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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
I assigned myself this book as homework, having never read it. Maybe it’s the translation. Or maybe the book’s time is well past. But ugh, what a chore. Misogyny shines through above all.
This is a massive, dense book. And while I was intrigued by many of the concepts discussed in this book, I also feel like I missed a lot of the nuances that the author intended, so this will definitely be a reread at some point in the future.
Funny story... about 25 years ago, on a quiet afternoon in the hospital facility at which I worked in the laboratory, there were several of us hanging around the ER station (no patients were there at the time) conversing and having a general 'good' time discussing all manner of topics. At one point one of the nurses, to emphasize something she'd just said, put her hand up with index finger extended and with a flourish stated "I have thus spoken!". After a few silent seconds I calmly replied "Also Sprach Zarathustra". Everyone was silent again, followed by several persons saying "What?" and "What did you say?"... The doctor there that afternoon looked around at the company, looked over at me and stated "They'll understand... in about the year 2001." I looked at him, nodded my head slowly in his direction, and replied "Well played, sir. Well played", smiled, and turned and walked out of the room.
Anyway, having known that Richard Strauss's orchestral composition by that name, and that it was the overarching theme music used in Kubrick's movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" is probably not general knowledge, but both myself and the doctor that afternoon knew, and it was a good joke to have play out.
This was the first time that I've read this work by Nietzche. I've read excerpts from others, but never this full 'prose poem' (if that is what it is...).
I will agree with several of the commenters here on Goodreads... it's like the story of Jesus, but cooler.
It's something that needed to be read, to further my self-imposed, self-set, endeavor to liberally increase my breadth of literary and social knowledge.
It was my time to read it.
Anyway, having known that Richard Strauss's orchestral composition by that name, and that it was the overarching theme music used in Kubrick's movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" is probably not general knowledge, but both myself and the doctor that afternoon knew, and it was a good joke to have play out.
This was the first time that I've read this work by Nietzche. I've read excerpts from others, but never this full 'prose poem' (if that is what it is...).
I will agree with several of the commenters here on Goodreads... it's like the story of Jesus, but cooler.
It's something that needed to be read, to further my self-imposed, self-set, endeavor to liberally increase my breadth of literary and social knowledge.
It was my time to read it.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Poetically written, nice book if you’re that type of person who is always questioning everything....... woe is me! hell is other people! the world is deep!
An intellectual masterpiece that goes beyond the boundaries of philosophy. Nietzsche's profound exploration of the 'Superman' and the eternal recurrence is mind-bending. The poetic prose and thought-provoking ideas inspire deep contemplation. A transformative read!
I was comparing his ideas with Dostoevsky the whole time :) Great mental exercise!
“But it is the same with man as with the tree. The more he seeks to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthword, downword, into the dark, the deep - into evil.”
I was comparing his ideas with Dostoevsky the whole time :) Great mental exercise!
“But it is the same with man as with the tree. The more he seeks to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthword, downword, into the dark, the deep - into evil.”
reflective
slow-paced
Toen ik zestien was ging ik voor het eerst het gevecht aan met Zarathustra, na 100 paginas moest ik de strijd al staken. Gewapend met zes jaar extra levenswijsheid ben ik opnieuw Nietzsche's niemandsland ingetrokken.
Er zijn plaatsen waar ik de standpunten tussen al het allegorisch gebazel kan vatten, er zijn ook plaatsen waar ik Nietzsche volg. Passages waar ik uit al het ijlen niks kan opmaken zijn echter nog steeds veelvuldig aanwezig. Als geheel zit het boek vol van paradoxen en dubbelzinnigheid. Voor mij faalt Nietzsche als filosoof en dichter te vaak in dit boek. Al is het ook een strategie, een filosofische visie zodanig abstraheren en metaforiseren, dat de gewone of untermensch jaren na dato het onbehapbare nog steeds wil vatten. Daarom zal Also sprach Zarathustra tot ver in toekomst besproken en herontdekt worden, waarschijnlijk tot de mens vergaat of tot de mens zichzelf overstijgt en het boek achter zich kan laten liggen. Want dat is mijn visie: De übermensch, zoals dese gepresenteerd wordt zou zich niet verdiepen in Zarathustra's gepezewevel en zou niet eens naar Nietzsche's werk omkijken. En ik sluit het niet uit dat Nietzsche daarbij goeddunkend zou knikken.
Er zijn plaatsen waar ik de standpunten tussen al het allegorisch gebazel kan vatten, er zijn ook plaatsen waar ik Nietzsche volg. Passages waar ik uit al het ijlen niks kan opmaken zijn echter nog steeds veelvuldig aanwezig. Als geheel zit het boek vol van paradoxen en dubbelzinnigheid. Voor mij faalt Nietzsche als filosoof en dichter te vaak in dit boek. Al is het ook een strategie, een filosofische visie zodanig abstraheren en metaforiseren, dat de gewone of untermensch jaren na dato het onbehapbare nog steeds wil vatten. Daarom zal Also sprach Zarathustra tot ver in toekomst besproken en herontdekt worden, waarschijnlijk tot de mens vergaat of tot de mens zichzelf overstijgt en het boek achter zich kan laten liggen. Want dat is mijn visie: De übermensch, zoals dese gepresenteerd wordt zou zich niet verdiepen in Zarathustra's gepezewevel en zou niet eens naar Nietzsche's werk omkijken. En ik sluit het niet uit dat Nietzsche daarbij goeddunkend zou knikken.
I read this in short bursts, but I never got to the end. It requires quite a bit of attention to wrap your head around the style of writing and the way he uses language. Everything needs interpretation, because nothing is what it seems, nothing is literal.
Will pick this up again.
Will pick this up again.
nietzsche doesn't have the strongest poetic voice, but the passion and intensity with which he writes is undeniable. with regard to his philosophy (inasmuch as he would consider himself a philosopher at all), i find his stances on the primacy of physical being and immanence as one of the most unique epistemological systems ever deviced, and much ink has already been spilled on the cryptic nature of the eternal recurrence. i myself am rather opposed to seeing it merely through a normative/quasi-kantian basis for morality - my personal (and admittedly very scuffed) interpretation is that:
1) at the zenith of the will to power lies the interconnectedness of all things, and the sublimation of the world under the superman's will can enable us to experience every infinitesimal instance in time under the notion of eternity
2) when one has attained the superman it is impossible to acquiesce with any virtue that doesn't originate from the self - all moments past and present must be viewed through one and the same lens, and we must create this congruence between moments for ourselves without ceding to common pity or democracy of influence
at any rate, i think the open-endedness of nietzsche actually benefits the nature of his thought - the path to the superman can only be discovered singularly.
1) at the zenith of the will to power lies the interconnectedness of all things, and the sublimation of the world under the superman's will can enable us to experience every infinitesimal instance in time under the notion of eternity
2) when one has attained the superman it is impossible to acquiesce with any virtue that doesn't originate from the self - all moments past and present must be viewed through one and the same lens, and we must create this congruence between moments for ourselves without ceding to common pity or democracy of influence
at any rate, i think the open-endedness of nietzsche actually benefits the nature of his thought - the path to the superman can only be discovered singularly.