Ecce Homo was Nietzsche’s last book he ever wrote about two months before his mental collapse. This has lead some scholars to believe he was crazy when he wrote it and in light of his chapter headings: “Why I am so Wise,” “Why I am so Clever,” etc. Against the assumption that Nietzsche was not crazy when he wrote Ecce Homo Steinbuch's book serves as a critical textual analysis on Nietzsche's first chapter heading "Why I am so Wise." It is well written and researched and claims the key to understanding Nietzsche is in this first chapter heading, "Why I am so Wise" in his Ecce Homo. Steinbuch provides an excellent and detailed commentary for a better understanding of Nietzsche. He also does justice to the thesis of his book, as well as to Nietzsche himself. Nietzsche was far from being crazy when he wrote his last will and testament - Ecce Homo - that he offered to the world.

The relationship of Frederick Nietzsche's philosophy to Sigmund Freud's psychiatric concepts has long been an object of interest for students and practitioners of psychoanalysis. In Freud And Nietzsche, educator, historian and philosopher Paul-Laurent Assoun methodically reconstructs Freud's encounter with Nietzsche, his personal interpretations and the contribution of Nietzsche's champions. Assoun articulately examines the thematic similarities that appear on the surface to reveal close affinities between the two theorists. The analogies between the theories and writings of these two influential and original thinkers are fascinating, informative, and a vital part of critical theory which continues to be actively discussed in regard to critical theory to this very day. Ably translated into English by Richard L. Collier. Jr., Paul-Laurent Assoun's Freud And Nietzsche is a significant and highly recommended contribution to the study of Freud, Nietzsche, and psychoanalysis.

You know how many hookers you can get for $250??

This is about as good a book as the interpretation of Nietzsche by a college philosophy professor and translator from the German might offer for my consideration. The second paragraph of the Introduction is already into the humor of the situation. "Nietzsche is like laughter from a beautiful mouth or in dancing eyes--soon everyone in the room is swept away by hilarity or hysteria, where the line that separates good health from noxious influence is obliterated." (p. xiii). The funny things for me in this book are "an old story that comes from Umbria during the High Middle Ages" (p. 187), the fantasy set "when Nietzsche celebrated his fiftieth birthday in 1894" (p. 251), and notes 8 and 9 of Chapter 6, "see also my PUREST OF BASTARDS, forthcoming," (p. 262).

Chapter 5, "Der Maulwurf/ The Mole," has 17 pages of German with English translations. The little poem:

sole
role
of the
mole
--pp. 118-19

rhymes so much better in English (3 perfect rhymes in 5 words) than in the German translation: "geworfener/ Entwurf/ des/ Maulwurfs" (p. 119). I don't know much about German, so I'm struck that the German word "Entwurf" seems remarkably like J.R.R. Tolkien's Entwives, which were missed so much by Treebeard in Chapter 4 of THE TWO TOWERS that he sang an Elvish song to the hobbits, in which an Entwife sang, "I'll look for thee, and wait for thee, until we meet again: Together we will take the road beneath the bitter rain!" Chapter 5 of INFECTIOUS NIETZSCHE ends with five pages of a poem, from "Dideldum!" in German and English, from the book HUMORISTISCHER HAUSSCHATZ by Wilhelm Busch (1963), illustrated by 15 cartoons of man and mole in a garden. This must be for comic relief, but adding things like this to a book on philosophy might also count as a reality check.

Among the serious sections in this book, "The Biopositive Effects of Infection" on pages 201-03 mentions "metaphors in motion." The next section mentions "the contagion of chronic indirect illness." (p. 205). There is a bit of psychology in that paragraph. "It may not be a mere contingency that Freud invokes eternal return of the same in the context of re-experiencing trauma. If war neurosis consists in the effort to discharge the excessive energy of the traumatic event through repetition of the original event in active remembrance, if in repetition compulsion the traumatic event is felt again, is re-sented, it may well be that recurrence is essentially bound up with ressentiment." (p. 205) That last word there is in French. Nietzsche used it so much Walter Kaufmann defined it as "a desire for revenge that is born of the sense of being underprivileged." (THE GAY SCIENCE, section 370, note 126, p. 331). It wasn't a big surprise to me, when I was drafted, that I might be sent to Nam, or that I dreamed I was in Vietnam, and when I woke up in the morning, I really was in Vietnam. The joke is that it didn't end there. Just mentioning Nam makes me sound like I was underprivileged enough to think that I have something to complain about, as if I still haven't gotten used to my life being one thing after another, mostly things I shouldn't talk about, especially the worst. It was the new Nixon that was really funny for me. I could never believe that people really wanted a new Nixon, particularly as my commander in chief, if his bright idea was to send me to Cambodia, which was like being re-sented all over again. Comedy is the only excuse for thinking that I understand how this works, and if you don't get that, you might not like this book.

