CHAPTER 1Inventing
1. Inventing a Life
A boy writes · The divided self · Lightning and thunder ·
Finding and inventing life stories · Prometheus and others- First attempt at philosophy:^ uFate and History " · Ocean
of ideas and nostalgia
JL HE FIRST colossal power to intrude upon the young Nietzsche
was his own life. During his high school and college years, from 1858 to
1868, he penned no fewer than nine autobiographical sketches, each fol-
lowing the general theme of "How I became what I am." Later he
switched over from the epic genre to something more dramatic in
nature, and combined writing about his own life with grand gestures of
proclamation. By that point, he had concluded that his life was exem-
plary. At first he simply wrote about his own life; then he wrote with all
of the life force he could muster, and ultimately he wrote to stay alive.
Those who commit their lives to paper at such an eady age are not
always narcissistic, and often they do not necessarily regard themselves as
highly problematic Factors of that sort are more likely to work to a
writer's disadvantage, because extreme entanglement in one's own prob-
lems or an excess of self-love generally precludes a writer's ability to
maintain an essential distance. Nietzsche's autobiographical writings pre-
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