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Thus Spake ZarathustraIdeasLibrary
First Part · I. The Three Metamorphoses

Definition of the child

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Innocence is the child, and forgetfulness, a new beginning, a game, a self-rolling wheel, a first movement, a holy Yea.

The child is defined in a series of images.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

Not a blond brute: the three metamorphosesH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation

Mencken argues that Nietzsche never gave a definite picture of the superman and that commentators who take him as a 'blond beast' brute are wrong, as the three metamorphoses show: the camel is man bearing morality, the lion is the higher man who casts it off and frees the will to power, and the child, innocent and ideally adapted, is the superman.

Not a blond brute: the three metamorphosesH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation

Mencken argues that Nietzsche never gave a definite picture of the superman and that commentators who take him as a 'blond beast' brute are wrong, as the three metamorphoses show: the camel is man bearing morality, the lion is the higher man who casts it off and frees the will to power, and the child, innocent and ideally adapted, is the superman.

Not a blond brute: the three metamorphosesH. L. Mencken · The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, 1908interpretation

Mencken argues that Nietzsche never gave a definite picture of the superman and that commentators who take him as a 'blond beast' brute are wrong, as the three metamorphoses show: the camel is man bearing morality, the lion is the higher man who casts it off and frees the will to power, and the child, innocent and ideally adapted, is the superman.

Three metamorphoses: creators pass through lawAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici reads the three metamorphoses as the development of every creator of new values, ending in a second childhood, and argues that it disowns anarchy: only by first bearing the existing law like the camel does the free spirit gain the strength to master the dragon 'Thou shalt' and promulgate new law.