Customer Reviews

The Romance of Individualism in Emerson & Nietzsche (Series In Continental Thought)

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This is a staggering commentary on the conflict of alternative realities as expressed in the visionary populism of Nietzsche and the homespun Americana and Unitarian-style individualism found in the writings of Emerson. The contrast of these two by the brilliant, but erratic, Professor Mikics IS one of the great misunderstood (not to mention unjustly ignored)intellects of our time and this book, so far, is his magnum opus.

I have trouble keeping track of the aims of an author writing about Nietzsche because I have so many personal issues of my own, but a line in the introduction about trying to shake us free from the hypnotic vocabularies of propriety and responsibility that animate our thoughts on the self and its place in the world almost gives me hope that readers will realize how much the alternatives being offered for a gambling addiction that is bouncing around trying to pick a path to a spurious infinity are merely symptoms of those who are freaking out about maintaining economic growth in a world of billions of people that will never get the kind of medical attention that bankrupts whoever plans to pay our bills. This book might not have the vocabularies I am looking for, but it knows some people are really shook.