Thus Spoke Zarathustra

This article is about the book by Friedrich Nietzsche. For the symphonic poem by Richard Strauss, please see Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss). For the oil painting cycle by Lena Hades, please see Lena Hades.
The cover for the first part of the first edition.
The cover for the first part of the first edition.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None is a book written during the 1880s by the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. Hard to categorise, the work is a treatise on existential philosophy, a masterly work of literature, in parts a collection of poetry and in others a parody of and amendment to the Bible. Consisting largely of speeches by the book's hero, prophet Zarathustra, the work's content extends across a mass of styles and subject matter. Nietzsche himself described the work as 'the deepest ever written'.

Contents

[edit]

Background

The book's English title varies depending on translator; the titles of the Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale translations are "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", while it has also been translated as Thus Spake Zarathustra (for example in the Thomas Common translation). The German title is Also sprach Zarathustra. Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen.

Thus Spake Zarathustra was conceived by Nietzsche while he was writing his book, The Gay Science: he made a small note, reading 6,000 feet beyond man and time. (This note related specifically to the concept of the Eternal Recurrence). Nietzsche planned to write the book in three parts over several years.

While developing the general outlook of the book, he subsequently decided that he would write an extra three parts; ultimately, however, he composed only the fourth part, which is viewed to constitute an intermezzo.

Nietzsche commented in Ecce Homo that for the completion of each part: Ten days sufficed; in no case, neither for the first not for the third and last, did I require more (Kaufmann). The first three parts were first published separately, and were subsequently published in a single volume in 1887. The fourth part remained private after Nietzsche wrote it in 1885; a scant forty copies were all that were printed, apart from seven others that were distributed to Nietzsche's close friends. In March 1892, the four parts were finally reprinted as a single volume. Since then, the version most commonly produced has included all four parts.

The original text contains a great degree of word-play. An example of this exists in the use of the words “over” or “super” and the word “down”: for instance, in the terms “superman”/“overman,” “overgoing,” “downgoing,” and “self-overcoming.”

[edit]

Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The book chronicles the fictitious travels and pedagogy of Zarathustra. "Zarathustra" is the German version of the name of the Persian prophet Zoroaster (Zaraθuštra), the presumed founder of Zoroastrianism, which had a profound influence on Judaism and subsequently Christianity, or may have himself been influenced by Judaism. It becomes clear in the book that Nietzsche is portraying a “new” or “different” Zarathustra, one who turns traditional morality on its head.

Zarathustra has a simple plot, narrated sporadically throughout the text. It possesses a unique experimental style, one that is, for instance, evident in newly invented “dithyrambs” narrated or sung by Zarathustra. Likewise, the separate Dionysus-Dithyrambs, written in autumn, 1888, were printed with the full volume, in 1892, as the corollaries of Zarathustra's “abundance.”
The story portrays the transfiguration that Zarathustra attains through the self-overcoming of morality, out of truthfulness; the self-overcoming of the moralist, into his opposite—into me... (Ecce Homo, Kaufmann).
Some have speculated that Nietzsche intended to write about final acts of creation and destruction that Zarathustra would commit. However, the book lacks a finale that would match that description; its actual ending focuses more on Zarathustra recognising that his legacy is beginning to perpetuate, and consequently choosing to leave the higher men to their own devices in carrying his legacy forth.

Zarathustra also contains the famous dictum “God is dead,” which had appeared earlier in The Gay Science. However, in his autobiography Nietzsche states that the book's true underlying concept is discussed within the penultimate section of the fourth [part] (Ecce Homo, Kaufmann) namely,“The Drunken Song”. It is Zarathustra's vision of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same Events.

This concept first occurred to Nietzsche while he was walking in Switzerland through the woods along the lake of Silvaplana (close to Surlei); he was inspired by the sight of a gigantic, towering, pyramidal rock (the exact location of which remains unknown). Previously to Zarathustra, Nietzsche had mentioned the concept in the fourth book of The Gay Science (e.g., sect. 341); this was the first public proclamation of the notion by him. Apart from its salient presence in Zarathustra, it is also echoed elsewhere in Nietzsche's work. At any rate, it is by Zarathustra's transfiguration that he embraces eternity, that he at last ascertains the supreme will to power (The Will to Power, sect. 617, Kaufmann). This inspiration finds itself expression with Zarathustra's Roundelay, featured twice in the book, once near the story's close:

O man! Take heed!
What saith deep midnight's voice indeed?
"I slept my sleep—
"From deepest dream I've woke and plead:—
"The world is deep,
"And deeper than the day could read.
"Deep is its woe—
"Joy—deeper still than grief can be:
"Woe saith: Hence! Go!
"But joys all want eternity—
"Want deep profound eternity!"

Another singular feature of Zarathustra, first presented in the prologue, is the designation of human beings as a transition between apes and the “Übermensch” (in English, either the “overman” or “superman”). The Superman is one of the many interconnecting, interdependent themes of the story, and is represented through several different metaphors. Examples include: the lightning that is portended by the silence and raindrops of a travelling storm cloud; or the sun's rise and culmination at its midday zenith; or a man traversing a rope stationed above an abyss, moving away from his uncultivated animality and towards the Superman.

