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Aphoristic Writings, Notebook, and Letters to a Friend, by Otto ...

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Distinction between genesis <strong>and</strong> codification of superstition. Code: farmer’s<br />

almanac. Genesis: guilt.<br />

––––––––––––<br />

The difference between the amoral (woman) <strong>and</strong> anti-moral (criminal), like their<br />

kinship, is that woman wants <strong>to</strong> be degraded, while the evil man degrades himself.<br />

––––––––––––<br />

A person always achieves the deepest underst<strong>and</strong>ing of his self <strong>and</strong> his destiny<br />

only if he has become untrue <strong>to</strong> himself, if he has transgressed against his destiny<br />

(God), through sin. Perhaps that is why life on earth is necessary, so that God may<br />

find himself – for consciousness is only possible through opposition.<br />

––––––––––––<br />

Annotation<br />

An excursus appended <strong>to</strong> the earlier revision of Sex <strong>and</strong> Character, attempted <strong>to</strong><br />

uncover morphological <strong>and</strong> parallel psychological analogies among mouth, throat <strong>and</strong><br />

anal-genital regions, <strong>and</strong> in addition <strong>to</strong> ascertain something about the pro<strong>to</strong>type of the<br />

vertebrate animal. It sought <strong>to</strong> ascertain what mouth <strong>and</strong> anus have in common, <strong>and</strong><br />

<strong>to</strong>ngue <strong>and</strong> sex organ, <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong> discover why sticking out the <strong>to</strong>ngue is experienced as<br />

similar <strong>to</strong> the displaying of the behind; why eating in front of others was regarded as<br />

shameless among some primitive peoples (as etiquette still forbids eating on the street<br />

<strong>to</strong>day): which analogies exist between the genital <strong>and</strong> eating instincts; why the<br />

<strong>to</strong>ngue-kiss is so closely related <strong>to</strong> ejaculation; why the thyroid gl<strong>and</strong> (which has a<br />

rudimentarily developed excre<strong>to</strong>ry duct that ends at the root of the <strong>to</strong>ngue) st<strong>and</strong>s in<br />

such a remarkable relationship <strong>to</strong> the reproductive gl<strong>and</strong>s, why the voice is especially<br />

sexually stimulating, <strong>and</strong> is so strongly sexually differentiated.<br />

The meaning of these things, their inner relatedness, is more or less conscious <strong>to</strong><br />

the human being, <strong>to</strong> the microcosm; that is why he is ashamed of the inside of his<br />

mouth. In contrast, if the theory of evolution were correct, then the animals, which are<br />

more closely related <strong>to</strong> the Balanoglossus 23 (whose sexual parts still lie in the gill<br />

23 Acorn worm [Trans]<br />

27

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