Alcyone - Nietzsche on Gifts, Noise, And Women by Gary Shapiro
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8/10/2019 Alcyone - Nietzsche on Gifts, Noise, And Women by Gary Shapiro
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Author(s): Kathleen Marie HigginsReviewed work(s):Alcyone: Nietzsche on Gifts, Noise, and Women by Gary Shapiro
Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Summer, 1992), pp. 263-265Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The American Society for AestheticsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/431242
Accessed: 04/10/2008 03:52
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Book
Reviews
ook
Reviews
Among
recent
postmodernist
readings
of
art
his-
tory
and
aesthetic
theory,
Roberts's
approach
has the
merit of
advancing
a
strong
characterization f
post-
modern
art. The last
part
of
his book
argues
that the
shift from
modern to
postmodern
art
reduces the
European
raditiono
freely
disposable
material
along-
side other
material,
and it
replaces
he idea of
progress
with an
awarenessof
contingency.
Roberts
elaborates
his
characterization
with elan and
sophistication,
bringing
it
into critical
dialogue
with the
views of
Jean
Baudrillard,
Peter
Burger,
Arthur
Danto,
Jiirgen
Habermas,
and
FredricJameson.
Unlike
Adorno,
whom
he
reads as
pitting
a
pro-
gressive
and
authentic
Schoenbergagainst
a
reaction-
ary
and inauthentic
Stravinsky,
Roberts abandons
he
paradigm
of
progress
that
guides
modernist
aesthet-
ics. In
fact,
he
argues
that both
Schoenberg
and
Stravinskyare postmodern artists who simply give
alternative esponsesto the
situation
of
contingency
broughtabout by
the end of
tradition p. 131).
This
situation,
which renders
modernist
aesthetics inade-
quate, an
aestheticsafter
Adorno
must
understand.
Contingency is a
proteanconcept in
Roberts's
book.
On the one
hand, it contrastswith
the necessity
and
continuity that
Hegel and
Adorno
ascribe
to
the
historical
unfolding of art. On
the other
hand, it
points
to
the
freedom of
postmodern
artists
to
choose
amongvirtually
endless
options unbounded
by
tradi-
tion.
According to
Roberts,
romanticirony in
liter-
ature
prefiguresthe
emancipationof
contingency
inpostmodernart. Afterthe crisis of traditionandthe
shattering of
progress, however,
contingency
be-
comes
systemic. The critique
of
art as arthas
become
intrinsic o
the entire
enterpriseof art
production
and
artreception.This
self-reflection on
the level of
the
system is
a new stage in
the
enlightenment of art
(p.
21).
There is
something odd about
such usage of
terms
like
emancipation,
stage, and
enlightenment.
Their
appealseems to
derive from he
very
paradigm
of
progress
hatRoberts has
abandoned.
Although he
might
esitate to call
postmodern art
better than
modern
art, he at least
suggeststhatpostmodern
art
is
good withinthe largerhistoricalscheme of things.
Yet
I
am unable
o
find
a basis
for
this
suggestion, and
it
is
hard
to
imagine
what the basis
could be, absent
some
latent dea
of
historical
progress.
A
related
puzzle concerns
the
plausibility
of
Rob-
erts's claims about the
enlightened
and
emancipated
character
of
postmodernart. He
says,
for
example,
that the
system
of
art
is
now
enlightened, fully
'rational'and
self-referential,because it is
no longer
blind
to itself
(p.
174).
While this has
some
merits
as
a
claim about art
as an
independent
system,
the
claim
rapidly
oses
plausibility
when one
locates art
at
the intersection of
politics,
economics,
electronic
media, and the culture industry.There art seems in-
Among
recent
postmodernist
readings
of
art
his-
tory
and
aesthetic
theory,
Roberts's
approach
has the
merit of
advancing
a
strong
characterization f
post-
modern
art. The last
part
of
his book
argues
that the
shift from
modern to
postmodern
art
reduces the
European
raditiono
freely
disposable
material
along-
side other
material,
and it
replaces
he idea of
progress
with an
awarenessof
contingency.
Roberts
elaborates
his
characterization
with elan and
sophistication,
bringing
it
into critical
dialogue
with the
views of
Jean
Baudrillard,
Peter
Burger,
Arthur
Danto,
Jiirgen
Habermas,
and
FredricJameson.
Unlike
Adorno,
whom
he
reads as
pitting
a
pro-
gressive
and
authentic
Schoenbergagainst
a
reaction-
ary
and inauthentic
Stravinsky,
Roberts abandons
he
paradigm
of
progress
that
guides
modernist
aesthet-
ics. In
fact,
he
argues
that both
Schoenberg
and
Stravinskyare postmodern artists who simply give
alternative esponsesto the
situation
of
contingency
broughtabout by
the end of
tradition p. 131).
