EVASION BY « AMMAR« 

Love or loathe him, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) offered a unique way of considering creativity in his first major work, The Birth of Tragedy, published in 1872.

Competing creative energies

In this early offering, the idea of living life creatively is embodied in Nietzsche’s idea of living life as an artist. Two conflicting creative energies are detailed: the Apollonian and the Dionysian.

The Apollonian is the cool rational intellect, while the Dionysian is the passionate emotional aspect. Nietzsche worried that the society of his time only emphasised the Apollonian and neglected the role of the Dionysian or the emotions. He thought it was important to balance the two and saw this best depicted through artworks such as the Ancient Greek Tragedies.

We may argue that this balance between head and heart is still as important today as it was for Nietzsche. We, as human beings, are creators who produce things: objects, thoughts and actions.

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In contrast to those who claim Nietzsche was a nihilist, Nietzsche’s idea of celebrating life and living creatively can be interpreted as affirming; affirming life, ourselves and art in a wide sense. He writes:

We shall do a great deal for the science of esthetics, once we perceive not merely by logical inference, but with the immediate certainty of intuition, that the continuous development of art is bound up with the Apollonian and Dionysian duality: just as procreation depends on the duality of the sexes, involving perpetual strife with only periodically intervening reconciliations.

So begins The Birth of Tragedy.

Nietzsche insists that Greek tragedy achieves greatness through the inclusion of two interwoven creative energies: the restrained and rational Apollonian, responsible for the dialogue, and the passionate and irrational Dionysian, which inspires the music or chorus.

In the plays, the meaning of the words are enhanced by the accompanying melody. Using Greek dramatic artworks as an example, we can learn from great art to see the beauty in life. Tragic heroes display life-affirming values such as courage even as they face grim circumstances. The trick is not to deny one’s emotions, even as we intellectually strive to understand our lives as purposeful.