thinktoomuch.net

Prior to relocating, I discovered some of my grandfather’s old books on our family bookshelf that really interested me. On my previous visit home, I kidnapped three, and decided they’re now mine. For a while, anyway — my sister might object to the way I just phrased that , especially due to the margin notes!

• The Sacred Writings of the World’s Great Religions – S. E. Frost, Jr. – published in 1943
• The Philosophy of Nietzsche – Hand-written note suggests it was bought in 1941
• The Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers – S. E. Frost, Jr. – published in 1942, this is a 1943 reprint

These books were given to my father by his father in the early 70s. I did not really know my grandfather, he passed away when I was practically still a toddler. I hear he was slightly eccentric, but a brilliant man, an artist and writer. Oupa Nel. J Nel van der Merwe. (J was for Jaco, probably from Jacobus.) With Izak Wilhelmus van der Merwe who wrote under the pen name “Boerneef” as his cousin (though I don’t know if they were *first* cousins, and Boerneef could be one generation earlier too), I suspect the Ceres van der Merwe’s have some good artist-type genes.

I don’t know much about my grandfather’s worldview. (Actually, I don’t know much about my father’s either. ) However, he wasn’t one to leave books in a pristine state: I see many margin notes and other writings on blank pages. What intrigues me is how much my own views have in common with my grandfather’s. Or even just my interests… How much of our worldview predispositions are due to our genes? Those combine with our culture, our memes, that we inherit from those around us.

Wrote my grandfather to my father, in the front cover (translation below, with the usual disclaimers about how impossible it is to maintain the same nuances in a translation):

Aan Jac — Vir jou latere lewe, seun. [Lees eers bladsy 94, 150 ens.]

Dié een man het die Wêreld van Denke (filosofie) diep getref. Hy laat my baie aan Salomo se wonderlike boeke in die Bybel dink.

As ‘n mens sy jeug ken kan jy verstaan hoekom hy “kinderagtig” is m.i. i.v.m. die Christus (wat liggaamlik sterk moes gewees het. Dink aan C. se reiniging v.d. Tempel, hoe C. oral geloop het ens.)

N. is verantwoordelik vir die berugte sin: “God is dood.” (Verg. Dolf v N: “Die Son Struikel”) maar m.i. wou hy daarmee die mensdom weer God laat her-”sien”. Van Wyk Louw het ‘n gedig oor N. geskryf. (Sien agter.)

‘n Belangrike, diep, belangrike boek hierdie. Op één stadium van my lewe het dit vir my baie beteken.

But it is not easy going.

Pa   1973

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Jac, asseblief:–
Lees éérs Ecce Homo, dán Zarathustra

To Jac — For your later life, son. [First read page 94, 150 etc.]

This one man impacted the World of Thought (philosophy) deeply. He reminds me of Solomon’s wonderful books in the Bible.

If you know about his youth, you can understand why he is, in my opinion, “childish” with regards to the Christ (who must have been physically strong. Think of C.’s purging of the Temple, consider C. walked everywhere, etc.)

Nietzsche is responsible for the infamous sentence “God is dead.” (Compare Dolf van Niekerk’s “Die Son Struikel” [The Sun Stumbles*]) but in my opinion, with that he wanted humanity to re-”see” [review] God. Van Wyk Louw wrote a poem about Nietzsche. (See the back.)

An important, deep, important book this. At one stage of my life it meant a lot to me.

But it is not easy going.

Dad   1973

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Jac, please:–
First read Ecce Homo, then Zarathustra

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In the back cover, he wrote NP van Wyk Louw’s poem, together with some notes/explanations about it. I see my grandfather was a sudent of Van Wyk Louw at one point. (NP van Wyk Louw was/is a literary giant in South Africa).

As a Ceres Van der Merwe, two generations ago, I reckon he was certainly still Boer in heritage and culture, but being an intellectual, having studied art, philosophy and psychology, and apparently comparative religion, he must have been further removed from our Calvinist heritage than most.

In the back of the “Great Philosophers” book, Nel wrote a bit about his own views of the divine, apparently similar to those of Pascal, Eliot and others. He contrasts his views with the views of the rationalists.

The Eternal begins where our “words” and reasoning ends — that is why I choose Art … music, poetry, painting, etc. It goes down into your guts. J.N.

On the artistic side, somewhat opposed to the “rationalists” (specifically the views of the so-called “Rationalistiese Vereniging van UK” — a society at the “University of Cape Town” I presume) and in contact with our religious heritage and tradition, while also a “liberal” like most intellectuals (which I deduce from his comments on “conservative Cape’s reaction to NP van Wyk Louw’s divorce in the back of the Nietzsche book), his views certainly fascinate me.

I think I inherited enough of the “artistic genes” and found the necessary memes to have a good appreciation for my grandfather’s views. I don’t have any trouble “bridging” to them, I can feel the truth in his views. At the same time, I think I’m standing a bit closer to the “rationalists” than he was: it could have been interesting to have a deeply philosophical conversation about such matters, to see how well I could bridge in the other direction. It all seems to be the flip-side of the same coin to me, the artistic side, is to me all about developing an artist’s appreciation of the human experience of this universe.

And with his margin notes and underlining of passages he considered key, reading these books might serve as a decent alternative to that conversation. It would be both an opportunity to see how much my genetic and general Afrikaner-culture inheritance already shaped my memes and interests in that same direction, and a path for more direct memetic inheritance. My father did not get around to reading these. With a career in engineering, technology and business (electronic media) and a strong interest in science that he imparted to me, I’m not sure how much formal philosophy he ran into. I will read these on my father’s behalf, and I won’t be waiting for my “later life”.