Teaching, to paraphrase Nietzsche, is so erotic.
But for whom?
Whose eros if not the master’s erotic ideal: nor are we talking a student playground, youth on youth.
On this matter, Nietzsche stood in the company of the masters — professors, teachers.
...Hence Nietzsche could say, as he assured Lou Salomé in a protestation of his “intentions,” that he did not only seek someone to act as secretary and practical assistant in household affairs, he wanted a — she could be his — pupil.
Lou, of course, never wanted to be so lucky.
Excerpt: Babich, Great Men, Little Black Dresses, & the Virtues of Keeping One’s Feet on the Ground, MP: An Online Feminist Journal. August 2010: Vol. 3, Issue 1, p. 76.
