In this parable the young shepherd is obviously the man of to-day; the snake that chokes him represents the stultifying and paralysing social values that threaten to shatter humanity, and the advice “Bite! Bite!” is but Nietzsche’s exasperated cry to mankind to alter their values before it is too late.
criticism · Notes: Part III
The shepherd as modern man
Ludovici reads the shepherd as the man of today, the choking snake as the paralysing social values that threaten humanity, and 'Bite!' as Nietzsche's cry to mankind to change its values before it is too late.
On Zarathustra
- Revaluation of values (old and new tables)The biting-off of the snake is read as the urgent overturning of current values.
- Nihilism (all is empty)The snake represents stultifying values that threaten to shatter humanity.