Second Part · XXXVI. The Land of Culture

Flying back from the future to the present

Too far did I fly into the future: a horror seized upon me.

And when I looked around me, lo! there time was my sole contemporary.

Then did I fly backwards, homewards—and always faster. Thus did I come unto you, ye present-day men, and into the land of culture.

For the first time brought I an eye to see you, and good desire: verily, with longing in my heart did I come.

But how did it turn out with me? Although so alarmed—I had yet to laugh! Never did mine eye see anything so motley-coloured!

I laughed and laughed, while my foot still trembled, and my heart as well. “Here forsooth, is the home of all the paintpots,”—said I.

Zarathustra says he flew too far into the future and was seized with horror. He flew back to the land of culture, came with longing, and found himself laughing at the motley colours he saw.

SolitudeZarathustra's flight into the future leaves him horrified and alone, with time as his only contemporary, before he turns back to present-day men.

Commentary on this chapter

What the critics said

Anthony M. Ludovici, Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra (1909)

Sterile scholars and love of the children's landAnthony M. Ludovici · Notes on Thus Spake Zarathustra, 1909interpretation

Ludovici says 'The Land of Culture' epitomises Nietzsche's attack on the scholars of his day as sterile because they believe in nothing, and that its last verses explain his altruism: he rejects Christian pity and neighbour-love both as degenerative slave-values and because he can love only his children's land, redeeming his fathers' errors in his children.