Читать книгу Thus Spoke Zarathustra - FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE, Friedrich Nietzsche - Страница 14

The main inspiration for Zarathustra was the thought of the “eternal return” – the idea that universe is cyclical and that everything that happens is destined to endlessly recur. Nietzsche claimed to have thrown the idea onto paper in Silvaplana, Switzerland, in August 1881 – “6,000 feet beyond people and time.”⁶

Another inspiration was more earthbound: a young Russian woman named Lou Salomé, to whom he had been introduced in Rome in April 1882.

Nietzsche was intrigued by Salomé and began to court her. He aspired to win the intelligent young woman over to his philosophy, but Salomé proved to be too independent. The breakdown of their passionate friendship, by late 1882, precipitated a crisis in his family. His scheming sister Elisabeth had become jealous of Salomé and plotted against them.

Nietzsche was thrown into emotional turmoil. The affair had dashed his last hope for an intimate partnership. But it triggered an intense outpouring of his creative energies. Zarathustra was born in a series of short, inspired bursts each lasting ten days, according to Nietzsche.⁷ The known facts concerning its composition bear out his claim.