The Finale in Turin 305gone into labor and given birth to a message, which now had to be
announced to the people. Nietzsche descended from his Sinai with new
Tables of the Law. It was now time to speak unequivocally, perhaps even
too plainly. The intellectual preconditions for the coming era would now
be proclaimed resolutely, not muted by reflections any longer.
Philosophizing with a "hammer," as heralded in the Twilight of the Idols,
written during the summer of 1888, would entail not simply tapping off
previously valid notions and principles—in the manner of a doctor tap-
ping a patient's chest to locate a hollow spot—but shattering idols. Two
levels were at work here: a litde hammer and a big one, probing and
smashing, diagnosis and massive therapy.
Nietzsche's final works, The Case of Wagner, Twilight of the Idols, The
Antichrist, and Ecce Homo, which appeared in rapid succession, no longer
developed new ideas, but generalized or particularized familiar con-
cepts. Nuances, objections, and contradictions fell away. In the process,
the directorial and theatrical lavishness of the presentation expanded.
Ecce Homo keeps circling in on this question: How did I come to be priv-
ileged enough to think the way I do, and what kind of person does that
make me?
The central concerns of Nietzsche's last works are, as we might
expect, the will to power in its dual version as politics on a grand scale
and the individual art of living, a critique of morality based on ressenti-
ment, and praise of Dionysian life as a means of transcending nihilist
superficiality and depression. There are few surprises here, but it is quite
fascinating to observe how Nietzsche, the creator of his "second
nature," gradually united with his creation. As he continually pointed
out, he had burrowed inside and probed himself, looked out onto the
wodd from "many eyes," and observed himself in the process, peering
at his many eyes with even more eyes. He had plumbed the depths of his
soul to the point of exhaustion and exhilaration. This "self" had
become a whole uncharted continent, which he sought to explore. All of
his investigations kept leading him to the creative force that forms the
basis of practical living, art, morality, and science. Even science figured