October of Zarathustra

This was a personal challenge to re-read Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra for a second time, more deliberately (I read it at the end of 2019). I wanted to write a little about it each day as I go in hopes that I could make more of the book stick in my memory and to engage with its ideas actively. It's a weird book. A person should fight with it a little.

By the way, my post titles have very little meaning beyond the fact that they are all plucked from whatever I read that day. Mostly, they don't indicate anything about the post. SEO? RIP. 

For what it's worth, I'm reading the translation by Clancy Martin, from 2005, so quotes in the posts are from Martin's translation, though I link to Project Gutenberg's edition thoughout, because it's online; however, that is a slightly different translation.

  1. Wretched contentment — Thus Spoke Zarathustra , day 1 — Zarathustra's Prologue
  2. A sacred "No" — I. The Three Metamorphoses – IV. Despisers of the Body
  3. Write with blood — V. On Enjoying and Suffering the Passions – VIII. On the Tree on the Mountain
  4. My brothers in War! I love you thoroughly — IX. The Preachers of Death – XII. The Flies in the Marketplace
  5. The spectators often behaved like actors — XIII. On Chastity – XVII. On the Way of the Creator
  6. Your way is short; my poison is fatal — Part 1, Chapters 18–21
  7. The highest virtue is uncommon and useless — Part 1, Chapter 22: On the Gift-Giving Virtue
  8. Sleeping swords — 2.1 The Child With the Mirror – 2.4 On the Priests
  9. Let us all be enemies, my friends — On the Virtuous – On the tarantulas
  10. Only where there are graves are there resurrections — On the Famous Wise Men – The Grave Song
  11. All that lives obeys — On self-overcoming – On Immaculate Perception
  12. Knit the socks of the spirit — Scholars – On Great Events
  13. Butterflies as big as children — Chapters 2.19-20
  14. The good hunter shall have a good hunt — Chapters 2.21 & 2.22, end of part 2
  15. Everything straight lies — Chapers 3.1 and 3.2
  16. Godlike desires — Chapters 3.3-3.6
  17. Padded, rumpless daughters — Chapters 3.7-3.9
  18. To all wormy wood, to all stinking rags — Chapters 3.10 & 3.11
  19. The goad of freedom — Chapter 3.12
  20. The gnawing of a worm — Chapters 3.13 & 3.14
  21. Whose mockery — induces — Chapters 3.15 & 3.16
  22. What do kings matter now? — Chapters 4.1 - 4.3
  23. I will not reply to a moron — Chapters 4.4 and 4.5
  24. My cave is a good haven — Chapters 4.6 & 4.7
  25. Ruminating — Chapters 4.8 and 4.9
  26. Even a king may be a cook — Chapters 4.10-4.12
  27. Your lame foot — Chapter 4.13
  28. Sink down palely beneath night — 4.14 & 4.15
  29. A moral howler monkey — 4.16 & 4.17
  30. What does it matter! — Chapters 4.18 & 4.19
  31. My children are near me — Chapter 4.20 — The last chapter.