compelling.
i've been reading nietzsche's "human, all too human" again, and here's this:
[231]
Genesis of the genius. The prisoner's wits, which he uses to seek means to free himself by employing each little advantage in the most calculated and exhaustive way, can teach us the tools nature sometimes uses to produce a genius (a word that I ask be understood without any mythological or religious nuance). Nature traps the genius into a prison, and piques to the utmost his desire to free himself.
Or, to use another image, someone who has completely lost his way in ,a forest, but strives with uncommon energy to get out of it in whatever direction, sometimes discovers a new, unknown way: this is how geniuses come into being, who are then praised for their originality.
We have already mentioned that mutilation, crippling, or serious lack of an organ often causes another organ to develop unusually well because it has to carry out both its own function and another besides. From this we can divine the origin of many a splendid talent.
One should apply these general comments about the origin of the genius to the special case, the genesis of the perfect free spirit.
__________
in thinking, further, of one of his earlier aphorisms (beyond good and evil, i believe)
i had a thought.
one should think outside the box. before as such, though, one must learn to think inside the box; one must learn to think.
(the latter added by me.)
now, a lot of folks 'round here find to disparaging the Principia as mindless hippy drug drivel.
i'd be the least to detract them from that. (even though i have, seemingly, tried- largely out of personal amusement.)
it seems to me that BIP is being spoken, conceived and perhaps even felt (if that's not too strong a word) in a post-box endeavor. that is awesome, like a thousand hotdogs, sir.
however, you have to (well, should at least grudgingly) consider that the PD was created with more than the dada bullshit in mind. in fact, the predominant theme, imo, was the double entendre of what you read and the principal at play (re: the law of fives, the starbuck's pebbles, the bitter tea, et al...). moreover, it's taken to such an absurd degree, that it's ultimately as benign as the trivial objects used for introductory logic premises. (cats, dogs; moon, cheese...) this is (or could be taken as) another layer of banality masking the basic mechanism.
so, then, the principia discordia has it's shit all retarded and talks like a fag, but it's an implement for understanding some of the basic principals to how thought in the box works. now, perhaps in the natural progression, whatever that is, you come to disdain the box-thoughts knowing them on such intimate terms.
[276]
Microcosm and macrocosm of culture. Man makes the best discoveries about culture within himself when he finds two heterogeneous powers governing there. Given that a man loved the plastic arts or music as much as he was moved by the spirit of science, and that he deemed it impossible to end this contradiction by destroying the one and completely unleashing the other power; then, the only thing remaining to him is to make such a large edifice of culture out of himself that both powers can live there, even if at different ends of it; between them are sheltered conciliatory central powers, with the dominating strength to settle, if need be, any quarrels that break out. Such a cultural edifice in the single individual will have the greatest similarity to the cultural architecture of whole eras and, by analogy, provide continuous instruction about them. For wherever the great architecture of culture developed, it was its task to force opposing forces into harmony through an overwhelming aggregation of the remaining, less incompatible27 powers, yet without suppressing or shackling them.
27. unvertr?§glich, not unertr?§glich (unbearable) as in the Zimmern text.
it's most definitely bullshit.
but maybe it's not just bullshit.
