From: Sean Saraq <sean_saraq-AT-environics.ca>
Subject: RE: A city, worms, why is my disciple dead?
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 1998 15:46:08 -0400 


Hi Dan,

I incline to theory #2 and a half: your comments are very worthwhile,
and people don't have a lot of time.

I think your comments on the tightrope walker and observation about the
significance of towns is very good. The only minor nuance I would add is
that I don't get the impression that humanity is an embarrassment to the
Overman. It is clear that the Overman is mastery and humanity is
slavery, but the sense of these terms is quite complex since Nietzsche
avoids the oppositional black versus white, good versus evil logic of
vulgar Hegelianism. Even though the Overman has some sort of
relationship with humanity - the two coexist temporally, in the same
ways apes and humans continue to coexist - the Overman does not worry
about (and does not waste his time being embarrassed by) humanity.
Embarrassment is closely related to guilt.

You are absolutely right about the significance of the ape, because the
Overman is not a nostalgic going backward, but rather an exstatic leap
forward. That having been said, in a sense the Overman is more
animal-like, because it has overcome the Judeo-Christian hocus-pocus of
guilt, 'though shalt', and a consciousness at odds with the body. The
knowledge the Overman has is not floating in his consciousness separated
from his body, it is somatic knowledge, "acquired instinct" if you like,
the acquired instinct of a new species, if not in the biological sense,
in the semiological sense of a qualitatively different life form.

Sean Saraq
Toronto

Sean Saraq
Toronto

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Dan Dzenkowski [SMTP:djdzenko-AT-students.wisc.edu]
> Sent:	Friday, August 07, 1998 2:14 PM
> To:	nietzsche-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> Subject:	A city, worms, why is my disciple dead?
> 
>         It would be nice to get a few more responses to what I post.
> 
> 1. It sucks and should be ignored, as there is a chance that I am an
> academic nitwit.
> 2. I should be publishing what I write since it is awesome.  (I have
> studied
> under Kaufmann's best student and another fellow with a book on
> Nietzsche)
> 3. People have not gotten adequate time to read a page and a half
> after
> talking about a reading group.
> 
> I am more prone to believe #3.....
> 
> So here we go
> 
> Prologue #3
> 
>         So Zarathustra comes out of the (dangerous) woods and enters
> the
> town on the outside of the woods.  It should be noted that the towns
> are
> always located outside of dangerous places.  He enters the town and
> there is
> excitement over a tightrope walker.  The tightrope walker is the
> spectacle
> since it is a man living his life.  Instead of sitting all complacent
> this
> man is going to take a risk and attempt to increase his life, to a
> possible
> superabundance of life.  The rest of the people don't live, they live
> through other people, that is why the tightrope walker is a spectacle.
>         "I teach you the overman.  Man is something that shall be
> overcome.
> What have you done to overcome him."
>         Probably the most important lines in the book.
>         The next paragraph (I am using Kaufmann's Portable Nietzsche
> p124)
> discusses how man must overcome himself, and not go back to the
> animals, he
> must become something more than himself.  He is an animal, not some
> highly
> esteemed creature in the face of nature, because he places himself on
> a
> pedestal, because he has created 'moral' values.  The saint went back
> to the
> animals, men overcome themselves.  I think that the comment about the
> ape is
> just  NIetzsche stating that the ape is an animal which, looks like a
> man,
> but is not one.  It is an embarrassment to be compared with an animal,
> just
> because it looks like you.  Just as man is an embarrassment to the
> overman.
> Man has made a great mistake, the overman is embarrassed and
> distressed
> because of this mistake.  What is the mistake? That comes later...
>         The worm?  A basic creature that man once was and now man is
> more,
> but much in him is still worm.  I always liked to look at the sections
> talking about worms in this fashion. An apple that looks fine from the
> outside, but is rotten all to hell on the inside by a worm, such a
> creature
> is man.  Worm =  the debilitating effect that not willing (or being
> able to
> will)  the eternal return causes, the seed of resentment.
>         Cross between plant and ghost?  The wisest among man either
> grow
> into something greater (a fig tree) or you are a shadow of man,  a
> ghost.
> "The overman is the meaning of the earth." This is Nietzsche's
> philosophy,
> if it is even a philosophy. A person who believes in the earth is one
> who
> affirms their existence now, they are not the afterworldly, who wish
> for
> something else, something different.  Poison mixers, priests and
> others who
> are tired of living and affirming their own existence.  This causes
> resentment which, is shown through their need to poison everyone else
> that
> they can.  'I am weak and can not carry the burden of my own
> existence, so I
> shall create equality, and make sure that no one else is given a
> chance to
> live.'
>         All of the sinners died with god. Sin is not real, it is a
> poison
> which one feeds oneself.  If one wants to objectify an evil, it should
> be
> hatred of the earth, that is a real sin.
>         The Christians starve themselves.  They keep their body
> meager,
> ghastly, and starved.  In the wake of God's death, people are still
> despising themselves, and keeping themselves sick. God has just
> manifested
> himself as something different.  What is that?  It will come later.
> Nietzsche questions the reader about the health of their own soul.  We
> are
> Zarathustra's brothers, and Nietzsche will question us frequently.  He
> is
> our friend, he gives us honey, but also attacks us.  
>         Man is a polluted stream and the overman is the sea that can
> receive
> this polluted stream. The Overman, is the only one who can stand the
> thought
> of the eternally recurring small man.  You can go under, only through
> the
> superior will of the overman.  Why does one go under?  Why did
> Zarathustra
> come down the mountain?  To bring a gift. Why, man is contemptible?
> "I love
> man."
>         Greatest experience of your life.  Willing the eternal return,
> and
> overcoming your disgust and the thought of the small man.  " What
> matters my
> happiness?" It is not about objectifying happiness, it is about
> living. Life
> is painful and terrible at the same time.  It does no good to
> discount, the
> negative things in life. (Socrates)  "What matters my reason?" "What
> matters
> my virtue?" "What matters my justice?" "What matters my pity?" These
> are all
> statements that a healthy life affirming person must ask themselves,
> if they
> wish to benefit from Zarathustra's gift.  The lightning (fire) the
> Dionysian
> rapture, these are a part of the overman.         Zarathustra had
> described
> the beginnings of the tightrope walker's journey.  Questioning,
> rapture,
> overcoming... But, the people did not want to hear that, they didn't
> care,
> they were already dead.  Their God was going to see to that, maybe
> they
> hadn't heard that God was dead either.  They just wanted to watch life
> happen, not participate.  They wanted to watch, to mock and to thwart
> life.
> So they laugh at Zarathustra and make sure that the show will go on.
> They
> didn't want the tightrope walker to second guess himself, they wanted
> to
> watch him fail.  But, the words that Zarathustra spoke did not apply
> to the
> walker, the walker was confused.  He would die for that, but become a
> disciple after death, until Zarathustra gained living ones, they were
> not to
> be found in the city.
> 
> Dan
> 
> 
> 
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