Document Type

Article

Keywords

Nietzsche, David Allison, David Farrell Krell, Donald Bates, image and word, performative text, Nice, Eze-sure-Mer, Eze-Vllage, Samuel Beckett, Europe, atmosphere

Disciplines

Aesthetics | Continental Philosophy | French and Francophone Language and Literature | Other German Language and Literature | Philosophy

Abstract

So many things come together so beautifully in The Good European, it is hard
to imagine not being moved by it. I discuss what kind of book this is and, more specifically, try to explain, in some detail, just how this work is able to achieve the remarkably performative effect that it has on the reader — at least on this reader. At the outset, it should be said that The Good European is an oversized, illustrated book — a well-known genre — although it is quite unusual to find an example of such work devoted to the life and thought of a philosopher. More simply stated, it is an illustrated biography of Nietzsche and it focuses on the principal sites of Nietzsche’s farflung residences and travel destinations, places where he lived and worked. The design and layout of the text is a particularly effective conjunction of photographic images by Donald Bates and written text by David Krell that generates a remarkable reader-dynamic, drawing the reader, or observer, into proximate contact with Nietzsche’s own experienced world. It’s this dynamic relation of image and word that I’d like to explore here.

Article Number

1023

Publication Date

Fall 2000

Comments

Please use original citation details in citing this article.

David B. Allison, "Notes on David Krell’s The Good European," New Nietzsche Studies, Volume Four: Nos. 1 & 2, Summer/Fall 2000, pp. 201-212.

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