Neil Gaiman Has a Nietzschean Approach to Life
“Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art.” — Neil Gaiman
The process of making something beautiful from pain and stress is called sublimation. This is exactly what Neil Gaiman talks about here without directly saying it.
The Existentialist German Philosopher of the 19th century, Freidrich Nietzsche, believed this too. Although much of his works were up for debate and interpretation, Nietzsche largely reveled in pain and the suffering of life.
Nietzsche would agree with Neil Gaiman here. Neil Gaiman says and believes that the use of art can not only be a catharsis but actually a transcendence of pain itself. Nietzsche, once again, would agree.
Nietzsche and Suffering
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
Nietzsche’s fascination with suffering and the things that go wrong in life flies in the face of many philosophies and religions that believe there is a transcendent way to avoid pain.
However, Nietzsche believes that there is a transcendent way to engage in pain. He, just like most in…
