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Nietzsche and Runaway Audio Consumption

Came across this today. A lot of posts bring up the issue of "how much is enough?" or "when is audio consumption justified" etc.

Does this Nietzsche aphorism apply to audio buying? You be the judge! 

Friedrich Nietzsche: “Danger in riches. — Only he who has spirit ought to have possessions: otherwise possessions are a public danger. For the possessor who does not know how to make use of the free time which his possessions could purchase him will always continue to strive after possessions: this striving will constitute his entertainment, his strategy in his war against boredom. 

Thus in the end the moderate possessions that would suffice the man of spirit are transformed into actual riches – riches which are in fact the glittering product of spiritual dependence and poverty. They only appear quite different from what their wretched origin would lead one to expect because they are able to mask themselves with art and culture: for they are, of course, able to purchase masks. By this means they arouse envy in the poorer and the uncultivated – who at bottom are envying culture and fail to recognize the masks as masks – and gradually prepare a social revolution: for gilded vulgarity and histrionic self-inflation in a supposed ‘enjoyment of culture’ instil into the latter the idea ‘it is only a matter of money’ – whereas, while it is to some extent a matter of money, it is much more a matter of spirit.” 

Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1996. Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits. Cambridge University Press. (p. 283-4, an aphorism no. 310)

I'm pretty sure @mahgister will want to read this one! (Because they speak so artfully about avoiding the diversion that consumption poses to the quest for true aesthetic and acoustic excellence.)

hilde45
noske
783 posts
 

Pride in one’s audio system is what Nietzsche is criticizing here; development of one’s taste by means of one’s audio system is what he is trying to praise.

I dunno if he was criticizing having affection for one’s audio system. Who here doesn’t?

Rather, he said "..will always continue to strive after possessions: this striving will constitute his entertainment, his strategy in his war against boredom."

Just accumulating stuff. People do that for a variety of reasons not confined to those the Nitty man includes, and that is the exercising of their right of freedom to choose. Should a moral philosopher wish to make this circular and convoluted and place constraints on what they consider freedom to be, then we have this discussion.

Perhaps another thought - audiophiles actually serve a public good in that the constant desire for better and superior technology spills over into the general market place so that non-audiophiles can reap what others have created - to borrow a word from something hilde45 said.

 

hilde45's avatar
hilde45 OP
5,421 posts
 

Well said @snilf !!!

cd318
2,636 posts
 

I’m not a big one for philosophy or philosophers but I do remember a Nietzsche quote from an Arcam brochure that stuck with me.

It made sense back then, and it makes sense now.

 

Without Music, Life Would Be A Mistake.

 

--------

 

The quotation “Without Music, Life Would Be A Mistake” is an English translation from his book Twilight of the Idols, which Nietzsche wrote in a little more than a week while he was on a holiday in Segl Maria, a village in Switzerland. The title is a play on the title of Richard Wagner’s opera, “Twilight of the Gods.” Nietzsche enjoyed writing poetry, aphorisms, and had a penchant for irony and satire in his works; Twilight of the Idols is no exception, as it opens with a list of 44 sayings, titled “Maxims and Arrows.” Number 33 is the source of this famous quotation.

 

33. Wie wenig gehört zum Glücke! Der Ton eines Dudelsacks. — Ohne Musik wäre das Leben ein Irrthum. Der Deutsche denkt sich selbst Gott liedersingend.

Götzen-Dämmerung, by Friedrich Nietzsche

Common English translation:

How little is required for pleasure! The sound of a bagpipe. Without music, life would be
an error. The German imagines that even God sings songs.

Twilight of the Idols, by Friedrich Nietzsche

 

snilf's avatar
snilf
220 posts
 

As is often the case with aphoristic works, it can be helpful to look at the context of the given particular passage. In aphorism 302, Nietzsche writes: "The truly unendurable...are those who, possessing freedom of mind [freiheit der Gesinnung; "freedom of opinion" might be better], fail to notice that they lack freedom of taste and spirit [Geschmacks- und Geistes-Freiheit]" And aphorism 317, entitled "Possessions possess," states: "It is only up to a certain point that possessions make men more independent and free; one step further—and the possessions become master, the possessor a slave...." 

But I'm also reminded, in the context here, of a passage in Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf (coincidentally, asvjerry above mentions Steppenwolf "the band"). Late in the novel, the narrator "Harry" encounters Mozart in a "magical theater" drug-induced reverie. If I remember correctly (it's been 40 years since I read the book), they're listening to Don Giovanni on a radio together, and Harry disparages it for its poor sound quality (the novel was published in 1927). But Mozart emphatically disagrees! He loves the new technology, and loves his music reproduced by it.

There are maybe two lessons in this scene. First, that the technology of music reproduction is itself a wonderful art, and nothing to be disparaged, even when it is primitive. But second, that the music should be the master, not the technology. Returning to Nietzsche, our possessions can possess us when we obsess over trivialities. For a possession like an audio system, it's a sad irony that such obsession can too easily rob us of the love of music that it exists to promote.

snilf's avatar
snilf
220 posts
 

Thanks, hilde45. How do you happen to be reading Nietzsche? (BTW, when asked what a new composer should do, Richard Strauss answered: "Read Nietzsche!")

And thanks, sns, for your insightful questions. They express my dilemma, which is what drew me into this thread—and other threads on this forum. High-end equipment reviews very often praise a piece of audio equipment by saying that it disappears: the speakers under review are successful when they "vanish into the music," when one "stops listening to the system" and becomes immersed in the music. I suspect we would all endorse such praise, and aspire to it in our own systems.

And yet...I wonder. I can only speak for myself, of course, but too often my pleasure in listening comes not from the music itself, but from the reproduction of it. The proof of this is that I will often choose to listen to something that is well-recorded even if it is musically banal, and I privilege good recordings over good performances in most cases (although there are fortunately lots of good performances that are also well-recorded). Bottom line: I love the equipment, especially when it seems to "disappear"! This is a paradox.

Maybe, as sns suggests, this is due to some "corruption" of real passion for music by "the need for material goods." I'm also a musician (cello and guitar), and I know a lot of musicians; none of them—literally, none—are audiophiles. Why is that? And I've had profound experiences with music in very compromised acoustical situations. How can that be, if SQ is the be-all and end-all?

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