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The Ring of the Nibelung
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this. I say this because of pervasive evidence of his suspicion, perhaps largely subliminal, that man’s inherent metaphysical impulse, man’s universal longing that his life and death have transcendent meaning and value, was founded on self-delusion, a hubris predestined to be punished, and that his contrary desire to somehow overcome his suspicion was only a part, but not the only part, of his artistic being. I’ve found a vast body of documentary evidence, especially in the words and music of the Ring, but corroborated thoroughly also by secondary evidence from Wagner’s writings and recorded remarks, and Feuerbach’s writings, that in spite of the fact that for Wagner this faith in the transcendent dignity and uniqueness of the human spirit was the primary value for which he was fighting in creating his artistic masterworks, nonetheless in his deepest, most inward, secret self he doubted this line could be held, and dramatized this fact in all of his canonical operas and music-dramas, in an ever more explicit and tragic manner.

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