Thread by @jholbo1

Kaufmann does deserve praise; it would hardly have been possible for anyone to manage such a strange delivery of Nietzsche into a hostile, English world without distortions, quirks, odd decisions - never mind counterweight corrective political apologetics. 1/

https://twitter.com/HDrochon/status/1324675594655801345

My personal Kaufmann story is taking the "Portable Nietzsche" on a college trip. It was the only thing I had to read for a few days. It seemed thick enough to hold me, when I set out. But then I realized 1) it was 2/3's "Zarathustra"; 2) I didn't like "Zarathustra". 2/

I loved "The Gay Science", "Genealogy" and (although I had more trouble with this one) "Beyond Good and Evil". Z. seemed nuts. Bad. Ponderous. Pretentious. Not clever. Lacking in ironic self-awareness. WTF. 3/

Took me 20 years to get what the joke was supposed to be. The problem is that "Zarathustra" still doesn't work as comedy - even when you get it. Comedy is supposed to be funny. But getting how it would be, if it were, IS funny. It's funny Kaufmann couldn't bear to abridge it. 4/

It's so easy. Take frickin' ropedancer, the Last Men, quick spot of Eternal Recurrence. Done. But noooooo. 5/

There is something so ... first-stage Zarathustra about "The Portable Nietzsche". So unportable, due to honey, sticky surfeit of ... Zarathustra! Which is, like, Zarathustra's whole jam! I'll borrow the Commons trans. 6/

Anyway, "The Portable Nietzsche" is interesting for the way Kaufmann takes on board N's own view that Z. is the dominant centerpiece - pinnacle of his work and thought - around which other works are arrayed and arranged. 7/

Our academic view of Nietzsche is not just depoliticized. It's de-Z-ified. A mild exaggeration. There's actually plenty to read on the subject - and good, too. But our Nietzsche is the Nietzsche of "The Gay Science" and "Genealogy" and "Beyond Good and Evil", mostly. 8/

Of course I'm working on something to fix this, but it won't fit in a tweet. You wait. It's huge. And funny. 9/