synopsis:

In the hundred years since Thus Spoke Zarathustra was published, no one has been able to make any sense of it. Some have tried to work it on the premise that it is an allegory or a fable, but most have rendered it as a story that details an account by a character named Zarathustra of his travels and travails and his teachings about life along the way. In fact, 'Zarathustra' is a dithyrambic tragedy. It is comprised of eighty dithyrambs, each composed entirely in metaphor. The name Zarathustra is actually a metaphor for the will-to-power and Zarathustra's travels are actually an account of the development of the will-to-power. His teachings represent the values by which its evolution proceeds and his travails represent the dilemmas and imbroglios through which it struggles and ascends. Thus, Nietzsche's dithyrambic drama offers anyone who undertakes it an opportunity to learn the will that drives the process of life within us. In learning that will, which requires a plausible embodiment rather than a mere comprehension, the actor descends into his subconscious, discovers his demons, and then redeems those demons in such a way as to achieve something that makes the depth and duration of his suffering entirely and utterly worthwhile.

Strongly influenced by Schopenhauer in this book Nietzsche writes about the Wille Zur Macht (Will to power), by which every human is driven. All our actions are caused by this Will. We have to conedmn reason and let ourselves guide by the will, which can be done by creating art. Only then we can fully experience our lifes.

on this book:

During the years 1883 to 1885, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote Thus Spoke Zarathustra. For Nietzsche, the publication of this particular piece of work represented his greatest accomplishment. It gave him a sense of having completed his life's work and left him to die contented. According to him, it was the greatest book ever written. It became popular when he was already mad. Nietzsche is one of the few philosophers whose books can be read like a novel.see also: * "The devotion of the greatest is..."