Babette Babich 
Words in Blood, Like Flowers 
Philosophy and Poetry, Music and Eros in Hölderlin, Nietzsche, and Heidegger

Why did Nietzsche claim to have ‘written in blood’? Why did Heidegger remain silent after World War II about his participation in the Nazi Party? How did Hölderlin’s voice and the voices of other, more ancient poets come to echo in philosophy? Words in Blood, Like Flowers is a classical expression of continental philosophy that critically engages the intersection of poetry, art, music, politics, and the erotic in an exploration of the power they have over us. While focusing on three key figures—Hölderlin, Nietzsche, and Heidegger—this volume covers a wide range of material, from the Ancient Greeks to the vicissitudes of the politics of our times, and approaches these and other questions within their hermeneutic and historical contexts.



Working from primary texts and a wide range of scholarly sources in French, German, and English, this book is an important contribution to philosophy’s most ancient quarrels not only with poetry, but also with music and erotic love.

Table of Content

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Illustrations




PHILOSOPHY, PHILOLOGY, POETRY



1. Philosophy and the Poetic Eros of Thought



2. Philology and Aphoristic Style: Rhetoric, Sources, and Writing in Blood



3.
The Birth of Tragedy: Lyric Poetry and the Music of Words



4. Nietzsche’s “Gay Science”: Poetry and Love, Science and Music



5. Pindar’s Becoming: Translating the Imperatives of Praise




MUSIC, PAIN, EROS



6. Philosophy as Music



7. Songs of the Sun: Hölderlin in Venice



8. On Pain and Tragic Joy: Nietzsche and Hölderlin



9. Nietzsche’s Erotic Artist as Actor/Jew/Woman




ART, NATURE, CALCULATION



10. Chaos and Culture



11. The Ethos of Nature and Art: Hölderlin’s Ecological Politics



12. The Work of Art and the Museum: Heidegger, Schapiro, Gadamer



13. The Ethical Alpha and Heidegger’s Linguistic Omega: On the Inner Affinity Between Germany and Greece



14. Heidegger’s
Beiträge as Will to Power



Notes

Bibliography

Name Index

Subject Index

About the author

Babette E. Babich is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University and is the editor of
Habermas, Nietzsche, and Critical Theory and the author of
Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Science: Reflecting Science on the Ground of Art and Life, also published by SUNY Press.