Episode 213: Nietzsche's Zarathustra (Part Two)
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 22 April 2019
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Continuing on Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, books 1 and 2 (1883).
We talk through Nietzsche's symbolism (tightrope walkers and gravediggers and snakes, oh my!), the path toward the overman, his screed against the state, the Will to Power as the will to overcome oneself by reconciling oneself with the past, and more.
Listen to part one first or get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The partial examine life depends on your support. |
| 0:02.6 | To find out how to do that and ways that are cheap or even free, go to |
| 0:05.9 | partiallyxamonlife.com slash support. |
| 0:08.5 | Hey, you're listening to Partially examined life episode 213. |
| 0:19.9 | We've been discussing Nietzsche's thus-spake Zarthustra. |
| 0:23.8 | We've only gotten almost all the way through the prologue here. |
| 0:27.1 | We're going to try to hit books 1 and 2. |
| 0:29.7 | So we had just discussed the last man. |
| 0:31.8 | I think we are going to move on to the overall symbolism of what's going on in this area |
| 0:36.3 | with the tightrope walker. |
| 0:37.5 | You want to try that? |
| 0:39.6 | So yeah, shall we talk about the gesture scene and weeping over the tightrope walker and |
| 0:45.8 | what that's all about? |
| 0:47.4 | The people are expecting to see a tightrope walker when he gives his first speech. |
| 0:51.1 | He describes the overman and at the end of that says, oh, the tightrope walker thought |
| 0:54.9 | Zarthustra was talking about him. |
| 0:56.7 | The audience did too. |
| 0:57.7 | Like they thought he was actually introducing a literal tightrope walker, not somebody who's |
| 1:02.0 | metaphorically stretched between beast and overman. |
| 1:05.0 | Yes. |
| 1:06.0 | So yeah, this gesture emerges jumps over the tightrope walker who then falls down right |
| 1:12.0 | next to Zarthustra or the intonation seems to be maybe even jumps. |
... |
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