Biography on Frederick Nietzsche: this is a passage from "On truth and lie in an extra-moral sense" which i feel encompasses his overall philosophy/person.
what then is truth...
a mobile army of metaphors?
a SUM of HUMAN RELATIONS,
which have been enhanced, transposed and embellished
poetically and rhetorically
and which after long use seem FirM,
canonical, obligatory to a people
:truths are illusions
about which one has forgotten
that is what they are;
((metaphors))
which are worn out
& without sensuous power
we do not kNOw
where the urge
for truth comes from;
for as yet, we have heard
only of the obligation
imposed by society
that it should exist.
to be truthful: means
"using the customary metaphors"
in moral terms: the obligation
to lie
according to fixed convention,
to lie herd-like
ina style
obligatory for all
I'm biased, as an avid fan of Dos Passos, but I really appreciate your inspired choice of subject. I love the line "in moral terms: the obligation / to lie," which breaks at exactly the right moment in the poem. The poem seems to connect with Dos Passos' similar struggle against convention, almost his terror in the face of it. Great work!
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