything noticably different between Human, All Too Human and The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Beyond Good and Evil that might be useful or important.

Ecce Homo - Friedrich Nietzsche

Reasoning

I read this book to see if any of Nietzsche's thoughts on his books matched or contrasted greatly with my own, as in either of the two cases there is room to research more, particularly in the latter.

What I Gained

I found some interesting things, how useful any of them are remains to be seen: 

1. Nietzsche was incredibly proud of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, as is clear from some of the quotes I selected from the chapter. I found this odd because I found Thus Spoke Zarathustra very easy to read, and didn't sense any element of pride in it, although maybe this was down to the fact that he wrote it from Zarathustra's perspective rather than in first person.
2. He implies that from Beyond Good and Evil onwards, he wasn't necessarily writing for an audience, rather for himself, which makes me intrigued into reading the Antichrist, given it was written after this point.
3. It seems that Nietzsche's main reason for writing the Gay Science was to build a platform for Thus Spoke Zarathustra to stand on.
4. He predicted that he'd be associated with "the recollection of something frightful - of a crisis like no other before on earth", which turned out to be true due to the Nazis misrepresentation of his work.  

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

I want to read the Antichrist because of it's provocative name and the fact it was written after Nietzsche wrote "From now on all my writings are fish-hooks: perhaps I understand fishing as well as anyone? … If nothing got caught I am not to blame. There were no fish…"

Beyond Good and Evil - Friedrich Nietzsche

Reasoning

I felt like this would be a useful book to read as I've read that it covers the topics of imagination, self-assertion, originality, and creation of values.

What I Gained

I found this book to be very useful in terms of providing me with ideas that could help me link the idea of the overman to the practice of pastiche, as well as some clear criticisms of Christianity, preaching, and preachers, which I can relate to the First Things First Manifesto by comparing them with Nietzsche's reasoning.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

Having read what I believe to be the three most appropriate of Nietzsche's books for my project (on the basis of the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy), I want to read Ecce Homo to see what Nietzsche has to say on these particular books.

Re-Visiting Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche

Reasoning

After reading Danto's book and the Roudledge Critical Thinkers book I know have a better idea of what Nietzsche's key thoughts were, and by revisiting certain chapters in Thus Spoke Zarathustra that came up in the two books might be helpful as I have a better idea of what to look for in the text. I want to re-read Of the Three Metamorphoses, Of the Thousand and One Goals, Of the Tarantulas, Of the Spirit of Gravity, and The Convalescent.

My previous notes on Thus Spoke Zarathustra can be found here.

What I Gained

I didn't gain as much from this as I had hoped, mainly: 

1. How important Of the Three Metamorphoses is in regards to how is ideas are introduced to the rest of book.
2. Nietzsche's insistence that religion is itself an old morality.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

Beyond Good and Evil is the next book that I want to read, as I feel that there's probably not much more I can now take from a book about Nietzsche. I feel that this one in particular should be worth reading because of how the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy says it talks about imagination, self-assertion, originality and creation of values.

The Gay Science - Friedrich Nietzsche (with commentary by Walter Kaufmann)

Reasoning

Having been referenced a lot in the previous book I read, it made sense to read The Gay Science while the references were still fresh in my mind.

What I Gained

The main things I took from this book were:

1. An understanding of the will-to-powers relationship with religion.
2. Nietzsche makes clear that our current morality was created and affirmed by people because of their needs, and isn't an instinctual thing.
3. The Christianity makes people think of the consequences of their lives in the form of an overworld, which makes it more difficult for their followers to endure the eternal recurrence as they don't live by their own values.
4. In order to become the overman, one must accept and embrace the eternal recurrence.

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

Given how useful I found it to read a secondary text after Thus Spoke Zarathustra, I intend to read another one now, in the hope that it will further increase my understanding.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche

Reasoning

I found through various sources that it generally doesn't matter what order you read Nietzsche's books in because of his lack of a clear order or system in his writings, and that Thus Spoke Zarathustra was Nietzsche's most popular book, given to the German soldiers in WW1 alongside the Bible as inspirational reading. I felt that this would be a good starting point in my investigation into Nietzsche because, having read parts of the Bible in the past, it would be a good way to start comparing Nietzsche's teachings to those of Christianity.

What I Gained

It would be difficult to clarify what I gained from this book as I had nothing to measure it against. Primarily it gave me a unique opportunity in this module, to have a truly first-hand reading of the book, which can only assist the critical aspect of the project.

It particularly made clear the below two things:

1. The similarities between Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the Bible. It could therefore be argued that Thus Spoke Zarathustra is an alternate, anti-moral (although not necessarily immoral) Bible.
2. Zarathustra is a character representative of Nietzsche himself, and the 'story' (as it could possibly be interpreted as) of Thus Spoke Zarathustra is essentially Nietzsche writing up a fictitious account of how he saw society at the time and how it would've reacted to his teaching.  

Potentially useful quotes:

Next Steps

I found myself to be somewhat confused at times throughout the book, having only previously been introduced to the fact the Nietzsche criticised Christianity for being a religion of pity. However, I feel like this has put me in a good position to develop my own opinion of Nietzsche as my first impressions of him were my own rather than someone else's.

Because of this slight confusion I will be reading a book on Nietzsche rather than by him in order to gain a more rounded knowledge and understanding on him. A series that was suggested was the Routledge Critical Thinkers books. The book on Nietzsche in particularly is written by Dr Lee Spinks, a senior lecturer in English Language at the University of Edinburgh.