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Thus preached Zarathustra


In Friedrich Nietzsche's novel, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, his supposed Atheist work explores the advantages of every religion. From the Egyptian, Celtic, Greek, and Western gods, to even the single Christian God, Nietzsche promotes each one, and even suggest small alteration to improve each religion. He skillfully works in his opinions and beliefs through his careful wording, interesting punctuation, and powerful tone.
In his novel, fist Nietzsche establishes the belief that God can not exist in your life, without you first acknowledging him through skillfully weaved sentences. The first gods he takes on are the Egyptian gods. At first the text weaves in and out, but then the line "I tell you: one must still have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star." soon followed by "how the spirit becomes a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child." With his careful wording, he was able to work ancient gods into his text. The first line, on chaos and stars, refers to the Egyptian goddess Ma'at. Ma'at was the Egyptian Goddess of law and order, of the seasons, stars, and the actions of all mortal and non-mortal. It was said that before creation, there was only chaos. And she came forth from it to create order; by having the greatest of chaos in her. By preserving this chaos inside, and 'training' it to obey by laws, she had great power. Such as to help create the stars. Stars where, and still is, one of the greatest wonders to man, a great symbol of hope, life, and all that is good once surrounded by darkness. Ma'at, the connection between utter destruction and death, chaos, to absolute hope and life, the dancing stars. "I tell you; one must still have chaos within them to give birth to a dancing star." Also, on the wordings of "how the spirit becomes a camel, the camel a lion, and the lion at last a child. The camel, just as the star is the bearer of light in an endless plain of darkness, the camel is seen as the bearer of life in an endless plain of death. And just as the stars where seen as the gifts of the gods, so is the camel seen as a gift of God, in fact, the Bedouin call the camel “Ata Allah”: gift of God. Nietzsche uses the powerful symbolism of the camel as he questions "My brothers, why is there a need of the lion in the spirit? Why is not the beast of burden, which renounces and is reverent, enough?" (pg.26) and while just as he questions the creature which is that of the soul, and of the creatures, their traits that equal that of the soul, The Islamic Bible states; Why do they not reflect on the camels and how they are created? (88:17) In fact, though both passages, they reflect on how the camel is comparable to the soul. As Nietzsche choice such an odd animal to reflect on, the website Masjidtucson.org points out that "I think it’s interesting that of all the animals mentioned in the Quran—dogs, horses, birds, locusts, etc—God picked the camel as the one we should reflect upon." And yes, it is an odd animal, for both writers to first use, then to so closely compare. Nietzsche writing definitely parallels that of the Islamic Bible. And does not stop there, by his words, the camel then must become a lion. Now, while the Lion is a majestic creature, it is still odd that it is the most commonly mentioned animal in the whole Bible. Mentioned about 150 times. Lions are frequently seen as an opposing force to followers of God, since it was once seen as a 'sport' to throw followers of the one God, most commonly Jews and Christians, to the lions, as a question of their faith and the God's power. While it is mentioned that the bible mentions lions near the beginning as aggressive and opposers to those of the faith, near the end they are seen as followers and another symbol of God's power. "Then, at break of day, the king arose and went in haste to the den of lions. When he came near to the den where Daniel was, he cried out in a tone of anguish and said to Daniel, "O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, Whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?" Then Daniel said to the king, "O king, live for ever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths, and they have not hurt me, because I was found blameless before Him; and also before you, O king, I have done no wrong." Then the king was exceedingly glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of hurt was found upon him, because he had trusted in his God." (Daniel 6:19-23 RSV) In fact later, this creature that was seen as the killer of faith, is later even used to portray Gods power through his son, 'Is Jesus Christ the "Lion of the tribe of Judah"? Revelation 5:5. In Nietzsche's explanation, he makes clear that the camel, one with freedom that choices to listen, must then become the lion, one that opposes and questions till it has achieved answers, must then become the child. One who kindly and softly follows, who watches with wide, open eyes the beauty of the world around him, to see with new eyes all that God has show him, for like the child, there is much to learn. With Nietzsche's wording, he has worked in many double meanings, working in religious works such as The Book of the Dead, the Bible, (and odd enough, the Red Sea Scrolls can even be found in his writings) and many other such famous religious works.
