Part of the reason I decided to pick up I Am Dynamite!: A Life of Friedrich Nietzsche was its premise: most books written about Friedrich Nietzsche tend to focus on the man’s writings and philosophy first, and then the man second. If at all. But this is not the case for Sue Prideaux’s biography, which had—I thought at least—a rather philosophically ambivalent and somewhat apolitical blurb. This kind of took me by surprise, so into the shopping-cart it went.
I was quite delighted by what I found. This is a very human storytelling of a man who often comes across as myth more than anything else. The opening chapter starts off with one of the most memorable nights of his life: his very first meeting with Richard Wagner. And the poor man was mostly preoccupied with his trousers… At least he was able to find the humour in it all.
The rest of the book proceeds in a mostly linear fashion. One of the things emphasised very early on was Nietzsche’s ill health. While most of his early ailments were physical in nature, the fear of mental illness was always creeping around the edge; his own father died young after falling mad (Described as a ‘softening of the brain’)
After a stringent education at Pforta, Nietzsche scored a professorial position at only 25 years old. It is around this time that he first meets Richard Wagner, and this is where the book really shines. Prideaux had a lot of Cosmia Wagner’s correspondence to work off here, so I don’t think she’s going off-piste, but the impression that I got of Nietzsche, Cosima, Wagner and even Ludwig II of Bavaria, is that they were all the WORST THEATRE KIDS EVER. They were just too much. So Extra. They were all utterly ridiculous and insufferable. I mean, the Shopenhauerian love names alone were enough to make me groan.
And while I can sort of understand Nietzsche, Ludwig and Cosima’s behaviours to a degree, as they were all fairly young (and in the case of Nietzsche, a bit repressed) bloody Richard Wagner was a different matter. He was so much more older than the others, but somehow he ended up being the most highly strung and pretentious. I personally have found a lot of Nietzsche’s earlier writings on the dry side, but this paints him in a completely different light. He’s so much more human here, but my God, I would get so damned frustrated with him if we were to meet in real life.
Then there was one particular speculated reason why Nietzsche and Wagner split — that, if true, makes Wagner quite the shit.
Another relationship of Nietzsche’s I did enjoy reading about was the one he had with Lou Salomé, the young Russian socialite. He seemed quite infatuated with her, but Lou was not content giving attention to just him alone, and they ended up in a near ménage à trois with fellow philosopher and writer, Paul Rée This arrangement also ended badly for Nietzsche in a fashion that was both sad, hilarious and utterly, utterly immature on the part of both Salomé and Rée. All their self-indulgent discussions of philosophy squeezed out any remnants of their emotional maturity, it seems. And no matter what he tried, Nietzsche always seemed a little awkward around women.
And no discussions of Nietzsche’s relationships would be complete without the mention of his sister, Elizabeth. She may have been given the affectionate pet name of Llama, but I found Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche to be an utterly reprehensible woman. Unlike her brother, she seemed intellectually closed off and petty-minded. She’s also the one who did the most to popularise her brother’s works with the right wing and Nazi contingents for fifty years after he passed on—which is highly ironic, considering his works anti-nationalism and good-Europeanism damned her own values.
I am Dynamite is a vibrant and fascinating account of the life of Friedrich Nietzsche that gives you an impression of the man that you might not have gotten from studying his works alone. I do feel a bit sad for him—despite everything, I don’t think his work ever gave him peace of mind. And it’s such a shame that the efforts of his sister tainted so much of his work after his death.
But I will reiterate what I mentioned at the start—this is a book about the man, his relationships and his personality. This is not an in-depth discussion of his philosophy. But if you keep that in mind, this is a wonderful read.
