Nietzsche's Epic of the Soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra [Paperback]

T. K. Seung (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0739111302 | ISBN-13: 978-0739111307 | Publication Date: May 24, 2005

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is Nietzsche's most problematic text. There appears to be no thematic connection between its four Parts and numerous sections. To make it even worse, the book contains a number of thematic contradictions. The standard approach has been a method of selective reading, that is, most critics select a few brilliant passages for edification and ignore the rest. This approach has turned Nietzsche's text into a collection of disjointed fragments. Going against this prevalent approach, T.K. Seung presents the first unified reading of the whole book. He reads it as the record of Zarathustra's epic journey to find spiritual values in the secular world. The alleged thematic contradictions of the text are shown to indicate the turns and twists that are dictated by the hero's epic battle against his formidable opponent. His heroic struggle is eventually resolved by the power of a pantheistic nature-religion. Thus Nietzsche's ostensibly atheistic work turns out to be a highly religious text. The author uncovers this epic plot by reading Nietzsche's text as a baffling series of riddles and puzzles. Hence his reading is not only edifying but also breathtaking. In this unprecedented enterprise, the author takes a complex interdisciplinary approach, engaging the five disciplines of philosophy, psychology, religious studies, literary analysis, and cultural history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This learned book makes a timely contribution to the growing secondary literature devoted to Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. By framing Zarathustra as an "epic of the soul," Seung is able to capture the full sweep of Nietzsche's philosophical and literary aspirations. The resulting interpretation maps a stunning journey of self-realization, as Zarathustra graduates from his famous pronouncement of the "death of God" to the this-worldly religiosity of Dionysus. Seung masterfully charts the gradual development of Zarathustra's self-understanding and the concomitant evolution of his teachings. Having finally succeeded in uniting his individual, free self with his cosmic, determined self, the Zarathustra of Part IV exemplifies a novel, post-moral model of heroism, which enables him, perhaps, to launch the new epic cycle promised by the open-ended conclusion of the book. Students and scholars alike will appreciate Seung's clear, patient prose, the breadth and depth of his scholarship, the coherence of his narrative, and his obvious admiration for Nietzsche's greatest work. (Daniel W. Conway )

By and Large, Seung succeeds very well in establishing that there is a "master plan" on which Zarathustra is constructed and in disclosing what it is. I don know of anything else that does the same job.... The author has an exhaustive knowledge of the secondary literature on Nietzsche and knows a great deal of German intellectual history, yet never allows this weight of learning to become burdensome to the reader or allow squabbles with other Nietzsche scholars to obscure the primary relation to Nietzsche himself. (Julian Young )

This represents an original reading of Frederich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra and it contains many fresh ideas. (Kathleen Higgins )

This is an outstanding addition to the growing body of first-rate philosophical treatments of Nietzsche's Zarathustra. Careful, meticulous, and generously attuned to the insights of other commentators, Seung argues that Nietzsche's masterwork is centrally about the conflict between its hero's Faustian, individual self and his Spinozan, cosmic self. Nietzsche scholars have elsewhere given due weight to the Faustian themes animating Nietzsche's book, but Seung's detailed and complex account of its Spinozan and Dionysian naturalism is unprecedented, profound, and henceforth indispensable. Thoughtful students of Zarathustra will admire Seung's book, for even where they disagree with him they will find his discerning and original interpretations difficult to resist. (Robert Gooding-Williams )

T.K. Seung has a superb command of existing Zarathustra scholarship and challenges the best commentators, such as Hollingdale, Magnus, and Lampert. Seung breaks with all the others and creates a world, a Zarathustra, of his own. He is his own interpreter, or as Max Stirner might have said, he hangs his hat on no man's hook. Seung narrates an epic of his own self under the sway of Zarathustra. He has gone through Zarathustra's journey on his own and is a worthy guide for others. Though Seung is conversant with the scholarship, the reader is not encumbered by too numerous or overly scholarly footnotes....T.K. Seung's commentary possesses the majesty and sense of triumph characteristic of the best guides to Zarathustra. His work is indispensable for initiates and experts on Zarathustra alike. This volume should be on every Nietzsche-reader's bookshelf. Seung makes Zarathustra accessible and meaningful to everyone. His book is a wonderful companion to Zarathustra. (Greg Whitlock )

An innovative, creative approach to a highly controversial problem in Nietzsche thought: eternal return. Seung points the way to a fruitful solution to what has been up until now, unsolvable. (Joan Stambaugh )

Seung's epic reading of Zarathustra is a stunning performance. His the-matic account delivers a synoptic understanding of Nietzsche's complex philosophy and its entire cultural background. There has been nothing like it in the entire history of Nietzsche scholarship. (Lee Chul Bum )

This exceptionally lucid and erudite commentary argues for the first time that Nietzsche intended every chapter of Zarathustra, and indeed even their sequence, to fit within an overarching thematic framework. While other commentaries often lose the forest of Zarathustra for its trees, T. K. Seung's highly original study aims to explain how the trees make up the forest. This in itself is an enormous interpretive accomplishment, and I can honestly say that I have learned from it on nearly every page. (Loeb, Paul S. )

A groundbreaking contribution to Nietzsche scholarship. (German Studies Review )