This
situation,
which renders
modernist
aesthetics inade-
quate, an
aestheticsafter
Adorno
must
understand.
Contingency is a
proteanconcept in
Roberts's
book.
On the one
hand, it contrastswith
the necessity
and
continuity that
Hegel and
Adorno
ascribe
to
the
historical
unfolding of art. On
the other
hand, it
points
to
the
freedom of
postmodern
artists
to
choose
amongvirtually
endless
options unbounded
by
tradi-
tion.
According to
Roberts,
romanticirony in
liter-
ature
prefiguresthe
emancipationof
contingency
inpostmodernart. Afterthe crisis of traditionandthe
shattering of
progress, however,
contingency
be-
comes
systemic. The critique
of
art as arthas
become
intrinsic o
the entire
enterpriseof art
production
and
artreception.This
self-reflection on
the level of
the
system is
a new stage in
the
enlightenment of art
(p.
21).
There is
something odd about
such usage of
terms
like
emancipation,
stage, and
enlightenment.
Their
appealseems to
derive from he
very
paradigm
of
progress
hatRoberts has
abandoned.
Although he
might
esitate to call
postmodern art
better than
modern
art, he at least
suggeststhatpostmodern
art
is
good withinthe largerhistoricalscheme of things.
Yet
I
am unable
o
find
a basis
for
this
suggestion, and
it
is
hard
to
imagine
what the basis
could be, absent
some
latent dea
of
historical
progress.
A
related
puzzle concerns
the
plausibility
of
Rob-
erts's claims about the
enlightened
and
emancipated
character
of
postmodernart. He
says,
for
example,
that the
system
of
art
is
now
enlightened, fully
'rational'and
self-referential,because it is
no longer
blind
to itself
(p.
174).
While this has
some
merits
as
a
claim about art
as an
independent
system,
the
claim
rapidly
oses
plausibility
when one
locates art
at
the intersection of
politics,
economics,
electronic
media, and the culture industry.There art seems in-
creasingly
ess
transparent
nd
increasingly
ess like
a
self-contained
system.
Indeed,
one weakness of Roberts'sbook
is that it
pays
too little
regard
o Adorno's
social
theory
and
his
critique
of
the culture
ndustry.
These,
it seems
to
me,
provide
more fruitful sources
for
a
theory
of
post-
modern
art thandoes
Philosophy of
Modern
Music.
At the same
time,
the latter work
can
hardly
be
understood
apart
from its connections
with
Adorno's
contemporaneouswritings
on
fascism,
popular
music,
and the authoritarian
ersonality.
Although
Roberts
touches
on
similar
topics
in
his brief and
suggestive
sections on Jameson
(pp.
104-145)
and
Baudrillard
(pp.
198-207),
he does not
employ many
of the
resources
available in Adorno's version of
critical
theory.
The motivation for
raising
this criticism is not a
devotion to Adornobut a concernforthe directionof
postmodernist
theory. While applauding
Roberts's
creative and
astute
proposals
for
a theory of
post-
modern art, I find
myself wishing for
greaterengage-
ment
with
political,
economic, and broadly
cultural
issues.
For the
crisis of tradition
has not been
limited
to art, and the
emancipation
f contingency
now
pervades the
entire culture of
late
capitalism.
Moreover,
the significance
of these
developments
depends on
larger
movements toward
freedom
and
justice and
peace thanthe
arts as such can
provide. It
was precisely
such
movements, orthe
obstructions o
them, that
Adorno tried to
disclose in the
art and
cultureof his time. Theirdisclosure in our time is a
challenge
facing anytheory
afterAdorno.
LAMBERT
ZUIDERVAART
Department
of Philosophy
Calvin
College
SHAPIRO, GARY.
Alcvone:
Nietzscheon
Gifts,
Noise, and Women.
SUNY
Press, 1991,
158
pp.,
$39.50 cloth,
$12.95 paper.
Gary Shapiro
sets out to
reread Nietzsche's Thus
Spoke Zarathustrain terms of what Nietzsche de-
scribed as its
halcyon tone.
Shapirounpacks this
expression in
terms of the
myth
of
Alcyone, who,
while
lamenting her
husband's death at
sea, was
turned
along with her
husband nto
sea birds ( hal-
cyons ) by
the gods.
Shapirolinks the
cries
of Al-
cyone
to the primordial
ries and concerns of
women,
cries
and concerns
displaced by the Western
meta-
physicaltradition.
