The Drama of Disillusionment 23magic of its psychological and physiological enchantment. From this
perspective, the way in which music provides a bond to one's innermost
being appears to be nothing but a function of organic processes. Here
Nietzsche employed arguments that were antithetical to pathos to grap-
ple with his own tendencies in this direction, and experimented with a
mode of thought that made a mockery of his passions.
Man, Nietzsche contended, is a being that has leapt beyond the "bes-
tial bounds of the mating season" (8,432) and seeks pleasure not just at
fixed intervals but perpetually. Since, however, there are fewer sources of
pleasure than his perpetual desire for pleasure demands, nature has
forced man onto the "path of pleasure contrivance." Man, the creature
of consciousness whose horizons extend to the past and future, rarely
attains complete fulfillment within the present, and for this reason expe-
riences something most likely unknown to any animal, namely boredom.
This strange creature seeks a stimulus to release him from boredom. If
no such stimulus is readily available, it simply needs to be created. Man
becomes the animal that plays. Play is an invention that engages the
emotions; it is the art of stimulating emotions. Music is a prime exam-
ple. Thus, the anthropological and physiological formula for the secret
of art: "Flight from boredom is the mother of all art" (8,432).
Not a trace remains of the pathos of art when it is viewed in this
manner. Could the so-called secret of art be any more trivial? Must the
ecstasy of enthusiasm for art be reduced to a flight from the unalluring
desert of the ordinary? Is art being degraded to mere entertainment?
Nietzsche flirted with this demystifying viewpoint devoid of pathos. He
sought to desecrate art, which had been sacrosanct to him, and to cool
his fervor in "antiromantic self-treatment" (2,371; HHH Preface § 2) to
determine "how these things look if they are turned around" (2,17; HH
I Preface § 3). This process involves not only an inversion of the order
of precedence of moral values but also a shift from a metaphysical to a
physical and physiological oudook.
However, even "boredom" has its aura of mystery and is imbued with
a singular pathos by Nietzsche. Boredom, from which art provides a