Beyond Good and Evil · Chapter
On German Style and the Art of Reading explained
Nietzsche contrasts the ancient art of reading aloud, which cultivated a refined ear and physiological mastery of speech, with the modern German practice of silent reading.
What happens
Nietzsche contrasts the ancient art of reading aloud, which cultivated a refined ear and physiological mastery of speech, with the modern German practice of silent reading. He argues this has led to a poor German prose style, with the notable exception of the pulpit oratory that produced Luther's Bible, which he considers the true masterpiece of German prose.
Themes in this chapter
Critique of Modernity
Critiques modern Germans as being 'short of breath in every sense,' lacking the physiological and artistic refinement of the ancients in speech and writing.
Characters to notice
- The Germans
Criticized for reading silently with their eyes, not their ears, leading to a poor sense of style and harmony in writing. Their good musicians are said to write badly.
- Demosthenes
Cited as an exemplar of ancient oratory, whose complex, breath-contained periods were a pleasure and a marvel to the refined ear of antiquity.
- Cicero
Presented alongside Demosthenes as a master of the physiological, breath-based period that constituted high art in ancient public speaking.
- Martin Luther
Implied as the author/translator of the Bible, which is declared the masterpiece of German prose, rooted in German hearts unlike mere 'literature'.
Key passages
“The German does not read aloud, he does not read for the ear, but only with his eyes; he has put his ears away in the drawer for the time.”
Germans engage in silent, visual reading, neglecting the auditory dimension of language.
Highlights a sensory deficit in modern German culture.
“In the ancient sense, a period is above all a physiological whole, inasmuch as it is comprised in one breath.”
Ancient rhetorical periods were artistic units defined by the physical capacity of a single breath.
Connects artistic form to bodily discipline and capability.
“The masterpiece of German prose is therefore with good reason the masterpiece of its greatest preacher: the Bible has hitherto been the best German book.”
Luther's Bible is the pinnacle of German writing because it springs from the only traditionally cultivated German art of public speech: preaching.
Elevates a religious text as the supreme secular artistic achievement due to its oratorical roots.