Frozen snapshot · version 1

Current version · Pinned JSON

What do kings matter now?

October of Zarathustra

“My happiness is heavy, and not like a fluid wave: it oppresses me and will not leave me, and is like molten pitch.” —Zarathustra—gutenberg.org

I moved to Philadelphia when I was 27. I'm a writer, so, big surprise, I got hit by a massive wave of depression shortly after arriving. I had a demanding job that paid me next to nothing. I was living in a closet. It was tough.

So I got walloped by the blues, but it was not my first ride. The first thing I did was I sat with it, I wallowed in it. I just really felt it. I didn't fight it, I didn't deny it. I let it play out. Depression has always had a rhythm for me. It overwhelms my brain, but it can't hold it. Like a tide, it goes out.

This is the key part. As soon as I felt the slightest ebbing, I made my move. I said "yes" to every single suggestion for activity that came along. If there wasn't an invite, I went looking for one. I tried to be out every night, up to the point that my very thin wallet and my temperament could handle it.

I texted every girl in my phone. 

I bugged every friend for drinks.

Anything to keep moving, and it broke.

This is what the first three chapters of part 4 make me think of. Zarathustra has been depressed. His friends, his animals (maybe some part of his mind) come to him and prod him to get moving again (his animals only ever speak to him in one voice — it's not like the eagle says something; they all say something). 

It turns out he's ready. So he goes through a ritual and he starts to get ready to head into the world. As soon as he does, he meets kings! 

This can be how it is coming out of depression: everything feels exalted. It had been so bad and you had had no stimulation so that the first time you have any stimulation it feels tremendous. 

As I understand it, part four is where Thus Spoke Zarathustra takes on an all-new tone. 

Part Four feels more like a strange house party than the prophetic journey of the earlier sections, with kings, a retired pope, and other troubled "higher men" gathering at Zarathustra's cave. These guests haven't become the beings he hopes humanity might produce; they bring their disappointments and old habits along, turning his ideas into a messy test of how to live. Scholars often dwell on the shift toward comedy and parody, which peaks when this supposedly elevated company starts worshipping a donkey. The joke reaches back toward Zarathustra himself, and scholars debate whether that laughter undercuts his teaching or helps bring it to life. Nietzsche finished this unexpected continuation in 1885, aged forty, after already declaring the book complete with Part Three, and paid for a tiny private printing for close friends. Its writing was more stop-and-start, stretching across late 1884 and early 1885, unlike the roughly ten-day bursts traditionally reported for each of the first three parts.

This honestly sounds great. Looking forward to the more jaded era of Zarathustra.

The Honey Sacrifice

Zarathustra's animals talk him into climbing a mountain. He does it, and he somehow wastes a bunch of honey as he does so. The sacrifice of the honey that he loves is necessary to show himself that he's still the wicked, profligate man he means to be. His hair is white now.

The Cry of Distress

The soothsayer from part 2 shows back up and tells him he can hear the higher man calling for Zarathustra out in the dark forest. Zarathustra can hear it, too. He wants to go find him. He tells the soothsayer to wait for him.

Conversation with Kings

He finds two kings in the forest and they are talking about why they have left their kingdom. They are real drama queens. He tells them to meet him back in his cave, and they are glad to go. The two men and their donkey head back to his cave, while Zarathustra proceeds. 

One line

“Better, truly, to live among hermits and goatherds than with our gilded, false, painted mob—though it call itself ‘good society.’” —one of the kings.

—Brady Dale
October 22, 2026