Expert: DK - 4/8/2005

Question
Can you explain how the philosophy of Nietzsche (I've never read him) applied to Jim Morrison's writings?

Answer
Hi Jude,

“It is easily understood
why such a feeble culture hates a strong art:
it is afraid of being destroyed by it.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth Of Tragedy


Morrison was fascinated by the conflict of Apollonian-Dionysian duality in art, as is written in Friedrich Nietzsche' s The Birth Of Tragedy.
He took to heart the typical hero figure so characterised in Joseph Campbell's works that risks the journey to bring wisdom or insight back to his culture. The works of the French poet, Arthur Rimbauld were an inspiration for Jim. William Blake's quote that if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite was the inspiration for Huxley's book, The Doors Of Perception, describing his mescaline-induced seeking; The Doors Of Perception began Morrison's seeking which began The Doors artistic vision.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Van Gogh, Rimbauld, Baudelaire, William Blake, Brendan Behan, Poe, Byron, Shelley, Dylan Thomas…. the mad ones, the doomed ones, the writers, poets, painters, the artists stubbornly resistant to authority and insistent on being loyal to their true nature, at any cost – this was the lineage with whom Jim Morrison most passionately identified, and it was to their standard he aspired. To  be a poet, to be an artist meant having a vision and the courage to see that vision through.

William Blake said, ‘The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom' and ‘Prudence is a rich ugly old maid courted by Incapacity'. Jim did not court the maid and seldom knew incapacity. Jim drank and yelled and pleaded, danced in honour of divine inspiration, and to hell with the cost, calling on his inspiration to unite the band, to ignite the audience, to set the night on fire, once and for all, forever.

Morrison as an artist understood symbols and their relationships in the context of the American culture and how he expressed them became the hallmark of The Doors' legacy.
Jim communicated to his audience using short snatches of poetic imagery and themes that could grasp the fast-paced contemporary mind. He understood the power of obscurity. Tantalise with a short burst of energy. Arouse curiosity. Excite with sexual tension. With drug imagery. With the threat of violence. Of unknown fears. Of death. Then leave the mind in a state that it seeks to complete the aroused experience.

Jim like all the other doomed ones were misunderstood, Like Blake, Shelley and Poe (some of his idols), he wrote about death, sex and the unknown. The lyrics he wrote and sang beared witness to his fertile gift for rich, mysterious imagery. Unfortunately much of this was overlooked amid the colourful, controversial and decedent life that he choose to lead.

Thanks for the question Jude, hope my answer helps.

Dan.