AM! Forum Book Club UPDATED for Zarathustra

I think I'll go for it. I've got tons of reading with school already, but depending on the book, I'll step in and join you guys.

I don't have school until April, so I might be up to it ...depends on what you guys are reading.

read Blood Meridian as the first book, it will not let you down.

All books by Carthy McComack are fucking bad ass im about to start on All the Pretty Horses and that Triology of books.

So let's talk Zarathustra....for all or none?

godisdead wrote:

So let's talk Zarathustra....for all or none?

Hell yeah, a book for all and none. I guess we need others to agree on this one.

ska_sean wrote:

read Blood Meridian as the first book, it will not let you down.

All books by Carthy McComack are fucking bad ass im about to start on All the Pretty Horses and that Triology of books.

This will be the first book I read by him. A friend keeps telling me to read it.

Ok everyone PM me one book you'd like to read first and then I'll put a post up to vote on them.

Giving a brief description might be helpful

We need to have a thread with a vote after there has been enough suggestions!

This is looking fun, haha.

Benedetto wrote:

Ok everyone PM me one book you'd like to read first and then I'll put a post up to vote on them.

Giving a brief description might be helpful

You just wanted PMs

Yeah I plan on making a thread with a poll. Or I can just do it now with the suggestions we have already. PM's would nice to make a definitive starting list.

Just do Blood Meridian....

ska_sean wrote:

Just do Blood Meridian....

I want everyone to have a say

Zarathustra

Alright, let's start our reading of Zarathustra!

We need to assign chapters and such.

tangerine wrote:

We need to assign chapters and such.

I know, what do you think sounds reasonable?

Psh... next time you need to figure out the syllabus. Hurry and post it now.

Sweet i cant wait to start talking Nietzsche and existentialism it gives me goose bumps! hip hip hurray!

I guess I'll start.

I think we can all agree that Zarathustra has been living in solitude in the mountains for 10 years. He awakens one day to realize he ready to associate with people once again; he wants to share his knowledge with people.

"Altered is Zarathustra; a child hath Zarathustra become; an awakened
one is Zarathustra: what wilt thou do in the land of the sleepers?"

On his way back down he stumbles unto a man who tries to convince him not meddle with man; having only bad things to say about them. That man believes in God while Zarathustra is atheist.

- - - I'll write more later - - -

Then zarathustra walks into the village and tries to give the people of the village the knowledge hes aquired in his time in the mountains but they dont really want to listen they are more intrested in the tight rope act that is about to happen in the center of the village, while zarathustra is giving his sermon the tight rope walker is listening to zarathustra and begins his walk half way across the tight rope a jester pops out jumps over the tight rope walker and makes him fall to his death every one leaves and zarathustra is left with the tightrope walker.
I dont think zarathustra is an atheist and i know that it is in this prologue where the famous Nietszche quote "god is dead" comes from but the thing is that i dont think he is talking about god as a being or force but about god as human idea. if anything i would argue that zarathustra is more of a prophet than anything hes seen through the bullshit and wants to give people truth not just lies and shadows. the opening of the book starts out describing the sun coming into his cave {i believe this is an analogy to the plato's cave metaphor where the slave comes out of the cave and sees true knowlage (the sun/ Light) for the first time like zarathustra}. If anything i belive zarathustra is suposed to represent a Jesus/ Buddha/ Krishna type figure wanting to give people a deeper understanding of what being human really is ex section 4.

He is agnostic at least in the sense that he believes in the power of the "Superman" - man's inner strengths - after being enlightened. He is quoting his previous work where he states that "GOD IS DEAD" just for the sake of quoting it seems. The Plato similarity is dead on. But why would he quote Plato if he disagreed with most of his work?
When he starts preaching to the townspeople he starts talking about man and ape. He is bringing in Darwin's theory of evolution which further backs that he is atheist in my opinion.


Also, what does he mean here:

For ten years hast thou climbed hither unto my cave: thou wouldst have wearied of thy light and of the journey, had it not been for me, mine eagle, and my serpent.

What are the eagle and serpent metaphors for?

FUCKING STOKED

I agree completely with the idea that he's arguing for more for the sake of enlightened human power (we have not yet achieved/realized our ideal state of being, but we are capable). And that is more important than saying, "God is dead." I think he's trying to look past myth and focus on truth which relates to his use of the sun and Plato reference. Specifically to respond to Tangerine, I'm not fully knowledgeable on Nietzsche's opinion on Plato, but I think that he obviously read the Allegory and it is definitely a work that stands out on its own. I'm meaning that the motives and ideas contained in the Allegory would not seem antithetical to Nietzsche's point.

Now I just want to bring up a question for discussion. Do you think that Nietzsche is writing with a firm grasp of a greater understanding, or is he simply writing to get closer to that greater understanding?

I ask this because I hold strong opinions about those who think they are in a complete or factual understanding of something that I believe they cannot possibly know.

Ok, ignore my question. I think its obvious from part four of the prologue that the superhuman process is not about a end "goal" of understanding.

I'm interested to understand more about his superman concept.