Monday, July 14, 2014

The Godless

I finally finished reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche and resolved not to suggest the book to anyone. There are three primary reasons.
1. It is full of parables which are not very easily understandable but are given in a way which makes them sound profound when in fact they are totally irrelevant!
2. Surrealism beyond words! The amount of surreal imagery the author has drawn is tremendous. Such imagery might be good for visual pleasures but for reading it is totally irritating!
3. The wide array of topics on which Zarathustra, the godless, speaks is just too much! There are animals, passions, objects, nature, feelings, places, and so many other things on which the godless speaks! They all seem so disconnected.
The background story line is very simple. Zarathustra is an enlightened man descending down among humans from a long solitude just to tell them that God is dead and that they should aim to go beyond man, aim for Superman. So he journeys across towns, forests, meeting people and animals alike and giving them discourse on different topics. There are instances of soliloquies where he behaves insanely. So much is happening with so little clarity. It's all a surreal (sometimes exaggerated) dream.
But there are some statements written in fine sarcasm. There's a poetic and biblical touch to the book. Loud reading of the book is just so much fun! But it becomes too dramatic since there is complete lack of understanding! I don't want to write too much about this book. I may be ignorant to philosophies put forth. Anyway. I'll look for more lucidly written books. 

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