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Of the Pale Criminal
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Rethinking Morality
The Superman and the Will to Power
Death of God and Christianity
Eternal Recurrence
Summary
Analysis
Zarathustra only loves writings that are written in blood. In the long run, when everyone learns to read, both writing and thinking will be ruined. The one who “writes in blood and aphorisms” wants not to be read, but to be learned by heart. Aphorisms are like mountain peaks that can be traversed by those with legs long enough.
Zarathustra’s words echo Nietzsche’s elitist outlook that mass literacy will tend to diminish the quality of thought. Writing “in blood” suggests writings, like Nietzsche’s own aphorisms, that appeal straight to the hearts of those capable of understanding them.
Themes
People say that life is hard to bear, but Zarathustra says that people are built to bear burdens. When Zarathustra sees light, dainty things fluttering around, it moves him to tears. He could only believe “in a God who understood how to dance.” To him, the devil is the “Spirit of Gravity,” which is serious and profound—it ruins everything. Zarathustra has learned to fly, and he no longer has to be pushed in order to move. Now, a god dances inside him.
Zarathustra holds that if there were a god, he would only believe in one that wasn’t heavy and earthbound like the crushing “Spirit of Gravity.” Because Zarathustra himself is no longer weighed down by the expectations of most of humanity, he no longer relies on the fear or dread of such a god to motivate his actions.
Themes
