Personally Interpreting “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” [Session 1 of 48]

Please read ALL of the following unless you are already familiar with what we are doing! Reading/Questions for discussion appear below

The conceit of this Meetup, and what I expect attendees to participate in, is that it’s 1885, and the last part of what Friedrich Nietzsche thought was his “greatest gift” to humanity has just been published. A friend has given you a complete copy, and you are reading this book for the first time. You are familiar only with his previous works. This conceit means that you are coming to this book with a “beginner’s mind,” and trying to understand it for the very first time.

What I am looking for in this series of 48 one hour sessions are your personal interpretations of what Nietzsche has to say in this [in]famous book. No interpretations made by his commentators after 1885 will be permitted. His original readers used their own minds, and you will use yours.

In order that we are literally on the same page, the only version that will be allowed is the Adrian del Caro translation published by Cambridge University in 2006, available as a free PDF here. Download it and save it somewhere for reading on a digital device. If you insist on a physical copy, try libraries, Amazon, Bookfinders, Bookshop, or a local used bookstore (if there are any left) .

Session 1: Prologue §§1–3

• Why does Zarathustra compare himself to the sun and “go under?
• What is the import of his encounter with the saint?
• What is the overman (übermensch) at this point in the story?
• What is “the great contempt.”