Punctuation through out this book definitely stands out, not one sentence goes without one or two breaks for thought. "Ah, how you stand there before me, you unfruitful ones; how lean your rib! And indeed many of you ave noticed that. Many a one has said:"Surely a god stole something from me secretly while I slept? Truly, enough to make a little woman for himself!"(pg 105) Most of his sentences begin with 'Ah, O, Oh, Truly, Yes, No...' and so on. Such breaks in the beginning of sentences quickly brace you for another of his symbolic rants. Nietzsche's writing is unique enough for one to spot it without even reading the title. He frequently uses less common forms of punctuation such as ':' and ';' in his works. Very Often. Nietzsche chops up his sentences with such punctuations into order to slow down the reader, to sectioning his work to enforce that people will examine his writings closer. "I sing in the sunny corner of my mount of olives and mock all pity.--" (pg 150) In the passage On The Mount of Olives Nietzsche uses the olives on the hill to once again mock Christianity. Where Jesus went alone to the forest of Olive trees to weep about the upcoming Crucifixion, Zarathustra goes alone to a forest of Olive trees to sing rejoice in his success. Yet, by breaking down the sentences with his punctuation, he is able to point out that it also refers to the city of Athens, named after the Greek God Athena, whose symbol is the Olive branch, and is the Goddess of Strategy, and Wisdom, among many other things. In other less powerful sentences such as "And must I not hide myself, like one who has swallowed gold, so that they shall not slit open my soul?' (pg 149) Refers to the Druids and how they use to find it a sign of favor of the gods to become wealth, and would thus throw their gold into a sacred lake. The whole point of success was to give back. Yet when neighbor civilizations discovered this, they attacked and wiped out the peaceful Druid people. While the sentence and reference could have easily been overlooked, Nietzsche sectioning of it through commas helps to pull out key points.
The tone of the book frequently switches from that of mockery, amusement, and often one of disgusted rage. On page 41, Nietzsche begins another one of his characters 'Zarathustra's teachings' titled On The Preachers of Death, he begins his rant on how religions often preach how life is better after death, which he counters with his 'Is it not said that life is the most precious gift from God.' attitude. "They have not yet become men, those terrible ones: let them preach renunciation from life and pass away themselves!" The tone of this section is very aggressive, and hints, shows great frustration with those who 'Preachers of Death' who so denounce life and preach of the colors of death. He teaches that life is short, and it is now, that we must live it how we can, for this is life. "If you believed more in life, then you would devote yourselves less to the momentary." (pg 42) Zarathustra's rage at those who long for death, is very clear. Nietzsche's tone is also one of mild rage in is section On Love of the Neighbor, he strikes at the Hebrew teachings Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke [reason with] thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.-- Leviticus 19: 17-18 (KJV) he attacks this teaching by saying "But I tell you: your love of the neighbor is your bad love of yourselves." He directly attacks any relationship between neighbors and yourself, "You flee from yourselves to your neighbor and would like to make a virtue out of that: but I see through your "selfless." (pg. 54) Nietzsche believes that people should learn to be one with themselves first, and only. "You cannot endure to be alone with yourselves and do not love yourselves enough: so you want to mislead your neighbor into love and gild yourselves with his error." (pg. 54) Zarathustra often follows the Buddha belief that one must become one with themselves, 'Every living being has the same basic wish – to be happy and to avoid suffering.' which can be reached through the journey through oneself, to be at peace alone. Nietzsche is able to work in his opinions and beliefs with his careful wordings and strong, aggressive, tone.
By creating double, and even triple meanings through his careful wordings, through his unique punctuation, and even more powerful tone, he is able to hint and lead readers through many religious works, symbolic meanings, and explain his many theories and beliefs. Friedrich Nietzsche is an extremely creative and artistic writer whose writings can never be looked at by just one side. Thus Spoke Zarathustra is an extremely religious promoting book that should definitely be examined more.

Arigatou



Sites used:
http://www.aboutbuddha.org/english/index.htm
http://www.hwt-hrw.com/Ma'at.php
http://wysinger.homestead.com/maat.html
http://www.masjidtucson.org/God/animals/camels.html
http://www.keyway.ca/htm2001/20010505.htm
http://www.gracecathedral.org/enrichment/brush_excerpts/brush_20040721.shtml