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This question echoes this one about Brassens' philosophy.

I know Morrison was heavily influenced by Nietzsche, who is considered by some people as a nihilist (although his oeuvre was meant to go against it).

Morrison had some public behaviors on stage and interpersonal behaviors who make me think of him as a punk, that is a cultural movement building on nihilism and anarchism.

But I don't know if and how the lyrics of his songs, for instance, could relate to nihilism.

Can Jim Morrison (by his personal philosophy as exhibited by his behavior, and as an artist as exhibited by his songs lyrics) be considered a nihilist?

Starckman
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    Close: narcissist. – Scott Rowe Sep 30 '23 at 18:58
  • @ScottRowe What do you mean? – Starckman Oct 01 '23 at 03:03
  • Why do we close this question and not the one on Brassens? – Starckman Oct 01 '23 at 09:53
  • He was too self-centered to participate in nihilism. The universe clearly revolved around him, so saying nothing was important would clash with that. Did you read the biography about him? – Scott Rowe Oct 02 '23 at 01:31
  • @ScottRowe I read one biography about him (I don't know if it is the only one). And saw the biographical movie – Starckman Oct 02 '23 at 02:36
  • @ScottRowe I see no contradiction at all between narcissism/self-centerdness and nihilism. Marx Stirner, the proponent of anarcho-individualism, a nihilist, erected the Ego as the absolute sovereign. Stirner was heavily influenced by Nietzsche. Some people like Raymond Boudon explain that the nietzschean postmodernism leads to a constant war of egos/subjectivities – Starckman Oct 02 '23 at 07:28
  • "Interestingly, Max Stirner is considered by many as the Godfather of anarchist thought. Perhaps if Stirner had lived long enough to see the emergence of Sex Pistols, he would have joined their band. (...) In essence, Stirner’s egoism reflects the spirit of punk music. As a genre drenched in aversion to the airbrushed aesthetic of 80s consumer culture, punk defined itself through an aggressive zero-tolerance with materialism and superficiality." https://www.ilponte.sk/culture/2021/5/12/school-of-punk-late-capitalisms-infliction-on-punk-music – Starckman Oct 02 '23 at 07:30
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    @Starckman Sex Pistols might have been a particularly bad examples as they are apparently a boy band cast by the manager of a cloth shop to sell more stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEdvwJtkvG0&pp=ygUaY2h1bWJhd2FtYmEgdnMgc2V4IHBpc3RvbHM%3D – haxor789 Oct 02 '23 at 11:48
  • @haxor789 haha, yes this point is very interesting! Saved the video and will watch it later. Still, the Sex Pistols promoted anarchist/nihilist values, no matter what was the hidden indirect logic behind the scene. The 'scene' itself is anarchism/nihilism and that is what matters here – Starckman Oct 02 '23 at 14:06
  • To me, narcissism or egoism are in conflict with everything else because they are just wrong. Saw the Ramones 4 times. Met them and the Dead Kennedys. – Scott Rowe Oct 03 '23 at 00:11

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The answer to this question may reside in his writing. I recommend you reading a few Doors lyrics. I did, eons ago, and remember cryptic verses, with some vitalist energy. So yeah, maybe Nitzschean but not nihilist. But as I said, I read them a long time ago.

Edit: on second thought, I wonder if it makes sense to peg "larger than life" artists such as Brassens or Morisson to any particular school of philosophy. By definition, artists chose another way (art, poetry) to paint human nature than philosophers (analysis, refutation, synthesis). They cannot be bound by philosophers, they may well straddle several schools of philo, or reject them all. Artists are philosophical UFOs. They don't map neatly to philosophical schools. Why should they?

Poetry is polysemic. This is its strength. Philosophy on the other hand ought to be precise.

Poets must stir emotions; philosophers tend to shun them.

What kind of poet could be satisfied within the confines of analytic philosophy, postmodernism, or materialism? Wouldn't adherence to a particular message tend to make the verses lame?

I think it's in the second tome of the Buru Quartet, one of the most powerful political novels of the twentieth century, that a seasoned journalist explains to the young, aspirant writer Minke that he should not try and focus on any particular message -- that would make his prose sound preachy and defeat the purpose -- but should rather try and paint human nature in all its complexity and contradictions, and let the reader draw his own conclusion.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer did that very effectively with the Buru Quartet. It still makes me cry when I think of it, 20 years after reading...

Olivier5
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