Pwt 02 2018 eternal return

Painting on the vellum binding of a French edition of Nietzsche Zarathustra (detail)

ETERNAL RETURN

Weekly transmission 02-2018 presents: Eternal Return of Collecting Weekly Drawing by éophile Bouchet: “Like Heavy Drops” Nietzsche contra Heraclitus - about a 17th century Dutch portrait us Spoke Zarathustra - about a French painted vellum book binding Previous transmissions can be found at:

www.plantureux.fr

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Eternal return,

also known as eternal recurrence, is a concept that the universe and all existence and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. The concept is found in ancient philosophy and was subsequently taken up by the Pythagoreans and Stoics (see Heraclitus).

With the decline of antiquity and the spread of Christianity, the concept fell into disuse in the Western world, with the exception of Friedrich Nietzsche, who connected the thought to many of his other concepts, including amor fati.

In 1871 Louis Auguste Blanqui, assuming a Newtonian cosmology where time and space are infinite, claimed to have demonstrated eternal recurrence as a mathematical certainty.

Friedrich Nietzsche explained in 1888 that he thought of the eternal return as the "fundamental conception" of Thus Spoke Zarathustra� (Wikipedia) The e-bulletins present articles as well as selections of books, albums, photographs and documents as they have been handed down to the actual owners by their creators and by amateurs from past generations.

The physical descriptions, attributions, origins, and printing dates of books and photographs have been carefully ascertained by collation and through close analysis of comparable works.

N°02-2018. ETERNAL RETURN

Weekly Transmission 2

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Thursday 11 January 2018

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Eternal Return of Collecting,

The action of collecting and transmitting can be explored through Deleuze postmodernist interpretation:

"According to Nietzsche the eternal return is in no sense a thought of the identical but rather a thought of synthesis, a thought of the absolutely different. — It is not the 'same' or the 'one' which comes back in the eternal return but return is itself the one which ought to belong to diversity and to that which differs.

The eternal return within collecting is surely not the recurrence of the same.

“...it is the recurrence of difference, of difference itself. The future will reveal itself to be the eternal return; and in the return will be found the affirmation of difference that is Deleuze's Nietzschean spirit. Deleuze's definition of the eternal return is obscure: “Return is the being of that which becomes. Return is the being of becoming itself, the being which is affirmed in becoming”. (Cf. Milan Urošević, Gilles Deleuze-An Introduction).

The “List of collectables” article on English wikipedia is a pleasant reading, we shoud add an old Greek quote: “If you do not expect the unexpected you will not find it, for it is not to be reached by search or trail.” (Heraclitus)

Théophile Bouchet. “I love all who are like heavy drops falling one by one out of the dark cloud that lowers over man: they herald the coming of the lightning, and succumb as heralds. Lo, I am a herald of the lightning, and a heavy drop out of the cloud: the lightning, however, is the Superman.”

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Thursday 11 January 2018

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Nietzsche Contra Heraclitus

“... the kinship between Nietzsche and Heraclitus is widely acknowledged (Heidegger, in his Nietzsche, is the exception here) and frequently confirmed by Nietzsche himself.

Among the most famous declaration of that brotherhood comes from Ecce Homo, where he writes about Heraclitus — in whose proximity I feel altogether warmer and better than anywhere else. The affirmation of passing away and destroying, which is the decisive feature of a Dionysian philosophy; saying Yes to opposition and war; becoming, along with a radical repudiation of the very concept of being — all this is clearly more closely related to me than anything else thought to date" (Ecce Homo GT 3).

Further, he writes that the Zaratustrian doctrine of eternal recurrence could have also been taught by Heraclitus.”

(cf. Artur Przybyslawski, The Journal of Nietzsche Studies, 23 (2002) 88-95)

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Thursday 11 January 2018

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Circle of 17th Century Dutch Painters (Gerard & Gesina ter Borch, Frans van Mieris) Philosopher Heraclitus or portrait of a friend as Heraclitus

Oil on oak panel, 280x225 mm, old labels and inscriptions: on the panel verso, an intriguing 17th Dutch inventory label — lately protected by an old selluloid strip — not very readable “"G N. te[r Borch] / Frans mieris” , on the frame, verso, 19th century label and annotations , pencil “Baudel” and some more recent ones.

Can be compared with Gerard ter Borch’ s Philosopher Heraclitus:

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Thursday 11 January 2018

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Thursday 11 January 2018

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Painted Vellum Book Binding Friedrich Nietzsche. Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra, trad. de l'allemand par Henri Albert

Paris, Mercure de Franc, 1911, In-12, 512 pp, vintage vellum binding, red dwarf painting on the binding, 188x118 mm.

400 euros

Serge Plantureux Expertises et investigations 80 rue Taitbout F-75009 Paris Number 2nd of the Weekly Transmission has been uploaded on Thursday 11 January 2018 at 15:15 (Paris time) Forthcoming upload and transmission on Thursday 18 January 2018, 15:15 expertises@plantureux.fr