Nietzsche's
remark bout he hal-
cyon
tone of
Zarathustraheraldsthe returnof
such
repressed
concerns, among
them the topics
of
gifts,
noise, and
women.
In
the first essay, On
Presents and
Presence,
Shapirolinks Nietzsche's emphasison gift-giving in
creasingly
ess
transparent
nd
increasingly
ess like
a
self-contained
system.
Indeed,
one weakness of Roberts'sbook
is that it
pays
too little
regard
o Adorno's
social
theory
and
his
critique
of
the culture
ndustry.
These,
it seems
to
me,
provide
more fruitful sources
for
a
theory
of
post-
modern
art thandoes
Philosophy of
Modern
Music.
At the same
time,
the latter work
can
hardly
be
understood
apart
from its connections
with
Adorno's
contemporaneouswritings
on
fascism,
popular
music,
and the authoritarian
ersonality.
Although
Roberts
touches
on
similar
topics
in
his brief and
suggestive
sections on Jameson
(pp.
104-145)
and
Baudrillard
(pp.
198-207),
he does not
employ many
of the
resources
available in Adorno's version of
critical
theory.
The motivation for
raising
this criticism is not a
devotion to Adornobut a concernforthe directionof
postmodernist
theory. While applauding
Roberts's
creative and
astute
proposals
for
a theory of
post-
modern art, I find
myself wishing for
greaterengage-
ment
with
political,
economic, and broadly
cultural
issues.
For the
crisis of tradition
has not been
limited
to art, and the
emancipation
f contingency
now
pervades the
entire culture of
late
capitalism.
Moreover,
the significance
of these
developments
depends on
larger
movements toward
freedom
and
justice and
peace thanthe
arts as such can
provide. It
was precisely
such
movements, orthe
obstructions o
them, that
Adorno tried to
disclose in the
art and
cultureof his time. Theirdisclosure in our time is a
challenge
facing anytheory
afterAdorno.
LAMBERT
ZUIDERVAART
Department
of Philosophy
Calvin
College
SHAPIRO, GARY.
Alcvone:
Nietzscheon
Gifts,
Noise, and Women.
SUNY
Press, 1991,
158
pp.,
$39.50 cloth,
$12.95 paper.
Gary Shapiro
sets out to
reread Nietzsche's Thus
Spoke Zarathustrain terms of what Nietzsche de-
scribed as its
halcyon tone.
Shapirounpacks this
expression in
terms of the
myth
of
Alcyone, who,
while
lamenting her
husband's death at
sea, was
turned
along with her
husband nto
sea birds ( hal-
cyons ) by
the gods.
Shapirolinks the
cries
of Al-
cyone
to the primordial
ries and concerns of
women,
cries
and concerns
displaced by the Western
meta-
physicaltradition.
Nietzsche's
remark bout he hal-
cyon
tone of
Zarathustraheraldsthe returnof
such
repressed
concerns, among
them the topics
of
gifts,
noise, and
women.
In
the first essay, On
Presents and
Presence,
Shapirolinks Nietzsche's emphasison gift-giving in
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8/10/2019 Alcyone - Nietzsche on Gifts, Noise, And Women by Gary Shapiro
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The Journal of Aesthetics and Art
Criticism
Zarathustra
with
(alleged)
abandonmentf themeta-
physics
of
presence.
Given our
metaphysical
and
economic
history,
Shapiro
contends,
we
tend
to
inter-
pret
the
given
(the
es
gibt
in
German),
and
our
relationship
o
it,
in
terms
of
relatively
static
conven-
tions of
privateproperty.
The
given
is
clear-cut,
as
is its
significance.
In
emphasizing
he activitiesasso-
ciated with
gifts,
the
uncanny
other
of
property,
Nietzsche draws attention to the
dynamics
of ex-
change
and
reinterpretation
f
the
participants'
roles
thatresults.
In
preferring
heeconomic model
of
giving
gifts
to
that
suggested by
the modern
marketplace,
Nietzsche
indicates that
the identities of
persons
and of the
given
in
general
are
subject
to
on-going renegotia-
tion
and
hermeneutic
interpretation. Shapiro
con-
cludes from this
that,
contrary
to
Heidegger's
read-
ing
of Nietzsche as
the West's last
metaphysician,
Nietzsche is already
nvolved n explodingtraditional
metaphysical categories. Valuation itself is
trans-
valued n Zarathustra'selebrationof the
gift-giving
virtue. On
this model, the meaningof what is
given
is constantly n flux.
