I read Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche over 1 full year.
Half of Zarathustra is coded parables and half is so profound that it can only be consumed in portions. Like eating 5 pies in a single setting… you can only take so many bites before you ruin your appetite. One cannot read profundity after profundity without cheapening the next profundity. I had to digest it slowly.
The book was deeply moving to me as an artist and scientist. It is largely a stoic methodology for approaching life as a creative.
“With creators, the reapers, and the rejoicers will I associate: the rainbow will I show them, and all the stairs to the Superman.”
To Nietzsche, morality impedes an artist and must be destroyed.
“Always doth he destroy who hath to be a creator.”
“Companions, the creator seeketh, not corpses – and not herds or believers either. Fellow-creators the creator seeketh – those who grave new values on new tables.”
But it’s more than saying no to rules, it is about creating personal aesthetics [being born again]. “Three metamorphoses of the spirit have I designated to you: How the spirit became a camel [society beats our spirits into obedient beasts of burden; we follow rules], the camel a lion [the next transformation is gaining the courage to say no to the rules], and the lion at last a child [the courage to live new life under your own rules].”
Nietzsche prescribes continual Creative Reinvention: “Whatever I create, and however much I love it, – soon must I be adverse to it, and to my love: so willeth my will.”
In science, professors often fear reinventing themselves. I WANT TO DO NEW THINGS!
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Zarathustra is dense. I have pages of highlights and notes… Here are some big concepts that did come through in my first read (a tiny subset):
Geneology of morals… Our moral systems were created and can be re-created.
It’s lonely at the top… “In the end one experiences only oneself” (after climbing mountains literally and figuratively).
Master/Slave morality… The notion that a wolf might have a different moral code than a sheep and both could still be true to their natures without sharing the same moral codes.
Love of passionate personalities… “My brethren in war! I love you from the very heart. I am, and was ever, your counterpart. And I am also your best enemy. So let me tell you the truth! I know the hatred and envy of your hearts. Ye are not great enough not to know of hatred and envy. Then be great enough not to be ashamed of them!”
Skin in the game… (the willingness to take risks and bear consequences)… “Ready must thou be to burn thyself in thine own flame; how coulds’t thou become new if thou have not first become ashes!”
Memento Mori… “Many die too late, and some die too early… Die at the right time!”
Quiet Contemplation… “Flee, my friend, into thy solitude – and thither, where a rough strong breeze bloweth. It is not thy lot to be a fly-flap.”
Non-equality… [DO NOT MISINTERPRET] “With these preachers of equality will I not be mixed up and confounded. For thus speaketh justice UNTO ME: Men are not equal. And neither shall they become so! What would be my love to the Superman, if I spake otherwise?” [Nietzsche is often a scientific philosopher… He knows that the human species will not exist in their present form for long. Eventually we will be surpassed by something different, just like our ancestors… Who among us does not feel that many are gifted with diverse talents and abilities? These traits are direct phenotypes of our genes. A gifted runner can be born as such, just as a gifted philosopher.]
Growing beyond what humans are now… Will to power… Superman… beyond the herd… “I walk amongst men as the fragments of the future: that future which I contemplate.”
Critiques of Darwanian Aesthetics… Strict Dawinism will not select for the most aesthetically pleasing incarnation of man. It might actually select for the lowest common denominator (see movie Idiocracy). Survival is not the goal… paraphrasing – “Reproduce Upwards!”
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My father told me once that a good christian can read Nietzsche.
NIETZSCHE AND JESUS:
Nietzsche does criticize Christianity. BUT, In fact, you CANNOT understand half the parables and aphorisms WITHOUT having a deep knowledge of the bible and Jesus, his quotes, and his parables. The entire book is unintelligible without having been through catholic grade school or equivalent. Camille Paglia makes this point as to why the Bible SHOULD be taught in school, simply because most western philosophy is incomprehensible without knowing it! Nietzsche picks parables and sermons from Jesus to EITHER turn them on their heads OR to agree with them. The most funny example is when Zarathustra finds a fake cripple and hits him with a stick, rather than feeling sorry for him. The dichotomy is that a fooled Jesus would heal the cripple, but Zarathustra sees he is faking and just whacks him very hard… Both heal cripples in the end because after being struck the fake cripple rises… lol…
What is usually unsaid is that there are many cases where Jesus and Nietzsche are hand in hand: Nietzsche discusses how your morality should be like that of an innocent child, “Innocence is the child, and forgetfulness, a new beginning, a game, a self-rolling wheel, a first movement, a holy Yea.” All children are born ignorant of rules. Nietzsche and Jesus are on par here as Jesus is famous for the, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Nietzsche and Jesus are hand in hand with zealous skin in the game style philosophy. You should be willing to die passionately for your ideals. “It is the surrender of the greatest to run risk and danger, and play dice for death.”
Jesus and Nietzsche are both misunderstood, misinterpreted, and persecuted by their peers. “But nevertheless I walk with my thoughts ABOVE their heads; and even should I walk on mine own errors, still would I be above them and their heads.”
One is never a prophet in their home town…
“They crucify him who writeth new values on new tables, they sacrifice unto themselves the future – they crucify the whole human future.”
They both share a love of real cripples. Nietzsche encounters a real cripple and explains how his crippled nature makes him stronger and allows him to see clearly; in contrast normal people are “reverse cripples.” The perfect example is a man with two functioning ears, who listens far too much to idiots, and doesn’t learn to think for himself.
Nietzsche adopts Jesus’ speaking style, so at least, if anything, he likes his communication style.
Thus, there are many examples (even more not listed) where Nietzsche and Jesus are sympatico.
I hope to continue in Part 2 with WHY it actually was so moving to me.