Scarcely however was the voluntary beggar gone in haste, and Zarathustra again alone, when he heard behind him a new voice which called out: “Stay! Zarathustra! Do wait! It is myself, forsooth, O Zarathustra, myself,…
Hearing a voice call him its shadow, Zarathustra runs away in irritation, so that three runners follow one another: the beggar, Zarathustra, the shadow.
Read in the book →“What!” said he, “have not the most ludicrous things always happened to us old anchorites and saints? Verily, my folly hath grown big in the mountains! Now do I hear six old fools’ legs rattling behind one another! But…
Zarathustra laughs at himself, stops and turns, and is startled by how slender, swarthy and worn-out his follower looks.
Read in the book →“Forgive me,” answered the shadow, “that it is I; and if I please thee not—well, O Zarathustra! therein do I admire thee and thy good taste. A wanderer am I, who have walked long at thy heels; always on the way, but…
The shadow says he has wandered after Zarathustra without goal or home, broken every reverence, and found that he too lost his innocence and the truth kicked him in the face.
Read in the book →‘Nothing is true, all is permitted’: so said I to myself.
The shadow quotes the maxim by which he lived.
Read in the book →Too much hath become clear unto me: now it doth not concern me any more. Nothing liveth any longer that I love,—how should I still love myself? ‘To live as I incline, or not to live at all’: so do I wish; so wisheth…
He laments that he has no goal, no fair wind, a weary heart and broken backbone, and that his search for a home has become his homesickness.
Read in the book →O eternal everywhere, O eternal nowhere, O eternal—in-vain!”
The shadow ends his plaint with this cry.
Read in the book →Thus spake the shadow, and Zarathustra’s countenance lengthened at his words. “Thou art my shadow!” said he at last sadly. “Thy danger is not small, thou free spirit and wanderer! Thou hast had a bad day: see that a…
Zarathustra warns the shadow that a narrow faith may seduce him like a prisoner's security, bids him come to the cave, and runs off promising dancing in the evening.
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 reads the shadow as the bold, wayward free spirit who follows every daring movement of his age until he loses all goal and home, cries 'Nothing is true; all is permitted', and becomes wreckage, prone to being captured by a narrow faith.
Ludovici reads the shadow as the bold, wayward free spirit who follows every daring movement of his age until he loses all goal and home, cries 'Nothing is true; all is permitted', and becomes wreckage, prone to being captured by a narrow faith.