The symbol of the Übermensch also alludes to Nietzsche's notions of “self-mastery,” “self-cultivation,” “self-direction,” and “self-overcoming.” Expostulating these concepts, Zarathustra dictates:

I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass man?
All beings hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and ye want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would rather go back to the beast than surpass man?
Ye have made your way from the worm to man, and much within you is still worm. Once were ye apes, and even yet man is more of an ape than any of the apes.
Even the wisest among you is only a disharmony and hybrid of plant and phantom. But do I bid you become phantoms or plants?
Lo, I teach you the Superman!
The Superman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: The Superman SHALL BE the meaning of the earth!
I conjure you, my brethren, REMAIN TRUE TO THE EARTH, and believe not those who speak unto you of superearthly hopes! Poisoners are they, whether they know it or not.
Despisers of life are they, decaying ones and poisoned ones themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so away with them!
The book embodies a number of innovative poetical and rhetorical methods of expression. It serves as a parallel and supplement to the various philosophical ideas present in Nietzsche's body of work. He has, however, said that among my writings my Zarathustra stands to my mind by itself (Ecce Homo, Preface, sect. 4, Kaufmann). Emphasizing its centrality and its status as his magnum opus, it is stated by Nietzsche that:
With [Thus Spoke Zarathustra] I have given mankind the greatest present that has ever been made so far. This book, with a voice bridging centuries is not only the highest book there is, the book that is truly characterized by the air of the heights—the whole fact of man lies beneath it at a tremendous distance—it is also the deepest, born out of the innermost wealth of truth, an inexhaustible well to which no bucket descends without coming up again filled with gold and goodness. (Ecce Homo, Kaufmann)
Since, as stated, many of the book's ideas are also present in his other works, Zarathustra is seen to have served as a precursor to his later philosophical thought. With the book, Nietzsche embraced a distinct aesthetic assiduity. He later reformulated many of his ideas, in his book Beyond Good and Evil and various other writings that he composed thereafter. He continued to emphasise his humanitarian concerns: generally, his intention was to destroy repressive moral codes, and to avert “nihilism” in all of its varied forms.

Other aspects of Thus Spoke Zarathustra pertain to Nietzsche's proposed “Transvaluation of All Values”. This incomplete project began with The Antichrist.

[edit]

Style

Nietzsche is unique among philosophers for what is widely regarded as the remarkable power and effectiveness of his prose style - particularly as manifested in Zarathustra. The indigestible 'heaviness' long associated with German-language philosophy is eschewed, with puns and paradoxes abounding, and aphoristic brevity rubbing shoulders with parable and even poem in his rhetoric. The end result is a manner of philosophical writing which, being "pitched half-way between metaphor and literal statement" is "something quite extraordinary" (J.P. Stern).

His work has been described as 'half philosophic, half poetic'; the fact that it can thus manage to convince the reader emotionally as well as intellectually is no doubt one reason for its appeal (especially among creative artists) - but it also means that the theory behind the metaphors is never fully or clearly written out.

One problem inevitably caused by this is that the boundaries of his thinking are not easily discerned: for example, many people not only feel that Nietzsche's term Übermensch conjures up the 'pure Aryan' of Hitlerian mythology, but further assume that it must have been accompanied by the complementary lesser human or sub-human 'Untermensch' - whereas this latter term is in fact a creation of Nazi racial ideology.

Another vulnerability entailed by Nietzsche's style is that nuances and shades of meaning are very easily lost - and all too easily gained - in translation. Here the Übermensch is a case in point: the equivalent 'Superman' found in dictionaries and in the translations by Thomas Common and R.J. Hollingdale may create an unfortunate association with the heroic comic-character 'Superman' - while other logical alternatives which one might propose ('Over-human?' 'Above-human?' 'Super-human?' 'Beyond-human?') are either uselessly clumsy or smack of a 'political correctness' foreign to Nietzsche's outlook. Walter Kaufmann's 'Overman' would perhaps be more serviceable - were it not for the overtone of hierarchical authoritarianism which it introduces. A little used alternative is 'Hyper-man.' It is as precisely Greek (which Nietzsche knew quite well) as 'Superman,' without the pop-political connotations.

Regardless of the translation, it is illuminating to think of 'Über' in relationship to the development of the individual subject. The Übermensch is the being that overcomes the "great nausea" associated with nihilism; that overcomes that most "abysmal" realization of the eternal return. He is the being that "sails over morality," and that dances over gravity (the "spirit of gravity" is Zarathustra's devil and archenemy). He is a "harvester" and a "celebrant" who endlessly affirms his existence, thereby becoming the transfigurer of his consciousness. He is initially a destructive force, excising and annihilating the insidious 'truths' of the herd, and consequently reclaiming the chaos from which pure creativity is born. It is this creative existence that justifies suffering without displacing it in some "afterworld." He is the lightning that brings the frenzy of religious ecstasy to earth -- complete with suffering and birth pangs.

[edit]

References

  • Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Nietzsche; translated and with a preface by Walter Kaufmann (New York, Modern Library, 1995, ISBN 067960175)
  • Ecce Homo: How One Becomes What One Is by Friedrich Nietzsche; translated and with a preface by Walter Kaufmann
  • Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist by Walter Kaufmann, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1974, ISBN 0-691-01983-5
[edit]

External links

[edit]

The text

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

The Thomas Common translation (available through the above link) is widely available, and a compelling rendition of the book. Some have claimed it to be inaccurate or to possess Nazi distortions by Nietzsche's sister; however, on comparison between it and the translations claimed to be superior, there is very little discrepancy in the meaning of the text.

Modern translations by R.J. Hollingdale and Walter Kaufmann are sometimes considered to more accurately convey the minutiae of the German text. They are translations in which the work is rendered in a far more prosaic and mundane style of language.

[edit]

Other