Books : Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (Modern Library)

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Rating:

- The Anti-Christ[ian] Speaks
Some years before Friedrich Nietzsche resorted to the blunt polemic of his books Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ, he produced a literary masterwork that contained not only the main lines of his [later] philosophy, but combined it with a tremendous poetic sensibility to create an imaginative - and polemical - narrative. That book is Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for None and All. Nietzsche regarded it as his greatest work after he had finished it (although all four books would not be published until after his death - which itself came after a decade of insanity), although he also thought that it was widely misunderstood and wrote several other books to clarify the points contained within it.

Nietzsche - the "anti-Christ" - very much modeled himself on Jesus of Nazareth - the Christ - and throughout the work, sayings of Zarathustra are inverted forms of the parables or other teachings of Jesus. In some ways, Nietzsche/Zarathustra comes across as a type of photo negative of Jesus. The meek, for Zarathustra, will no longer inherit the earth for it shall go to those who are hard; no longer is love the focus of living but the will to power. Zarathustra, like Christ, has his disciples and his disciples are also bumbling buffoons that fail to catch the depth of Zarathustra's anti-Christ vision. There is a type of manic brilliance - a Dionysian inspiration/possession - that permeates these pages. The constant repetition of "Thus spoke Zarathustra" at the end of his speeches throughout the pages gives it an almost prophetic and religious quality. One sees that Nietzsche felt his own destiny as deeply as he felt isolated from the rest of humanity. Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that this book has been something like a book of Scripture for many - particularly in Germany during the last decade of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th.

In many ways, Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a violent book. Nietzsche strongly advocates the "transvaluation of all values" - a morality beyond morality - that is built upon the rubble of Christian morality. "God is dead" is a theme that is constantly sounded throughout these pages and one of Zarathustra's goals is to try to get people to think on the dust and ashes of the idol that he considered Christianity to be. The course that he sought to encourage people to pursue was the course *to* what he called "the Overman". Zarathustra claims that he is not the Overman - he sounds like St. John the Baptist, "the Forerunner" of Jesus Christ - but that the Overman will come. He sees his disciples as "bridges" to the Overman, but leaves largely unanswered the question of what the Overman will be like. It is like a messianism without a sense of what "messiah" means.

It is easy to be lost in the sheer drama of this book such that rather than addressing then-current issues and debates in Europe, he was attempting to write a timeless work applicable in all life situations. Any work that attempts to give a "new morality" is necessarily going to anchor itself to a significant degree in a world of Platonic ideals. However, it was in the chaos of late-19th century that Nietzsche wrote - a world beset by tremendous intellectual, scientific, social and spiritual turmoil and change. In some sense, then, Nietzsche's "exhortation" to become hard reflects a real disillusionment with the authoritative institutions of his day. He writes that God died of compassion and exhorts his followers to become hard; there is a real longing for stability to be found througout these pages, and Zarathustra's preaching a new morality is given as a type of answer to that longing.

This is one of the most important books written during the latter 19th century. Nietzsche knew a number of famous persons during his day - despite his later falling out with Wagner, one hears much of the same Dionysian recklessness in Wagner's music that one hears in Nietzsche's rhetoric. Hitler, along with much of Germany, was deeply inspired by Nietzsche's "vision"; Thus Spoke Zarathustra was carried into the trenches by Germans in both World Wars. He has been alternately hailed as a prophet of a new morality and aestheticism and reviled as a madman whose writings inspired the deaths of millions. At the very least, one ought read his most cogent work, which has shaped the views of millions over the last hundred years. It is unlikely that the influence of the anti-Christ will be silenced any time soon.

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- A Rare Treat for Both the Heart and the Mind
In the old Star Trek episode, "The Gamesters of Triskillion," Captain Kirk is transported beneath a planet's surface, where he carries on a conversation with three disembodied brains. In many respects, that symbolizes the encounter that most people experience with the typical work of philosophy. The author displays none of his own flesh and blood, but serves as a disembodied brain who analyzes the world as "objectively" as possible. What is worse, whereas at least the three Gamesters of Triskillion granted Captain Kirk his human impulses, most philosophers demand little flesh and blood from their readers. Instead of having a dialogue, the philosopher simply communicates dryly from one brain-in-a-vat to another. Even though the topic of the communication is often the life and times of mortal man, the nature of the communication is wooden, which means that the readers can feel free to study all sorts of "truths" but implement as few as possible into their own flesh-and-blood lives.

Fortunately, none of the above applies to Nietzsche. His works are as moist as most philosophers' are dry. And nowhere is he more lively than in his creation of Zarathustra. The choice of names of his title character was brilliant, as was the philosophy expressed in this story. But above all elsel, Nietzsche's desire to teach philosophy in the form of a story told by a poetic, passionate character is an inspiration to all of us who wish to write about philosophy but to do so in a way that connects with the human heart, and not merely the disembodied mind.

Thus Spake Zarathustra is the prototype of the philosophical novel. I cannot imagine anyone reading it without being touched on all possible levels, regardless of how much of Nietzsche's theses the reader agrees with. Truly, Nietzsche doesn't expend agreement from his reader so much as engagement. If you're not engaged by his prose, you probably need to check your blood pressure.

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- "He was quite mad when he wrote it..."
Yes, Leo Tolstoy, Nietzsche was quite mad when he wrote his masterpiece.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra should be regarded as Nietsche's greatest work and since I'm pretty new to Nietzsche, I'd list Ecce Homo as the second best thing he wrote.

I love how this book is written like the Bible and how mad you can tell Nietzsche was when he wrote it.

If you are new to Nietzsche and are a literature fan, START HERE!
Beyond Good and Evil, the standard Kaufmann translation was so hard to read, I understood late Henry James easier.

Rating:

- A Classic.....
This is one of those books filled with those ideas that you've thought all your life but few have the courage to admit, even to themselves.

Nietzsche takes a brutally honest look at human nature including the uglier things. He rightly shows no mercy towards clergy and the morality of self negation and pity. All is done in a beautiful, poetic style.

The moral of the story is to be above the masses, to go above your limits and to enjoy yourself while doing it. Its a positive philosophy that if implemented can make someone that rare person who rises above the herd and makes their short time on this earth worth it.

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- A teenager's review...
I am no literary or philosophical scholar, however even at my stage inlife it is clearly apparent that this is an important and yes dare I say "life-changing" read. This book presents the kind of ideas that ran through my head as a child making my way through the Catholic education system and so I obviously found it to be an utterly fascinating and entrancing read.

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