Overview

As the 19th century comes to a close, Friedrich Nietzsche and Vincent van Gogh unknowingly traverse proximate geographical terrain, nearly circling one another like close but distant stars as the philosopher wanders between Nizza, Sils Maria, and Torino, and the painter wanders between Paris, Arles, and Saint-Rémy. In the midst of their philosophical and artistic pursuits, simultaneously, the Eiffel Tower, symbol of artistic progress and industrialization, begins to rise in Paris amidst clamors of protest and praise. Through intertwining letters written to (& sometimes by) friends, family, and others, the philosopher and painter are brought into ever-greater proximity as we witness their daily personal and artistic struggles. Woven between and interrupting this panoply of voices are a series of intervals, short illuminating blasts, like a camera's exploding flash powder, of artistic, scientific, political, and other events spanning 1888 to 1890, drawing Nietzsche and Van Gogh in and out of the wider expanses of history. As construction of the Eiffel Tower comes to completion in Paris and Elisabeth Förster, the sister of the philosopher of the will to power, tries to found a utopic race colony in South America, the lives of Nietzsche and Van Gogh come to their terrible denouements. Her brother now a full-fledged zombie, the former queen of Nueva Germania seizes the reins of his living corpse and rides him into the future. With no deus ex machina in sight, and none possible, WWI and the terrors and the beauties of the 20th century crack the horizon.

Full Product Details

9781940625522

Table of Contents

Reviews

With its ingenious orchestration of the archive and its sensitivity to both the depths and inadvertencies of the creative process, Closing Melodies maps the twin stories of the last days of Friedrich Nietzsche and Vincent van Gogh within a phantasmagoria of space, time, and vision. Rainer J. Hanshe has an unparalleled grasp of what might be called the analytics of genius. - Nicholas Birns, New York University Rainer J. Hanshe has assembled a truly uncanny and powerful text. In creatively intertwining the letters of Nietzsche and Van Gogh from their final productive years, the reader has the experience of a phantasmic perception into the possibilities of life offered by two of the most magnanimous, creative minds of the late 19th century, and which continue to find echoes today. Through this mosaic of texts, as well as his series of disorienting intervals, Hanshe makes Nietzsche and Van Gogh speak to each other beyond the limits of space and time, and we find ourselves conversing with them too, intertwined in the feral threads of their incendiary lives. This is a book of artistic grace and gravity and makes for a truly thought-provoking and challenging experience. - Keith Ansell-Pearson, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Warwick

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available