The Book of ELI movie and Nietzsche

The Book of Eli is another ambitious movie starring by Denzel Washington (Eli), who goes on a journey after a cataclysmic war that turned the earth into a total wasteland.(1)



In the world of lawless civilisation people fight for survival killing each other. The lack of any moral rules, make people not only to kill for water or a lighter but it becomes part of their amusement.

The film is a story of humans’ strength and power of belief in higher purpose, “a post-apocalyptic tale, in which alone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.” (1) Bible is genuinely seen as a tool of good, however if it got into hands of evil it could become a tool of manipulation. Every religion has people interpreting their holly book’s rules in the right way, meaning, serving good faith (Existentialism) as well as leading people into self perfecting (overcoming themselves, Nietzsche). On the other hand, it misinterpreted it can become a tool of evil (bad faith, in Existentialism).

The film is about the power of Bible, power of words that it contains which can lead the masses. As we know, the meaning and importance of a Bible is relative. There has been numerous of its misinterpretations, e.g. killing people in the name of god (Koran), discrimination against women (Muslim), glorification of men (Muslim and Catholic), Crusades in XI, XII and XIII century religious military campaigns in the Middle East which had far-reaching political, economic, and social impacts (Christianity); turning church into institution (Catholic) or even discrimination against other nations like anti-Semitism (II WW Holocaust).

The message passed through Jesus Christ in the Bible was pretty simple and created with good intentions, to bring the equality and mutual respect as well as challenging and overcoming weaknesses as well as having faith in higher purpose in human’s life. His words were powerful and influential as the aim of his teachings was to make an impact and be remembered. Doing good, loving, caring and having unselfish intentions as well as respect to all that surrounds us, humans, animals, nature and even that what we are most likely to be sharing the space with of we are not aware.

Desire of power over other human being was no Jesus Christ’s message. Humanity, love and truth were the main ideas that he wanted to embrace. It was not about him, personally, nor was it about making men pore important than women. It was the message that he brought among people, the box that the message was brought was meant to be meaningless. “From a very large number of experiments, two drives emerged as dominant: the desire for power and the emotion of fear. “ (1) When Nietzsche came to understand that fear as the feeling as “the absence of power” (1), he was left with a “single motivating principle for all human actions: the will to power.” (1)

Majority of misinterpretation of Bible comes out from putting to much attention to the box when it was only its content that should have been remembered and contemplated. The ability to see only this content is not mastered enough these days because people created their own boxes-religions which are mostly convenient to their type of culture, habits, traditions and type of state or even climate they live in. The religions created, became powerful and manipulative, it is easy not to get through that layer and forget about the main idea the content. The strength and evaluation of the boxes have been influencing the content.

Believing in something strongly gives power to go through life obstacles to reach our goals and achieve what we have set ourselves to achieve. “He who is able to obey the rules he put on himself, believing that they are the right ones can become the man who is master of himself.”<>em>(2) It is not easy and requires lots of power, therefore, who achieves it, “has experienced the greatest increase in power (…)”. (1) After the war and the "Big Flash", Eli (Denzel) was guided by a higher power to a hidden book and given the task of protecting the book and taking it to its final destination.

Faith and determination gives an immense power, unfortunately it could be used in either purpose, good or bad. A tool can not only create a beautiful piece of art but it could be used to kill, used to stab someone right into heart and finish someone’s existence in seconds.

1)The book of Eli (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037705/)
2)Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV

Directing, Vision-mixing and Reporting, WINOL week 3 (sem II)

Winchester News Online Bulletin 24/02/10
In this week I was put not only in front of the challenge of directing but also vision-mixing and additionally, with our editor’s help, covered the “And finally story” for the bulletin. It all came out as an intense and complexed experience but enjoyable.


Once again we could not pre-record the headlines and we could only go through the whole script once because of the missed deadlines. Despite the tight schedule, the gallery felt calmer and more disciplined than last week, I felt more confident as a director as I practiced the News-Sports handover and I was able to go through the script before the recording. Having done the directing already once before I had an overlook on what I should be focused more and what to practice before going live.

Introduction was executed better than last week. During the recordingthe VT computer froze once, so we had a slip on timing but we recovered well, Stuart did not panic and stayed focused, it was also well edited in post production to make it look smoother. Stuart and Lucy did incredibly well with presenting.

In Nib-s and OOV-s the timing and in- and out- words should be displayed in the script. The OOV this week was quite complicated in vision-mixing and actually it could have been dropped of the script, as it became an unnecessary confusion.

Content wise, as we heard from the feedback, our story telling as reporters came across as still quite confusing but we certainly had stronger interviews this week. News is meant to be about people and we reached the right people. We were advised to do our voice-overs in the sound rooms instead of using the Gun-microphone, for better quality of the audio. Links for worked well within the bulletin, and dramatic headlines made the bulletin more attention grabbing. The only slip was that the headlines were giving away too much detail about the stories.

