Reading the New Nietzsche (review)

In Reading the New Nietzsche, Allison makes a strong case for taking a philosophically generous approach in his broad study of what he considers to be Nietzsche's "most celebrated and widely read texts" (x), The Birth of Tragedy, The Gay Science, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and On the Genealogy of Morals. Although Allison's reasons for choosing these specific texts are weak, his exegetical treatment is informative and engaging, and he has much to offer (especially to the unseasoned reader of Nietzsche). He is able accurately to situate Nietzsche's work both biographically and historically and to make some significant observations about the relationship between Nietzsche's writing and his personal life without being too reductive. Perhaps most interestingly, Allison elucidates conceptual and allegorical parallels between Nietzsche's works and stories/myths from antiquity or religious texts. In this respect, Allison's book offers a number of interpretive highlights, even for the avid reader of Nietzsche, and especially so in the discussion of Z.

In his preface and introduction, Allison takes care to emphasize that although Nietzsche writes in a way that invites a variety of interpretations, his work is not without orientation. He argues that Nietzsche's unique writing styles are directed toward selecting a particular kind of readership that will assist Western culture in coping with the trauma of the "death of God" and its ensuing consequences. Allison situates GS at the pivotal center of this project and claims some continuity in his analysis of the other three texts through his emphasis on the import of this theme.

Allison begins his first chapter on BT by making some vital observations about the relevance of the preface of 1886 for adequately understanding how this early text fits into Nietzsche's larger corpus. He points out that Nietzsche's rather critical assessment helps the reader's comprehension of a book that even Nietzsche found excessive. Allison outlines two of Nietzsche's aims in this preface: first, to distinguish his work from that of the optimistic (Kant) and pessimistic (Schopenhauer) idealists; second, to demonstrate an affirmative response to the question mark of existence through his analysis of tragic Greek culture. In connection with this second aim, Allison helpfully explains that Nietzsche's concept of Dionysus had changed in 1886: Whereas in the earlier BT the two deities Dionysus and Apollo are clearly delineated, later they are fused together as the Dionysian and polarized against the Christian. Nietzsche's concern with the death of God is thus already in the background in this text, Allison suggests, and his analysis of Greek tragedy is devised in the interest of developing a musical healing imperative for his own culture and time.

BT is Nietzsche's first attempt at the revaluation of all values, according to Allison, in that he employs what he later terms his genealogical approach to doing philosophy and utilizes 'Dionysus' and 'Apollo' as prescriptive terms. Allison spends considerable time explaining the historical and mythological relevance of these deities, arguably more than is necessary, and then examines Nietzsche's specific use of them, but in an unclear fashion. Too much attention is given to distinguishing the Apollonian from the Dionysian and not enough to an explanation of their union, which is what Greek tragedy and the very object of Nietzsche's study consist in. In particular, Allison's description of the Apollonian has significant limitations. He rests too heavily on the Apollonian as illusion and dream rather than appearance (Erscheinung) or semblance and in doing so fails to explain clearly that the Apollonian power of semblance and individuation allows for the primal truth of the Dionysian to be accessible to the human being. On the other hand, Allison gives a wonderfully lucid and detailed account of the effect of the intoxicating Dionysian state on the individual (66) and even cites research in cognitive psychology to give credibility to Nietzsche's observations on the influence of music on...