My cave is a good haven

October of Zarathustra

For being the man so famously opposed to the notion of pity, Zarathustra is being quite generous.

For being the most famous unbeliever in the world, Zarathustra is acting a lot like Jesus.

This final stretch of the book has more of a clear plot than any of the others, at least so far. Rather than walking around and giving speeches to people, Zarathustra is having conversations. 

There is a clearer overarching intention. He says he can hear the higher man in his forest, and he's out looking for him.

There's also a stronger sense of setting. We're in the woods nearby Zarathustra's cave. The funny thing about that is that Zarathustra seems to be quite surprised by the landscape, which is funny, because he claims it to be "his" land, territory he knows well. 

But, for example, in the chapter "The Ugliest Man," the second I read this morning, he finds himself surprised by his surroundings, as if he's ended up in a part of his woods that he hasn't found his way into for years. 

The vige is getting a darker. He's found an old pope who claims to have served God up until his final moments, when he died. Just to be sure, he went to find a holy man, but the holy man is dead, too (with a couple of wolves holding vigil for him — braggable). 

So the old pope goes looking for Zarathustra. 

Then he finds the ugliest man, and my footnotes suggest that this is a stand-in for Socrates. He's an embittered man at the end of a hard life.

Zarathustra doesn't seem to like either of these guys (but he doesn't beat either of them). Yet he still invites them back to his cave. They are lost, but they have found Zarathustra — that might not quite be the same as finding their way, but we suspect it will do for the night. 

Honestly, this part of the book reads more like Zarathustra fan fiction than it reads as though it is of a piece with the rest of the book. 

One line

"O Zarathustra, you are more pious than you believe, with such unbelief! Some god in you has converted you to your ungodliness. Is it not your piety itself which no longer lets you believe in a God?" —the old pope.

—Brady Dale
October 24, 2026

Next Zarathustra: Ruminating