“Sweat Blood” - “The Case of Wagner”
Nietzsche expounds, “Everybody knows the technical difficulties before which the dramatist often has to summon all his strength and frequently to sweat his blood: the difficulty of making the plot seem necessary and the unravelment as well, so that both are conceivable only in a certain way, and so that each may give the impression of freedom (the principle of the smallest expenditure of energy). Now the very last thing that Wagner does is to sweat blood over the plot; and on this and the unravelment he certainly spends the smallest possible amount of energy.” “Sweating blood” denotes the hindrances which the dramatist endure while constructing plots. They must exert mental energy for the plots to captivate audience. However, Wagner is innately endowed as an actor which simplifies his work of composing dramatic plots without struggling. He is an incredibly gifted composer and actor.
“Soul-Atomism” - “Beyond Good and Evil”
Nietzsche suggests, “One must also above all give the finishing stroke to that other and more portentous atomism which Christianity has taught best and longest, the SOUL-ATOMISM. Let it be permitted to designate by this expression the belief which regards the soul as something indestructible, eternal, indivisible, as a monad, as an atom: this belief ought to be expelled from science!" "Soul-Atomism" equates souls to an atom that cannot be deconstructed any further; hence, it cannot perish like the physical body. Moreover, the soul can neither be dissolved or subdivided further.
Stone - “The Birth of Tragedy”
Nietzsche writes, “In order to comprehend this, we must take down the artistic structure of the Apollonian culture, as it were, stone by stone, till we behold the foundations on which it rests. Here we observe first of all the glorious Olympian figures of the gods, standing on the gables of this structure, whose deeds, represented in far-shining reliefs, adorn its friezes. Though Apollo stands among them as an individual deity, side by side with others, and without claim to priority of rank, we must not suffer this fact to mislead us." Stone imagery connotes the groundwork which is fundamental in the creation of 'the Apollonian culture.' Artworks of the gods are the prime symbols that allude to the cultural beliefs governing the Apollonians’ lives. The gods’ artistic figures are noteworthy stones that differentiate the Apollonian culture from other medieval cultures.
