“Why stealest thou along so furtively in the twilight, Zarathustra? And what hidest thou so carefully under thy mantle? Is it a treasure that hath been given thee? Or a child that hath been born thee? Or goest thou…
Asked what he hides under his mantle, Zarathustra says it is a naughty little truth. He tells how an old woman asked him to speak of woman, and he agreed.
Read in the book →Everything in woman is a riddle, and everything in woman hath one solution—it is called pregnancy.
Zarathustra gives pregnancy as the one solution to the riddle of woman.
Read in the book →Everything in woman is a riddle, and everything in woman hath one solution—it is called pregnancy. Man is for woman a means: the purpose is always the child. But what is woman for man? Two different things wanteth the…
He says woman's riddle is solved by pregnancy. The true man wants danger and play, so he wants woman as the most dangerous plaything, and the child hidden in man is to be discovered.
Read in the book →A plaything let woman be, pure and fine like the precious stone, illumined with the virtues of a world not yet come. Let the beam of a star shine in your love! Let your hope say: “May I bear the Superman!” In your love…
Woman is to be a pure plaything with a star's beam in her love. She should be valiant and honourable in love, and man should fear her when she loves or hates.
Read in the book →Let your hope say: “May I bear the Superman!”
Zarathustra bids women hope to bear the Superman.
Read in the book →Whom hateth woman most?—Thus spake the iron to the loadstone: “I hate thee most, because thou attractest, but art too weak to draw unto thee.” The happiness of man is, “I will.” The happiness of woman is, “He will.”…
Woman hates most the one she cannot draw to herself. Man's happiness is 'I will' and woman's is 'He will'. Her soul is a shallow film and his a deep current she cannot grasp.
Read in the book →Then answered me the old woman: “Many fine things hath Zarathustra said, especially for those who are young enough for them. Strange! Zarathustra knoweth little about woman, and yet he is right about them! Doth this…
The old woman says he is right though he knows little of women. As thanks she gives him her little truth, to be swaddled and silenced: 'Thou goest to women? Do not forget thy whip!'
Read in the book →“Thou goest to women? Do not forget thy whip!”—
The old woman's little truth is a warning to bring a whip.
Read in the book →This is an experiment in interactive reading, and in using AI to help you grow. Thus Spake Zarathustra is notoriously difficult for a modern reader; yet taken as a set of mental exercises, it is guaranteed to transform your thinking by the time you reach the end. Along the way you will have help from the companion, who is always beside the book.
Do you accept the challenge?
What the critics said
Ludovici argues that hostility to Nietzsche's views on women is a misunderstanding: his doctrine is that the sexes are fundamentally antagonistic and should be kept so, against the democratic levelling that would masculinise women and feminise men, a view Ludovici judges right and just; he adds that the discourse's notorious last line was suggested by a woman.