[Praxis101]

Thankyou for the input all.

I took the advice, put down A Will to Power, went out and bought the WK translation of The Gay Science. This book is much more personal and I feel as though Nietzsche speaks to and relates to the reader extremely well.

I find his relationship to the reader to be fascinating. N preaches to readers that he does not care whether or not one agrees with him: he more importantly wants readers to think and establish beliefs for themselves, so long as one is able to challenge their own beliefs when the time comes. This stance really empowers the reader to make use of his ideas. I'm very glad that I started with this book, it is much more personal than the other excerpts that I've read; and - as mentioned - it allows a bit more insight into Nietzsche himself.

I'm midway through book 4 of The Gay Science. I'm going to have some questions handy once I finish to help clear up any misconceptions I have. I plan to reread most of the book to absorb as much as I can before moving on to another.

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Of course, you don't have to (and shouldn't) take a philosopher's opinions all-or-none. There's stuff of Nietzsche's I find to be amazingly life-vivifying, and there's other stuff I could do without or think is sheer nonsense. Just take the parts that speak to you and incorporate them into your life and personal philosophy, and throw the unnecessary bits away.

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I agree, this is what I've been trying to do. There just happen to be very few points thusfar that I do not agree with (everything seems to speak to me.)

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The only other suggestion I have is to keep Nietzsche's rhetorical strategies at the front of your mind. There is a reason why he's one of the most misquoted writers in Western civilization.

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I can easily picture N's ideas being taken out of context and warped into something they weren't meant to be. Fortunately, I like to think that I've been keen to most of the devices N uses - I try to pause and see a different perspective if something doesn't fit just right.

I realize I haven't posed any concrete questions here, but they will be coming shortly - I'm almost done! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]