Europe Discovers Nietzsche 333was armored and masked to guard against not only the dangers from
without but also the perils hatched within himself Bertram asserted that
because Nietzsche embodied creative chaos, he was representative of
German culture, which, like Nietzsche, required restraint from within
and protection from without, and quite possibly a mask as welL Bertram
cited Nietzsche's claim that "everything profound loves a mask"
(Bertram 171) to lead in his discussion of the distinction between cul-
ture and civilization. Culture seeks out the spectacle of masks as a means
of protection in the face of its excess of elemental forces. Donning a
mask is a response to the experience of the elemental. Civilization, by
contrast, has severed all ties to the elemental and is now focused on the
hollow center of the play of masks itself. No longer is there any pro-
fundity in need of concealment Civilization seeks secure terrain, while
culture is drawn to the edge of the abyss. Culture craves tragedy and
death, and senses more than it knows. Sacrifice is more important than
gain. Culture is extravagant and loves abundance and superfluity. Using
its subject as a case in point, Bertram's book on Nietzsche is one long
meditation on the question "Why aspire to culture if civilization enables
us to lead a perfecdy good life?" When civilization does succeed, every-
thing becomes clear and bright, as both Nietzsche and Bertram were
well aware. The end of Bertram's book highlights a passage from a let-
ter by Nietzsche: "How often I have experienced this very thing under
all kinds of circumstances: Everything is clear, yet everything is also
over" (Bertram 353).
Nietzsche and Bertram were loath to conjecture that the end would
be marked by disappointing clarity. Nietzsche often declared that it was
the enigmatic character of things he found attractive. This longing for
enchantment and mystique was also the ongoing theme of Bertram's
book. Nietzsche was portrayed as a figure who seductively and know-
ingly pointed the way to creative chaos, courting demise in the process.
Bertram heard the siren song in Nietzsche and supplied his own
melodies. His myth of Nietzsche did not point toward a martial or
Teutonic world. Instead, everything culminates in a hymn to the