motif Zarathustra's devil and arch-enemy, the dwarf who makes all things heavy: good and evil, duty, the 'thou shalt'; overcome by lightness, dance, laughter.
Many heavy things are there for the spirit, the strong load-bearing spirit in which reverence dwelleth: for the heavy and the heaviest longeth its strength. What is heavy? so asketh the load-bearing spirit; then…
The camel's love of heavy things anticipates the weight of duty and 'thou shalt'.
Read in the book →Ye tell me, “Life is hard to bear.” But for what purpose should ye have your pride in the morning and your resignation in the evening? Life is hard to bear: but do not affect to be so delicate! We are all of us fine…
Complaining delicacy, like the rose-bud trembling at a dewdrop, is rejected as a heavy view of life.
Read in the book →And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity—through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity! I…
His devil is the serious, profound, solemn spirit of gravity through whom all things fall.
Read in the book →Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay.
The call to slay the spirit of gravity.
Read in the book →One evening went Zarathustra and his disciples through the forest; and when he sought for a well, lo, he lighted upon a green meadow peacefully surrounded with trees and bushes, where maidens were dancing together. As…
He names the devil as the spirit of gravity, his supreme devil and 'lord of the world', and says the coming song is a satire on him.
Read in the book →God’s advocate am I with the devil: he, however, is the spirit of gravity.
Identifies the devil with the spirit of gravity, the enemy of divine dancing.
Read in the book →Alas, how ye stand there before me, ye unfruitful ones; how lean your ribs! And many of you surely have had knowledge thereof. Many a one hath said: “There hath surely a God filched something from me secretly whilst I…
He makes lighter of them since he already carries what is heavy; his weariness will not come from them.
Read in the book →Upwards:—in spite of the spirit that drew it downwards, towards the abyss, the spirit of gravity, my devil and arch-enemy. Upwards:—although it sat upon me, half-dwarf, half-mole; paralysed, paralysing; dripping lead in…
The spirit of gravity, Zarathustra's devil, sits on him half-dwarf, half-mole, dripping lead into his ear and mind.
Read in the book →“Halt, dwarf!” said I. “Either I—or thou! I, however, am the stronger of the two:—thou knowest not mine abysmal thought! IT—couldst thou not endure!” Then happened that which made me lighter: for the dwarf sprang from…
The dwarf dismisses the matter too lightly ('time itself is a circle') and is thrown off Zarathustra's shoulder.
Read in the book →O lonesomeness! My home, lonesomeness! How blessedly and tenderly speaketh thy voice unto me! We do not question each other, we do not complain to each other; we go together openly through open doors. For all is open…
Time weighs heavier in the dark and runs on lighter feet in the open clarity of solitude.
Read in the book →My mouthpiece—is of the people: too coarsely and cordially do I talk for Angora rabbits. And still stranger soundeth my word unto all ink-fish and pen-foxes. My hand—is a fool’s hand: woe unto all tables and walls, and…
Zarathustra declares himself deadly, originally hostile to the spirit of gravity, which he ties to his bird-nature.
Read in the book →He who one day teacheth men to fly will have shifted all landmarks; to him will all landmarks themselves fly into the air; the earth will he christen anew—as “the light body.” The ostrich runneth faster than the fastest…
The spirit of gravity makes earth and life heavy; the one who would be light must overcome it.
Read in the book →One must learn to love oneself—thus do I teach—with a wholesome and healthy love: that one may endure to be with oneself, and not go roving about. Such roving about christeneth itself “brotherly love”; with these words…
Inherited 'heavy words and worths' such as good and evil are the dowry laid on us by the spirit of gravity.
Read in the book →He, however, hath discovered himself who saith: This is MY good and evil: therewith hath he silenced the mole and the dwarf, who say: “Good for all, evil for all.”
The dwarf and mole speak the spirit of gravity's 'good for all, evil for all.'
Read in the book →When I came unto men, then found I them resting on an old infatuation: all of them thought they had long known what was good and bad for men. An old wearisome business seemed to them all discourse about virtue; and he…
In his vision of dancing gods he meets his old devil, the spirit of gravity, and what it created: law, necessity, good and evil.
Read in the book →If my virtue be a dancer’s virtue, and if I have often sprung with both feet into golden-emerald rapture: If my wickedness be a laughing wickedness, at home among rose-banks and hedges of lilies: —For in laughter is all…
His Alpha and Omega is that everything heavy shall become light, the reverse of the spirit of gravity.
Read in the book →And if it be my Alpha and Omega that everything heavy shall become light, every body a dancer, and every spirit a bird: and verily, that is my Alpha and Omega!—
Gravity is to be overcome by making the heavy light.
Read in the book →If ever I have spread out a tranquil heaven above me, and have flown into mine own heaven with mine own pinions: If I have swum playfully in profound luminous distances, and if my freedom’s avian wisdom hath come to…
Words are made for the heavy and lie to the light ones, so song replaces speech.
Read in the book →Ye are only bridges: may higher ones pass over upon you!
He says a mischievous dwarf squats in their corners.
Read in the book →What hath hitherto been the greatest sin here on earth? Was it not the word of him who said: “Woe unto them that laugh now!” Did he himself find no cause for laughter on the earth? Then he sought badly. A child even…
Their ill-will toward the earth makes it heavy.
Read in the book →After the song of the wanderer and shadow, the cave became all at once full of noise and laughter: and since the assembled guests all spake simultaneously, and even the ass, encouraged thereby, no longer remained…
Zarathustra counts it a victory that his old arch-enemy is fleeing from the guests.
Read in the book →This day is a victory: he already yieldeth, he fleeth, THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY, mine old arch-enemy! How well this day is about to end, which began so badly and gloomily!
Zarathustra names his arch-enemy and declares it in retreat among his guests.
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
Brandes defines dance in Nietzsche's language as the lofty lightness of mind exalted above the gravity of earth and all stupid seriousness, introducing the Second Dance Song in which Zarathustra dances with Life as a woman.
Dance is defined against the gravity of earth and stupid seriousness.
Ludovici says the sublime ones are a type Nietzsche did not wholly dislike but who take life too seriously and never surmount the camel stage; real greatness is to speak of lofty things without being oppressed by them, and Nietzsche breaks old things not with the anarchist's irreverence but with the fingers of an artist at ease with beauty, guided by his own taste.
The sublime ones are oppressed by seriousness and cannot smile at lofty things.
Ludovici argues that the spirit of gravity, the dwarf Zarathustra carries and defies, stands for the sense of guilt and sin that Christian and Judaic values have bred into men's instincts, and that Nietzsche can affirm the recurrence of life only once he has cast this dwarf off, announcing the doctrine in defiance of him.
Identifies the dwarf with the millstone of guilty conscience and the concept of sin.
Ludovici defines Nietzsche's 'spirit of gravity' as the oppressive, paralysing sense of guilt and sin.
A crisp identification of the spirit of gravity with guilt and sin.
Ludovici explains the doctrine of self-love in 'The Spirit of Gravity' as a response to modern man's terror of being alone with himself, which betrays self-contempt, so that learning to love oneself requires a slow inner transformation; and he notes that Nietzsche does not coerce but says 'This is my way, where is yours?'
Self-love is set within the chapter against the spirit of gravity.
Ludovici explains that the closing paragraphs of 'The Higher Man' protest against democratic seriousness: all that is good is cheerful, being able to joke about one's deepest feelings tests their value, and the greatest sin was the word 'Woe unto them that laugh now!'
Against solemn seriousness.