For the new year
"For the new year: I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think. Sum, ergo cogito: cogito, ergo Sum. Today everybody permits himself the expression of his wish and his dearest thought; hence I, too, shall say what it is that I wish from myself today, and what was the first thought to run across my heart this year -what thought shall be for me the reason, warranty, and sweetness of my life henceforth. I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer."
In aphorism 276 of Book Four (in fact the first aphorism of Book Four) of The Gay Science Nietzsche represents a call to focus on what can be controlled and find beauty in the present moment invoking the concept of "Amor Fati" for the first time in his work. There is also a theme established - one of celebration, celebration of the month of January. This is also advanced through the title of the fourth book- Nietzsche entitled it "Sanctus Januarius", meaning Holy Januaius or Holy January. On one hand, Saint January is the patron saint of Naples, martyr of the Catholic Church. In this sense, Walter Kaufmann writes in the footnote, citing Sigmund Freud regarding the miracle of St. Januarius
"In a church in Naples, the blood of the Holy Januarius is kept in a vial, and by virtue of a miracle it becomes liquid again on a certain feast day. Put crudely, Nietzsche calls Book Four "Sanctus Januarius" because he feels that his own blood has become liquid again."
Furthermore, Nietzsche prefaces this book with a poem, dated January of 1882 in Genoa.
"With a faming spear you crushed
All its ice until my soul
Roaring toward the ocean rushed
its highest hope and goal.
Ever healthier it swells,
Lovingly compelled but free:
Thus it lauds your miracles,
Fairest month of January!"
This poem seems to be a laudatory statement regarding the transformative powers of the month of January. The imagery of the spear breaking the ice suggests a force bringing change and warmth, allowing the soul to flow feely towards its goals, likened to an ocean.
Amor Fati
In order to briefly present the philosphy of "Amor Fati" we need to go back to the "theory" of eternal reccurence. Not the scope of this article is not to make an in depth analysis of any fragments or aphorisms that talk about the latter (see The Gay Science, Aphorism 341- "The greatest weight"), whereas the key point is that the theory of eternal recurrence is not Nietzsche's attempt at offering a cosmological argument, but an ethical theory on how one should approach life. In this sense, the eternal recurrence is a nietzschean version of Kant's categorical imperative. It is, literally, a way of life.
N.B:
And after all, it is the motto which got me through the year 2023. May the New Year be kind to us! Incipit Tragoedia!