Inside/Outside Nietzsche: Psychoanalytic Explorations is an innovative, scholarly study of the philosophical world Friedrich Nietzsche created for himself and the external world that challenged that philosophy. Social theorist and practicing psychoanalyst Eugene Wolfenstein focuses on the opposition between the principles of psychoanalytic theory and Nietzsche's concepts of the will to power and perspectivism. Wolfenstein brings Nietzschean concepts into the purview of contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice, and then conducts a psycho-biography of Nietzsche. Inside/Outside Nietzsche will prove engaging, fascinating, informative reading for students of Nietzschean philosophy, psychoanalysis, and critical theory.

For those looking to steal Nietzsche back from the PoMo moralizers, this is an excellent collection. Rossett is by far the most Nietzschean of the French philosophers, and is hated by the vast majority of them for pointing out that Foucault, Irigaray, Derrida and the rest really do not know Nietzsche at all. For Rossett, PoMo is a kind of cruelty. It is based on hating reality -- the only true source of scandal. Affirmative philosophies, like those of Nietzsche, Spinoza and Empedocles, are simply not allowable. To like life and reality is not allowable. It is unsporting to be an atheist. It is unsporting to find reality acceptable and to force the complainers to defend their devaluation of the now. A must read.

This book is a jewel - it contains three essays by one of the most intriguing French thinkers I have ever heard of, Clement Rosset. Rosset seems to be a Nietzschean of sorts, but not the kind of "Nietzschean" we see in Gilles Deluze and his PoMo ilk. Instead, Rosset takes Nietzsche to be a philosopher of the real, and of the unconditional affirmation of the real. His second essay in this collection, "Notes on Nietzsche", is priceless and well worth the cost of the book. The other two essays, including "The Principle of Cruelty", are also wonderful. It's a pity more of his work isn't available in English. Buy this book.

My sweet friends, the ones who concern themselves with themselves, critically, have seen to it that Nietzsche remains under careful supervision. Why does Nietzsche remain the "mechanized philosopher"? Why does Nietzsche seem to be the founding father of a system of thought but does not have any representable systems of thought disseminated in his work? Why is Nietzsche "a woman"? All these questions can be answered, possibly, if you read LOOKING AFTER NIETZSCHE.

This is the first serious, critical book I have read which I would liken to the experience of reading a comic-book. It almost seems like you're a gossip when you read this book. While addressing very complex issues concerning Post-Modernism's recent memory: Signature-context, the transcription of care into the family totem, and the "ghost in the machine", the book retains a lively, mischeivous tone while remaining dead-serious and poker faced.

I recommend this book not only for its wonderful contributors, or its breadth and insight (check out Sarah Kofman's, "Metaphoric Architectures"), but because, in spite of everything, this book seems to be a collection of thoughts about a very intense friend who sometimes needs some wary yet loving attention.

Stanley Gemmell

New Myth, New World: From Nietzsche To Stalinism by Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal is a thoughtful and scholarly reinterpretation of Nietzsche's lasting influence upon Soviet culture. Drawing on diverse primary sources in religion, philosophy, political ideology, architecture, street theater, and more, New Myth, New World is a learned and informative series of discourses combining to illustrate and demonstrate the lasting power of ideas in helping to shape the character, culture, and politics of the Russian nation and its governments. New Myth, New World is a welcome, significant, scholarly, and very strongly recommended contribution to Soviet Studies, Russian Cultural History, and Philosophy Studies academic reference collections as well as International Studies student supplemental reading lists.

Although this book is out of print, I encourage anyone interested in Nietzsche to go to the trouble of finding a copy of it to read. It is brief (about 150 pages) and well-written, but also far from superficial. Nietzsche does not appear here as a figure in the pre-history of post-modernism, but rather as someone trying to grapple with the nature and promise of human existence. While Stern takes Nietzsche quite seriously, he is also willing to make important criticisms that will be appreciated by anyone trying to really understand the importance and limitations of Nietzsche's contribution to philosophy.

This book is not funny. Higgins is not funny. Nietzsche's Joyful Wisdom is not funny. This book, as discussed in the preface, was contracted by a silly university press -- one of the silliest of them all. Then Higgins sat down to force the thing into shape. The entire thing has a constant feeling of being forced. There is nothing here that is smooth, natural or even very insightful. Higgins is constantly saying 'I think that is funny' as though her opinion could be worth anything at all. She has to think that in order to fulfill her contract. And who cares about her mental state anyway? The only proof that something is funny is that people find it funny, perhaps. But Higgins is an interested party, so her opinion is irrelevant. In fact, her opinion is worthless here, and so is her book.

Nietzsche is a "Paradigm of Playfulness" in my opinion, and Professor Higgins has done an excellent job of teasing out the entrenched humor of his Gay Science. Also, the importance of humor in philosophizing not only in Nietzsche's work but in general should be taken into consideration by those who kick their heels up on the playground of ideas. In this unprecedented work Higgins shows us the multi-faceted nature of Nietzsche's way of doing philosophy, and with this approach a new appreciation for Nietzsche's depth as a philosopher should be noted.