Shapiro'sapproach s more suggestiveand
imagis-
tic than exhaustive in its pursuitof particular
nter-
pretive hints. Shapiro'sorientation s wedded to
that
of certain recent
French interpretersof
Nietzsche,
particularlyDerrida.
Shapiro'splayful
appropriation
of wordsand their senses, as well as his avoidance
of
dogged argumentation
n favorof a style moreakin
to
reverie,will be familiar o those versed n the worksof
Derridaand his
proponents.
However,Shapiroalso assumesthathis audience
is
well-versed n French iterarycriticism and its
lingo;
and he makes
little effort to assist those who
are not.
Moredisturbing roma philosophicalpoint of view
is
the fact thatShapirooften assumesconclusions
drawn
by Derrida,
Michel Serres, George Batailleand
oth-
ers without offering reasons why the reader
should
accept them. This reliance on French critics,
besides
leaving many readers unpersuaded, s likely to
ob-
scure the originalityof many of Shapiro's
nsights.
Shapiro's econd essay, Parasites nd
theirNoise,
for example, provides a refeshing look at Zara-
thustra, Part IV, affordedby focusing on its
abun-
dance of noise descriptions
and animal imagery.
Shapiro artfully indicates the many ways that
the
motifs of noises and interruption
re employed in
the
text, and he argues convincingly that
Nietzsche's
manipulations
f these motifs should lead to
reversals
of their significance. Zarathustra'swork, for
exam-
ple, is enhanced by the interruptions
hat initially
forestalled
t.
Shapiro analyses the reversals
involved in Zara-
thustra, PartIV, in terms
of the image of the parasite.
Drawing on Zarathustra'srequentcomplaints
about
parasites and the higher men's parasitic behavior,
Shapiro
contendsthat Part IV
is
an
allegory
of
the
parasite p.
62)
that
portrays
parasitism
as
complex
and
completely
transitive
(p.
88).
Zarathustra s
parasitic
on his own
parasites,
and
ultimately
the
whole relation
of
parasitism
becomes
undecidable
(p.
100).
The
least
convincing
aspect
of this
reading
is
Shapiro's mportation
of Serres'sviews
on
parasites.
Relying
on
Serres's contention that
parasitism
(not
predation)
is basic to animal and human
relations,
Shapirosuggests
thatZarathustra
presentsparasitism
as a basic and
mutually
beneficial mode of
human
interaction.
Again, Shapiro
sees
Zarathustra
s
de-
picting
human
exchange
and
reversing
he
traditional
perspective
on it.
Most
likely,
Shapiro
is able
to
see
so
much
evi-
dence that Nietzsche
is
transvaluingparasitism
be-
cause he has an
extremely
broad
conception
of
what
the expression parasite
means. At times,
it
seems
to mean nothing more than
the
mutually
dependent
and symbiotic (p. 67). Shapiro
also is
evidently
quite comfortable with the current
literary
critical
usage of the term, for he
notes that
Zarathustra,
Part
IV, has often been read as parasitic on
the
first
three parts of the work. Following Serres,
Shapiro
also links severalother senses of the term:
the
biolog-
ical sense of the animalwho feeds on but
does
not kill
another animal; the economic
sense of
human
be-
ings who profit, similarly, rom others ;and
the
sense
prevalent
n
French
and other romance
languagesof
static or noisy interference
(p. 62).
Shapirogoes
on to claim that Nietzsche intendedat
least
these last
three senses of parasitism n his writing:
Following
Michel Serres in The Parasite I want to
demonstrate
that Nietzsche saw these apparentlydiverse
senses as
partof a system (p.
63).
Granted,Nietzsche does at times
refer
to
the
same
people as noisy and as parasites.
But the
overtones
of the French term
are not obviously
basic
to
his
conception of its German translation.
Nevertheless,
Shapirotakes the interruptions
nd
noises
of
Part
IV
as indicationsof Nietzsche's concern
with
parasitism
as such. The several moments in which
Zarathustra
returns rom catchinga breathof air and nterrupts he
higher men's activities are readas scenes
in
which
he
is cast in the role of a parasite (albeit
possibly
a
medicinal
one) (p. 61). The
appearances
of
ani-
mals and animal sounds are
also
treated
as
hints
regardingparasitism;
and Zarathustra's
omplex
rela-
tionships with animals are, accordingly,
interpreted
as indicationsof the complexity
of the
parasite
rela-
tionship. Such moves are at least
methodologically
questionable.
Even more questionable-as well as
startling-is
the suggestion of Alcyone's
song,
Shapiro's
third
essay:
Is the mouth of Thus Spoke
Zarathustra
he
mouth of a woman? (p. 122). Shapirostresses that
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