»IN VINO METAPHORA«

Abstract

»In Vino Metaphora« is, in part, a celebration of Nietzsche's overcoming of nihilism. The affirmation of life in the will to power as the source of all value-creating activity is shown to transcend the nihilism of which Nietzsche's critics often accuse him. One of the more important forms of the will to power in this sense is intoxication or the Dionysian. In Nietzsche's early work, the Dionysian was a metaphysical and artistic principle. His later work contrasts Dionysian intoxication with other forms and the Dionysian becomes both a psychological and physiological phenomenon. The paper also compares Nietzsche's view on intoxication with those of Walter Benjamin and discusses both in relation to such phenomena as rock music and the North American experience of the nineteen sixties.