The Will to Power

Nietzsche argues that “the effect of works of art is to excite the same state that creates art—intoxication” (434). In this way, Nietzsche extends his ideas about drives and the will to power to aesthetics. Art should be understood not in terms of passive contemplation of beauty or cerebral and intellectual effects, but as an extension and continuation of the creative, active, processes of life itself. It must awaken and excite the body. And it should put one in touch with the vital, creative forces which moved and inspired the artist in the first place. Nietzsche calls “L’art pour l’art” (art for art’s sake) “the virtuoso croaking of shivering frogs” (427) because it divorces artistic appreciation from creation and any genuine impact on one’s life.

However, to understand more precisely Nietzsche’s views on the nature and purpose of art, it is necessary to look more closely at what he calls “intoxication,” and why he sees this as essential to artistic creation and appreciation. “The demand for art and beauty,” he says, “is an indirect demand for the ecstasies of sexuality communicated to the brain. The world becomes perfect, through ‘love’” (424). Intoxication in art should not be viewed as analogous to alcoholic inebriation. Instead, it can be seen in terms of the “ecstasies” of romantic love, both as an expression of our underlying procreative drive and the most illuminating way of grasping it.

Nietzsche uses desire as a metaphor for how an artist relates initially to an idea, image, or object on which they begin to work. As he says, “as man sees woman and, as it were, makes her a present of everything excellent, so the sensuality of the artist puts into one object everything else that he honors and esteems” (424-25). The artist is attracted to and intoxicated by the object. They then project onto it what they value, and imaginatively adorn it with ethereal and sublime properties, further deepening their intoxication. At the same time, the artist, like the lover, feels “a harmonizing of all the strong desires” (420). To win and impress the beloved, they transform themselves and direct all their strength and ability toward this aim. The artist subordinates all their energies to the act of creation, striving to do so in a harmonious way.

Finally, there is consummation. For the artist, this is the culminating event of creation and expression, whereby the music or artwork or drama emerges fully formed. This is also the highest moment of intoxication. As in love and sex, there is a loss of individuation in this creation. The boundaries between the self and other, self and the creative work, breakdown. We are taken outside our ordinary sense of reason and reality, and experience a unity with the vital, creative forces of life. Yet this does not mean that such art, what Nietzsche calls “Dionysian” art, is thereby based on an illusion. Nor does the intoxication which transforms our standard perception of the world take us away from the truth. On the contrary, it allows for a confrontation with “questionable and terrifying things” (450). In the best art, and in artistic intoxication, suffering and destruction form part of what makes the experience beautiful.

Unlike Schopenhauer who said that “one should learn resignation from tragedy (a gentle renunciation of happiness, hope, will to life)” (449), Nietzsche sees tragedy as a spur to the affirmation of life. In tragedy, the most horrific truths of existence are brought to light but then overcome in a triumphant expression of courage, strength, and understanding. For example, in the nobility of Oedipus we find redemption from the heart-rending reality of fate and the suffering it can impose. In contrast, art seeking merely an aesthetic appreciation of form exhibits no deeper awareness of truth. This art, like formalism in music, reflects the unwillingness and inability of the artist and audience to confront the terrible in existence. It provides pleasant illusions through which the weak and weary can endure life.