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3.8 AVERAGE

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.”
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.

theecopje's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

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.

Книга о всём и ни о чём.

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.

I don't know what to think just yet.
First of all, the writing...complete metaphor and allusion, which can be a good thing if you enjoy not being spoon fed. The length could have been shortened by a third. I would give 3 stars if it was more understandable, but then again, maybe I'm part of the "none" in the title.
The content? I approached TSZ carefully because of the "God is dead" aspect, but after realizing that it could be read from a different viewpoint, I decided to go ahead. I can't say that I agree with everything Nietzsche was trying to say, but there are aspects of the book that I think are useful: belief in yourself, the need to challenge yourself, to not be part of the rabble. And the challenge to embrace all of life's experiences, the good and the bad, with laughter, is not something I was expecting from Nietzsche.
I can't say that I will entirely read this again. Maybe bits and pieces (definitely Part 4 because at that point I was speeding through it wanting to be done). I think it will definitely stick with me for a while. There's a lot to ponder.
challenging slow-paced

I understood little to none of this, apart from an amusing segment on an Ass Festival
challenging dark reflective slow-paced