First of all, I don't understand Nietzsche, if "understanding" is used in its popular sense. I don't strain to put him into simpler, more logical, more everyday ideas. I don't relate him to more "understandable" philosophies. If a sentence or aphorism doesn't make "sense" to me, I just let it pass by, hoping without high expectations that my subconscious with sort it out. But, except for parts of Zarathustra, Nietzsche almost always writes very clearly, using simple words. Nietzsche created something basically new, not just "new ideas", but a new way of "dancing" in life. He was what I would call a "life experimenter".

I hardly ever read books about Nietzsche's philosophy. You learn about the authors of those books, not Nietzsche. My pages of comments should be seen in this light.

I take him at his word, that he didn't want "followers" and "believers". He put "land mines" in his writings to shake up and discourage such people. His scathing denunciations of Germans and their spirit were the largest failed attempt to do this.

I consider his best book by far to be The Cheerful Science . At the time of writing it, he was finally free of the university culture and his spirits were high. Besides being enjoyable, reading The Cheerful Science is a type of "training".

Though eloquent, he was brutally honest. For example, wouldn't it be "nice" if the ultimate reality of the world were Love or a benevolent God? Power is a much more honest candidate. Popular philosophies are designed to make us feel better. Popularity and truth have a very strange relationship.

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