We were advised that we should stick to the golden rule [First Para- SUBJECT+ VERB+ OBJECT]: WHO (subject, with the function), WHAT (verb, has done what), OBJECT, and [Second Para- WHY].

In News reporting, each sentence matters, as journalists, we should be crafting words and sentences.

We should be always taking notepads with us to the interviews to take notes of the relevant quotes. We have to remember that the first minutes of our interviews are usually a waste, a worm up. Also, always remember to ask open questions and get the interviewee to explain the story (get them talking and keep them talking) and don’t forget about the ‘nod-dies’.
To the other useful interviewing techniques also belong:
- Good planning of the story, pre-planned angle and idea of quotes
- Finding out in detail what is the story (understanding the story)
- Executing the filming, cutaways, nod-dies and relevant interviews
- Avoiding the “cutting room journalism”, when we try to leave everything to be finalised in editing, as we should already have an idea of how the package will look like before filming it.
- The story should be told in our own words and the interviews are only for opinion in quotes. We mustn’t treat the quotes as facts and use interviewee to tell the story.

The forst story was quite a good piece, well scripted but was lacking in cutaways. It began with a powerful quote from the interviewee, as that is exactly what we should be looking for while interviewing- good quotes.

Tom’s story was a well scripted court report supported with a really impressive interview. Tom also did well on not identifying his interviewee for legal reasons. He also told the viewer about the legal restrictions before he applied it in the package, it looked professional. Tom should have been a little bit more careful with juxtaposition libel of number-plates of passing cars in his package. He only managed to make then blur. The case was protected as it was no longer active (no jury, after the verdict had been announced we are protected as hournalists).

In third story, about parking issue, there was a comment in the link to the story, which shouldn’t have been there; even though it was quite a reasonable comment we should have kept it out of the script. Instead of saying “There is a big parking issue” we could have used, “many say that there is a big parking problem” for example what would be a fact. In this package we cover section 8 of Privacy Act about person performing public duty which makes the shot without consent.

The following story was well scripted and had quite strong quotes but listening further through the package the interviewees went into too much detail about the story (the story should have been told by the reporter instead). In his PTC, Jon has commented, where he could have summarised what the doctors said.

In Sports, there were still some sound problems, especially in the interview with the manager where the wing got picked up by the Gun-mic and was quite disturbing for the interview.

In the ‘And finally story’ there were also some sound issues that came out during editing. The story was interesting and catchy, but it was more of a feature story rather than a news story.

In overall, we put out a lot better bulletin than last week and our traffic doubled comparing to last week (120/130), we should be still aiming to reach at least 400.

Winchester News Online Bulletin 24/02/10
Multimedia Production: WINCHESTER NEWS ONLINE, Semester II

2001: A Space Odyssey - noumenal vs. phenomenal world

2001: A Space Odyssey
2001 Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick starring by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood is a fascinating movie that is hiding the whole story of humanity beginning of prehistoric times.
It is an Academy Award winning movie, a “countdown to tomorrow, a road map to human destiny, a quest for the infinite.” (http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/video_detail/2001/).

2001: A Space Odyssey Opening
The director explores the Darwinian theory of evolution making it a base and an excellent beginning of the movie.

Trailer of the 2001: Space Odyssey


The movie shows how apes evolved coming from eating a low protein diet and having no social organisation to protect before the prey to first kill and taste of red meat what significantly changed their style of life. It helped to adapt to changing environment and grow their brains creating a very first concepts of building hierarchy. Firstly, the most striking thing is the implication of the music of the spheres. Within seven mln years 3-4mln years ago) in a world of homo-erectus the origins of the state began to spread its influences (Rousseau). Also this is the era when the origins of language came from. The moon-watcher is the monkey that seams to be interested in something that is outside of her understanding. The music of the spheres seems to have always been there regardless being noticed or recognised or not (Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer).

When an odd shaped, perfectly geometrical object appears (subjective, metal object) the monkeys are curious, scared at the beginning but eventually decide to explore it, experience empirically. The scene symbolises the first contact with the noumenal world in connection with the music of the spheres (which is in fact a creation of intellectuals. By exploring the object they obey the rules of logic.

Question here arises, do the things exist themselves or are they only part of our minds, and when do we say that something exists? In today’s world if new types of plants or animals were found by scientists, they didn’t exist for us before we named them. Did they exist despite not being discovered? Do things unknown or unexplored for us are classed are existing ones or not? And with the moment they are found do they change or stay the same but only named? Kant explores the two concepts; the object has two matters for him. When the object is perceived (discovered, explored) it becomes phenomenal, and when it is not perceived it is noumenal.
Our intuition and logic proves that there is a numeral world, by act off observing an object changes its nature.

