My best blog post of January 2022 is Writers—Beware the Second Spectator, published on January 22
For the historians of philosophy, this blog post is important because it points out how early it was in Nietzsche’s career he recognized Socrates as his nemesis.
But more importantly, let me summarize the advice this blog post offers writers: Artists should not seek the approval of the rational man, the average man, the modern man.
This is not to say we shouldn’t write clearly and cleanly, using a logical structure and appropriate grammar. It is certainly acceptable to use rationality as a tool, even if that tool is occasionally a hammer.
But just as the architect shouldn’t let the carpenter’s hammer dictate the final appearance of the house, we writers—as artists—shouldn’t cater to mediocrity and let the average, rational, modern man judge, or worse, dictate, our final literary works.
Thank you, Friedrich. You’re a dangerous philosopher, but you do offer great writing tips.