From the Back Cover

Thus Spoke Zarathustra is Nietzsche's most problematic text. There appears to be no thematic connection between its four Parts and numerous sections. To make it even worse, the book contains a number of thematic contradictions. The standard approach has been a method of selective reading, that is, most critics select a few brilliant passages for edification and ignore the rest. This approach has turned Nietzsche's text into a collection of disjointed fragments. Going against this prevalent approach, T.K. Seung presents the first unified reading of the whole book. He reads it as the record of Zarathustra's epic journey to find spiritual values in the secular world. The alleged thematic contradictions of the text are shown to indicate the turns and twists that are dictated by the hero's epic battle against his formidable opponent. His heroic struggle is eventually resolved by the power of a pantheistic nature-religion. Thus Nietzsche's ostensibly atheistic work turns out to be a highly religious text. The author uncovers this epic plot by reading Nietzsche's text as a baffling series of riddles and puzzles. Hence his reading is not only edifying but also breathtaking. In this unprecedented enterprise, the author takes a complex interdisciplinary approach, engaging the five disciplines of philosophy, psychology, religious studies, literary analysis, and cultural history. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Lexington Books (May 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739111302
• ISBN-13: 978-0739111307
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,212,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Bold New Reading of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, September 6, 2005

By 

Kathleen Higgins - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nietzsche's Epic of the Soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Hardcover)

This interpretation of Nietzsche's *Thus Spoke Zarathustra* is bold and exciting. One of the main strengths of this book is the author's attempt to bring together two themes that are often noted in connection with *Zarathustra*, but rarely integrated: the modern vision of a deterministic universe and the spiritual journey of the individual soul. I know of no other interpretation that takes determinism as a given for Nietzsche but still sees the resolution of the existential problem of the sovereign individual to arise through religious experience. Many readers are thus likely to be amazed at the author's reading of *Zarathustra*'s finale as presenting a Zarathustra appropriating Spinoza's nature-mysticism and a stance resembling those of the Buddha and the Taoist sage. Another strength of the book is its effort to situate *Zarathustra* in the context of other major philosophical and literary works that were known to Nietzsche. It is also admirable for taking Part IV to be crucial to an interpretation of the book. Many commentators do not, apparently feeling no compunction about stating that they would have preferred *Zarathustra* without the last part and interpreting only the parts that they prefer. This book not only takes the fourth part seriously; it shows (to my mind convincingly) how the book would be inferior without it. Finally, the manuscript does more with the notion of the superman than commentators usually do. The author analyzes the central conflict in the book in terms of the Faustian superman vs. the Spinozan superman. The exploration of various alternative construals of the superman is valuable, in particular the idea that a Buddha (an enlightened one), considered a "great person" in Buddhist thought, might be a superman in the sense that Nietzsche means it.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A critical contribution to Nietzsche scholarship, August 17, 2005

By 

Robert Gooding-williams "R. Gooding-Williams" (Evanston, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nietzsche's Epic of the Soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Paperback)

This is an outstanding addition to the growing body of first-rate philosophical treatments of Nietzsche's Zarathustra. Careful, meticulous, and generously attuned to the insights of other commentators, Seung argues that Nietzsche's masterwork is centrally about the conflict between its hero's Faustian, individual self and his Spinozan, cosmic self. Nietzsche scholars have elsewhere given due weight to the Faustian themes animating Nietzsche's book, but Seung's detailed and complex account of its Spinozan and Dionysian naturalism is unprecedented, profound, and henceforth indispensable. Thoughtful students of Zarathustra will admire Seung's book, for even where they disagree with him they will find his discerning and original interpretations difficult to resist. More than anything I have read on Zarathustra in a long time, Seung's book inspires me to go back to the text and to re-think my own interpretation.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an indispensable tool for reading Zarathustra, September 25, 2006

By 

David L. Williams - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nietzsche's Epic of the Soul: Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Hardcover)

T.K. Seung has combined incisive analytic rigor and high poetic sensitivity to bring Zarathustra alive--both as a philosophical treatise and a work of art. By carefully unraveling layer upon layer of symbolism, Seung has found in Zarathustra Nietzsche's own resolution to one of the weightiest of all intellectual problems: that of free will versus determinism. He finds this solution in Zarathustra's surrender of his Faustian free will in favor of a Spinozistic pantheistic determinism. There are many surprises and edifying elements of his approach. First, he successfully links Nietzsche with Spinoza (whom he praises without reservation)--that is to say, he places Nietzsche in an intellectual tradition. Second, he is able to place Nietzsche's work in a literary tradition, as well--that of the post-Christian Naturalistic epic (following Goethe and Wagner). Third, he finds a deeply religious Nietzsche--and does so in a completely persuasive manner. And fourth, perhaps Seung's greatest achievement, he takes Part IV of Zarathustra to be integral to Nietzsche's masterwork. Contrary to other interpreters, he finds the denouement not at the end of Part III, but in the Ass Festival of Part IV. To see if these strong claims are vindicated, I urge anyone interested in making sense of Zarathustra to read this work soon. It is well-written, highly erudite, and constantly stimulating. I cannot imagine ever reading Zarathustra again through any other lens than Seung's.