Review

Recently I have been made to read <Thus spake Zarathustra>, a book written by Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher. And now I must write my review on this philosophy book to atone for my sins.

This book centers around Zarathustra, who is somewhat of a prophet and a philosopher going around and spreading his message to the people. The adventure is completely irrelevant as the themes of the book are not in the physical experience of the character and instead what he says. This is evident as so much of the book occurs in dialogue you'd think Nietzsche saw the rule 'show not tell' and immediately kicked it which all of his German efficiency and the people in the book <Thus spake Zarathustra> literally ignores whatever Zarathustra had spaken like I ignore my responsibilities. Basically, this book is what you'd have if you wrote down every single thing happening during Philosophy class and published it as literature. Then again, Nietzsche likely did so on purpose so that's all I have for that and instead I will finally begin on the book's themes. The first theme:

God is dead

This theme is one of Nietzsche's most prominent philosophies and is immediately shown in the story as Zarathustra, leaving the mountain where he was residing to spread his message he is stopped by a saint accusing him of blasphemy for not serving god. They are unable to persuade each other, and Zarathustra leaves, muttering under his breath, "Could it be possible! This old saint in the forest hath not yet heard of it, that GOD IS DEAD!"

Before I continue, it is important to know that the concept of god in your religion or culture may be quite different from what 'god' means when it is talked about in philosophy. In philosophy and in this case, 'god' is essentially the existence of an entity, usually omnipotent or at least powerful in some way that can through supernatural forces, controls our lives and even our deaths, and as such we should always serve them, or do good in their name in order to succeed in life, or for certain benefits. 

As Nietzsche through the mouth of Zarathustra announces that god is dead, he is telling the reader that god no longer has any power, god no longer has any control over us and god can no longer help us.

Because god is dead. God no longer exists, and for that we should stop serving god, and it is silly for us to continue doing so.

This is often a theme in nihilist and existentialist philosophies, that our actions by itself have no consequences, neither good nor bad, as there is no one true entity that can judge them. However there is another warning given by Zarathustra:

The Last Man

Zarathustra first comes to a small town, and begins his preaching by warning them against the Last Man, which is the state of being where one has become completely complacent with their life, and only seek entertainment and enjoyment without true fulfillment, and this is the state that Zarathustra states that man will become if they do not change.

Now a small tangent, this can very much come off with the same tone as when elders often say that the younger generation has become more lazy and complacent with their lives, only liking entertainment and not hard work. Now this book was written in 1896, so this shows that it is not that the younger generation has become lazier, but in reality humans have, at least from what history shows, a tendency to prefer to be lazy, prefer to have fun and become at times become complacent. This does not validate them nor this behaviour, but I feel that it is an important statement that the innate behaviour of younger generations are always the same as the older generations, they only seem drastically different due to drastic changes in their surroundings. In short, if a child from the 1900s was raised as a child is currently, they would be like any other child in the 21st century. So stop blaming children you've raised for not meeting your expectations of how they should act, they cannot be responsible for that because they are literally a child. Blame whoever taught them to act that way.

Back to Zarathustra, Nietzsche through the prophet's mouth provides a solution to nihilism and The Last Man:

The Overman, or the Superman

In German, this state of being is the Übermensch, which is the superior form of man in which they have overcame every aspect of the Last Man. One who has became self-determined in their life's purpose. They are very different from those who follow God, those who base their decisions on what society tells them to do and are complacent with that lifestyle, and those who only seek enjoyment in their life, and all of these people either make their decisions on what they should do in life completely only on what others tell them to do, either through pressure from religion or societal pressure, or the last one, which only seeks enjoyment, which Nietzsche only deems as a bad form of lifestyle, as other than enjoyment, there is no other purpose to what they are doing. A Superman, should either find purpose in what they do, or find something they find purpose in to do. They do things not because someone else tells them to, or just for fun, but rather because they truly find purpose in these actions.

This lifestyle is a much better lifestyle, as if a person does things they don't want to, and only does things they do because they are told by others to, they are unlikely to find happiness of fulfillment in those actions, and over time they will fun our of motivation as they no longer find happiness in their work, and the stress of it overwhelms them. This is also known as burnout. On the other hand only having entertainment activities is not only often unrealistic in society as a hedonistic lifestyle is unsustainable without an economic income, the enjoyment which comes from the activity may have diminishing rewards. Such as a gourmet meal, when being consumed for the first time may be very delicious, however after so many meals, the taste only turns from overwhelming to underwhelming as you become bored of the same repeated taste. Instead, perhaps, a person should at the same time of appreciating this dish, learn how it is made, and learn to prepare it themselves. Then the dish becomes more than being enjoyed for its taste, as they will not only have learned a new skill and potentially learned a new hobby, they would also have gained more enjoyment when they can finally taste the dish due to the work that they have put into it.

That is only one example, however, I hope it shows how finding your own purpose and goal in life, and then aiming for that goal is a much more fulfilling and beneficial lifestyle than one which seeks fulfillment from religion or entertainment. This is also Nietzsche's solution to nihilism, as it answers the problem posed by nihilism that there is no purpose more consequence to whatever we do in life, by stating that instead, we should then provide purpose on our own. The statement by Nietzsche to reject God and what society says to us, further emphasizes that finding this purpose should be done on our own, and not be told what it should be by anyone else.

For my final statement, I would like to tie this into a movie called 'Soul', which was made by Pixar earlier this year, which you may have or haven't watched, but I'm pretty sure it is no longer showing. I will not be spoiling the whole plot, but one of its plot points shows the protagonist achieving his life's mission to give a music performance, yet he quickly loses the satisfaction of achieving this goal. He then begins to realise that there is satisfaction and fulfillment from everyday activities, interacting with others, and simply performing music for the fun of it. This ties in Nietzsche's philosophy of deciding what we should do in life on our own, but it also warns us that we should not be obsessed with a goal, as we may then lose our motivation when we achieve it, and instead it should be the 'doing' part which pushes us in life, while 'Soul' also shows that we don't even need for it to be an elaborate activity, and can be as simple as being around with friends, and living life as usual.