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/lit/ - Literature

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10234383 No.10234383 [Reply] [Original]

Neon Genesis Evangelion could be considered the most Nietzschean anime out there, sadly the core concept behind the series is often completely overshadowed by the amazing plot, animation and music throughout the whole thing. Many wrongly think that the Christian symbolism found in the series, ranging from its title to the usage of crucifixes and biblical names, is just there because it may sound cool or interesting.
Christianity is based on the idea of salvation, that the world one day will come to an anticipated end brought by God and that our souls will finally be free from this mundane existence and be united with him for eternity. Evangelion on the other hand had a very similar idea in the form of "The Human Instrumentality Project", that the world one day will come to a manufactured end through the "Third Impact" brought by an almost mythical organization known as "SEELE" and that all the souls will be free from their lonely and painful existence and be united together in complete peace and harmony for eternity. A lot of us know right now that the Christian idea of salvation along with many other aspects of the Abrahamic religions are false, but Evangelion decided to treat the idea as a reality and explore its implications.
After a long eventful plot The Human Instrumentality Project does become a reality through Shinji Ikari, who after experiencing this new mode of purely spiritual existence, sees it for what it is—nihilism. Both in the anime and the original manga Shinji realizes that the real suffering he had to endure throughout his life will always be better than a manufactured reality where no one and nothing exists, where no events good or bad ever occur, where nothingness prevails. Shinji then decides to end the project and return to a destroyed and ravaged world.
In the anime he admits that he doesn't know where happiness lies anymore and then it ends with him facing his own continued suffering in the form of "patheticness" as Asuka puts it, while in the manga he is reborn in a slightly altered reality where the Human Instrumentality Project never existed and then it ends with a monologue by Shinji about how suffering is his only path to achieving anything worthwhile in life.
In the end, through a lot of beautiful Christian symbolism and a magnificent plot, the series followed the Nietzschean concept where there is no deus ex machina, where divine and supernatural salvation are an impossibility, and most importantly, where only man can save himself and turn it into something better and higher through his own work and suffering in this world.

>> No.10234399

>>10234383
To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Nietzsche.The zarathustra is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of greek philosophy most of his insights will go over a typical rearder's head. There’s also nietzsche's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they’re not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Nietzsche truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn’t appreciate, for instance, the magnificence of Nietzsche's existential catchphrase “it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified” which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev’s Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I’m smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Dan Harmon’s genius wit unfolds itself before their very own eyes. What fools.. how I pity them.

>> No.10234503

>>10234383
I remember reading this a couple of years ago
Cringeworthy as it was back then

>> No.10234527

>>10234503
cringeworthy? perhaps i am a pleb, but i found it to be an interesting interpretation of evangelion.

>> No.10234529

>>10234527
>>>/a/

>> No.10234543

>>10234529
/a/ is for shitposting, /lit/ is for shitposting under the guise of intellectual discourse

so i prefer /lit/

>> No.10234807

Evangelion is about why Gnosticism is wrong and psychologically harmful, and it endorses Christian ideas regarding suffering that Nietzsche would object to. Instrumentality is the Gnostic (or maybe Buddhist) idea of the afterlife, not the Christian one.

The afterword to Christopher Lasch's "The Culture of Narcissism" basically explains Eva.

>> No.10234829

>>10234383
Congratulations!

>> No.10234947

I love how people try to justify and make sense if all the Christian symbols in Eva when the creator has explicitly said it was all used exclusively because it sounded and looked cool, with no deeper reason behind it, so all the symbolism and depth from that aspect of Eva is completely made up by the fan base. I mean, this stale old pasta even memes about it right at the start.

>> No.10234949

nizche is FAGGOAT

>> No.10234970
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10234970

Poor OP, but Evangelion has always seemed like a myth in-becoming, a piece of art made for another era's consciousness, a means to bring about a metaphysical mutation.

>> No.10234974

>>10234947
>Authorial intent matters
BOY

>> No.10235540
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10235540

>talking about Nietzsche and Eva without mentioning Kaworu

>> No.10235578

>>10234543
No one cares what you prefer newfriend, /a/ is for anime and /lit/ people who graduated high school.

>> No.10235588

>>10234947
He once said that he thought the Christian stuff looked cool and that he would have tones it down if he knew how popular it would be in the West. Fuck off with your brainlet memes.

>> No.10235604

I was reading the Brothers Karamazov the other day and was astonished how closely NGE is related to the novel in terms of many topics (that's maybe because Dostoevsky and Nietzsche are very relatable by themselves in their philosophy). Anyway, that scene in the tavern when Ivan is talking with Alexey about God is pure NGE.

>> No.10235697

>>10234383
Berserk is far more Nietzschean, so much that character development of Guts and Griffith uses Zarathustra as direct inspiration.

NGE was too nihilistic to be Nietzschean.

>> No.10235720

>>10234527
>Interesting interpretation
>Literally omits two thirds of the show
Ok

>> No.10236188

>>10235720
EoE is the only thing that matters, the show really isn't that good.

>> No.10237452

b

>> No.10238412

OP i completely agree with you, NGE was a wonderful and deep piece of art, iy made me appreciate my life a lot more, it's really too bad i can't experience watching it for the firdt time again.

>> No.10238474

>>10238412
Drink yourself into a stupor for a couple of years and you might forget most of it.

>> No.10238506

>>10234383
No.

>> No.10238948

>>10238474
I doubt i have the financial means to do that since unfortunately in my country a 1l bottle of vodka costs around 25e.

>> No.10238951

>>10236188
Wrong

>> No.10238953

>>10238948
Get a distillery for "essential oils" and just make your own alcohol.

>> No.10238961

>>10234947
He also said the TV ending was the true ending, when its obvious they planned to end the show with something similar to EoE but ran into logistical problems.

I maintain that Anno, at the very least, read a couple of books about Freud, Kabbala, and maybe Gnosticism before working on NGE. The show has a coherent message that is underlined by at least some of the symbolism.

>> No.10239067

>>10234947
the episode where NGE turns real is literally called "the sickness unto death."

>> No.10239077

>>10238961
The TV ending is the true ending, regardless of the original plan.

>> No.10239251

>>10234383
work on rhetoric, your paragraphing is terrible

>> No.10239251,1 [INTERNAL] 

Fisrt of all, let's define things. Christianity, for example. I'll put it simply: For any form of Christianity to deserve that name, it must be based on the person of Jesus Christ. Any deviation from that is heresy. The only source of knowledge about Christ given by God to this world is Scripture, therefore any form of Christianity must not disagree with the Bible.
Neon Genesis Evangelion is not Christian. Neon Genesis Evangelion misrepresents Biblical faith at almost every step... Because, NGE's misrepresentation of God and all related is actually a flavor of Gnosticism. There's also lots of Kabbala nonsense and many other elements of mysticism that have no place in biblical Christian faith.
So, if your argumentation on the meaning of the series is right, a meaning you also seem to like a lot, then it becomes, at best, a straw-man against Christ.

I love the usual atheist arrogance of your "we all know christianity is false, don't we?" stance, when you just made it evident that you don't even know what Christianity IS.
Typical...

>> No.10239251,2 [INTERNAL] 

>>10239251,1
Based autist