Tuesday, June 27, 2006

A Manhattanite in Heidelberg...

Woody Allen comes across Nietzsche’s diet book in Heidelberg and you can almost expect a deliciously crisp extra light scoop of cynicism.
"- Among the pre-Socratics, it was Zeno who held that weight was an illusion and that no matter how much a man ate he would always be only half as fat as the man who never does push-ups.
- The quest for an ideal body obsessed the Athenians, and in a lost play by Aeschylus Clytemnestra breaks her vow never to snack between meals and tears out her eyes when she realizes she no longer fits into her bathing suit.
- Dining out was frowned upon by the Church and valet parking was a sin.
- Fourteenth-century religious paintings first depicted scenes of damnation in which the overweight wandered hell, condemned to salads and yogurt.
- Descartes divided mind and body in two, so that the body could gorge itself while the mind thought, who cares, it’s not me. The great question of philosophy remains: If life is meaningless, what can be done about alphabet soup?
- Not only is our time on earth limited but most kitchens close at ten.
- Once munching, Schopenhauer held, the human will cannot resist further munching, and the result is a universe with crumbs over everything.
- Order like you are ordering for every human being on earth, Kant advises, but what if the man next to you doesn’t eat guacamole?
- In the end, of course, there are no moral foods, unless we count soft-boiled eggs".

Nietzsche’s meals were meals for the Superman, with the death of God anything is permitted.

(Pic, Heidelberg by the Neckar river)

5 comments:

Zee said...

Interesting post. I wonder what you would say about the scandinavian "smorgasbord" - how does that fit in?
Is it related to Kirkegaards pessimism that you never can find what you really are looking for?

_z. said...

If life was meaningless, the alphabet soup wouldn't exist. You won't be able to eat, and your dilemma would be resolved.
If you can't eat, you don't exist shouts Descartes.
Newton throws his apple at him, and Camus tells him to shut the f. up.
Da Vinci is asking them to be patient. He is sketching the real proportions of a human being. You have to eat, or abstain from eating in order to reach these godly proportions.

But God is dead... what godly proportions…
Well then at least get those proportions so you’ll look beautiful. You can have more sex affirms Freud.
Here we go again with this guy.

I watched Superman yesterday, it sucked. But I ate a big fat bag of pop-corn and butter, and of course a Diet-Coke.

_z. said...

by the way in Superman yesterday, there came a Nietzscheian moment with the 2 newspapers printed and ready (you'll know what I am talking about if you see the movie, and if you don't, you won't be missing anything at all).

Unknown said...

zee, a smorgasbord-- as long as you skip dessert.
kirkegaard's self seperation from the world takes us back to descartes' who cares, it's not about them, it's about me!

_z. interesting, the vitruvian will never lose his perfect proportions but ease up on the butter there.
superman, funny i was just saying 5 min ago that it's too soon for another superman. i don't think i'll see it. not on top of my list.

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