The best books on Wagner | Hacker News Reader

The best books on Wagner

fivebooks.com

48 pointstintinnabula6 comments

Somewhat off-topic, but I had not discovered this site before. This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for to jumpstart my reading list. (I finished school a few years ago, and I’m finally past forced-reading burnout and ready to start diving deep in books again.)

Little known fact: in his heyday and for a few decades after, Wagner was the 3rd most written about person in Western Civilization after Jesus and Napoleon.

One thing that faded away in time is the sheer intensity and cult-of-personality that surrounded his fame.

I have always been fascinated by Nietzsche’s relationship with Wagner. What began as a hero worship for N. ended in bitter disappointment, largely because he was disappointed in Wagner’s “reversion” to Christianity and his Anti-Semitism. I highly recommend reading “The Case of Wagner” if you get the chance.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_of_Wagner

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25012?msg=welcome_stranger

was there any philo-semitism in europe of the 1800s? christianity and anti-semitism go hand in hand, which is why the definition of zionism had to be reversed in the early 20th century.

you can be a christian zionist now (which is what the nazis were), can you really be a christian philo-semite? but then of course christian now means neosecular humanist.

nietzsche saw the structural problems in christianity, but he lacked the social insight into why other people depended on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8ISzf2pryI

(because nobody likes feeling guilty)

he tried to work the problem from the wrong end, controlling what people do and how they think quickly turns into socialism, fascism, communism. easing the burden of their guilt after the fact is a much more convenient solution, it's pragmatic and simple. children don't really learn what they are being taught, they learn to teach it.

machiavelli solved both fascism and marxism 300 years before either had to become a thing, the less said about the more unsavory aspects of the enlightenment the better. i deeply suspect most influential thinkers of the previous centuries had ulterior personal motives, some rather sinister when it came to the mobilization of the furies and passions of human nature.

Stephen Fry has a documentary on his relationship with Wagner on Netflix. Well worth a look if you're interested in Wagner.

How many hours of reading does this amount to?

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