/lit/ - Literature

>>21462578
Nietzsche qestioned if such a man who had opened himself to the idea of active nihilism had “perhaps in the process, without really wanting to do so, opened his eyes for the reverse morality: for the ideal of the most high-spirited, most lively, and most world-affirming human being, who has not only learned to come to terms with and accept what was and is but wants to have what was and is come back for all eternity, calling out insatiably ‘da capo!’ [from the beginning!] . . .” This individual who truly wishes for the recurrence of all things would seem to worship the recurrence itself, “God as a Vicious Circle.”

In an unpublished note, Nietzsche referred to the vicious circle, “This ring in which you are but a grain will glitter afresh forever. And in every one of these cycles of human life there will be one hour where, for the first time one man, and then many, will perceive the mighty thought of the eternal recurrence of all things — and for mankind this is always the hour of noon.” This idea is reflected in the judge’s statement: “The way of the world is to bloom and to flower and die but in the affairs of men there is no waning and the noon of his expression signals the onset of night. His spirit is exhausted at the peak of its achievement. His meridian is at once his darkening and the evening of his day” (146). In addition, the judge embraces the recurrence of all things, lecturing to the ruthless gang members about the remains of the Anasazi, “This you see here, these ruins wondered at by tribes of savages, do you not think that this will be again? Aye. And again. With other people, with other sons” (147).

Nietzsche had his moment of realization while looking at a giant rock near Surlai, and the judge hints at this moment of realization when he also recognizes rock as the source of truth. “Books lie,” says the judge. “God don’t lie,” replies a gang member. “No he does not. And these are his words,” the judge says as he picks up a chunk of rock. “He speaks in stones and trees, the bones of things” (116). On the book’s mirror page, a rock also appears: The judge “took up a round rock weighing perhaps a hundred pounds, and crushed the horse’s skull with a single blow” (219).