The Letters to Nobody

Literature, or rather 'writing', is in itself an immortal voice. Kept unwillingly alive by the careful soul who has taken the time to place significant valuation on a passing moment of thought by means of record. Then of course there are the 'carriers', or in other words- those with an 'acquaintance with letters'. It is these wonderful individuals, responsible for the continual preservation of moments that we owe our thanks. And with this is in mind I introduce the first letter of my own on the topic of life, or rather, being 'alive'. 

You've all heard the stories... about the selfish prince in 'beauty and the beast', stripped of a life of privilege that bred only contempt. Hayao Miyazaki's cartoon rendition of the lowly young Sophie Hatter, a shy wallflower in pursuit of will to live only once her youth has been forcefully snatched from her. What would Friedrich Nietzsche utter if he stumbled upon the set of one of our beloved films?

  

Everyday, regardless of our fields of expertise we are struggling to make things- better, stronger, more, faster. We wear our war paint under the shadow of 'progress' and fight for a future of 'improvement'. Are we so divorced from our physical selves that we've forgotten how to feel alive?

 In Twilight of the Idols Nietzsche says that Being is an empty fiction. The ‘apparent’ world is the only one: the ‘real’ world has only been lyingly added” (Nietzsche 1889, p.46). We live in accordance to these rules and truth's that will ultimately, we hope, lead us to happiness. But has their inclusion served our modern lifestyles, or are we now, more than unwilling victim's of our own destiny? 

 In The Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche refers here to civilization and how it has led to the worst sickness ever contracted by the human animal- its suffering from itself. "From lack of external enemies and resistances and forcibly confined to the oppressive narrowness and punctiliousness of custom, [it] impatiently lacerated, persecuted, gnawed at, assaulted, and maltreated himself...racked with homesickness for the wild, had to turn itself into an adventure, a torture chamber, an uncertain and dangerous wilderness (Nietzsche 1966). 

It is with this in mind that I birth the first avenue of enquiry. In a world of complications and internal suffering, it is the flickering of light that make the darkness endurable. 

And if the darkness threatens to swallow you..

dream a better dream, J.K.Rowling style,

or whatever it is that makes you feel alive...

And swim towards the light.