Every time the planets lined up above the object it symbolised the progress, thinking and exploring (Homo-erectus, discovery of a tool using, killing other animals with it). That is when origins of war come from, fight for dominance and power. At this stage of the movie we can already notice forms of organised communication.

Bone thrown up is the breaking moment, “ leaps millenia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever conceived) into colonized space, and ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) into uncharted realms of space, perhaps even into immortality. "Open the pod bay doors, HAL. 'Let the awe and mystery of a journey unlike any other begin.' " (http://kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com/video_detail/2001/).

During the mission from the moon to Jupiter human’s main weakness is also exposed, an unconditional part of human’s life - breathing as a limitation to exploring space. Humans have to be on earth to function normally (artificial creation of gravity on the ship). Oxygen supply is controlled by a computer programme, Hall an artificial human’s logic. Humanity has to be overcome (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche), and so the main character, Dave (Zarathustra) to survive, has to kill Hall, he has to kill the logic to make a next step in human’s evolution (become a superman).

2001: A Space Odyssey- Ending

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV

Charlotte Purkis on Nietzsche and Modernity - studio discussion

A studio discussion on Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra in connection with modern world of art and journalism. Charlotte Purkis, Chair, Faculty Quality Committee and lecturer in Drama, Department of Performing Arts at the University of Winchester joined by Chris Horrie, the director for Journalism Course explore Nietzsche's influences on modern world.

Charlotte Purkis on Nietzsche and Modernity PODCAST in here

Also, related link Professor Aaron Ridley from Southampton Uni speaking on Nietzsche (author of several relevant books)

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, part IV

Directing for Winchester News Online in week 2 (Sem II)

WINOL 17/02/10, Week 2




As our current director was ill I was the closest person to cover for her, and so I had to take another new challenge pretty quickly. This week I sub-edited (Article Manager) about six stories, mostly from the sports team. I also got rid of alder articles until the date 16th November 2009.

I have also tried to keep an eye on the progress of script writing so that I could have an overlook on the stories for the bulletin. We kept the background image on the green screen the same for the news bulletin. The Sports graphics were improved visually and this time we had to cut down dramatically on mistakes and tendency to repeat the bulletin before the final recording. We had only one go this week and we had to keep it together no matter what, I had to keep it together regardless technical difficulties.

To make the vision mixing smoother the packages have to have 2seconds of a picture running at the beginning of the package and 3 seconds at the end to make the switch onto the presenter in the studio better. The same sign off has been established (a name, surname, Winchester News Online and a place of reporting). Each Headline had to be no longer than 5 seconds.

On Wednesday, after we had recorded screening for students applying for our course everything seamed to stop working properly. It was not a good day to have a first experience in directing when everything hat is essential for a recording a bulletin kept failing. First of all, after we had couple of run through on Headlines with the moment we wanted to record it, the VT computer froze, and we could not play headline shots at all. It was not easy to keep everyone focused and actually start recording because of chaos caused by VT not working, and disorientated team members. As a director, I had to try my best to move on from the chaos atmosphere and keep it together and make a decision over the Headlines. Chanin advised that we have two options, either to run Headlines straight before the news without pre-record and hopefully by then the TV computes would start working properly, or run the Intro music over the presenter’s (Joey) voice reading out the headlines. I have decided to try to pre-record it with Joey reading headlines over the intro music and then if that could not be corrected we would have to record the headlines along with the rest of the news bulletin straight away and trust in Chanin’s excellent editorial skills in Post-Production Editing.

And so we did, unfortunately the sound did not get record it and we had to go to plan B. If it wasn’t enough of technical complication with VT, the Auto Queue started playing too and pieces of script kept disappearing from the screen. Then it kept freezing too.

The pressure was on and maintenance assistance on the way, time was running out and we still had no run through the script whatsoever. Thankfully we got TV computer working but having Auto Queue down completely we were stuck waiting till the very hour of going ‘live’. I knew that there will be hick-ups as we had no run through the script and didn’t even speak about cameras handover from news to sport. I counted the very 10down for going live knowing that I will have to trust my instinct and observe carefully when to call on ‘TVs’ or ‘Que’ presenters to read the following parts of the script. I had to be expecting the Auto-Queue going down or VT freezing any time.

And so TV froze, I got presenter to read the same piece of script twice (to be able to edit the frozen part out in post-production) but then the VT skipped to the next part and I had to tell Joey to stop reading when he was meant to start again. Eventually, VT run again and we managed to go through the main part of the news. Joey did a fantastic job and apologised for technical trouble and smoothly moved on to the next part.

The part that went horribly wrong was the hand-over from News to sports reporters, having to run through before I did not call on switch onto the full shot of the both presenters (probably camera 1/could have been camera 3 depending on the establishment before the recording). I definitely need to practice the concept and style of handing over between the cameras in vision mixing as well as noticing beforehand the cameramen on the studio’s floor to prepare for the switch. It was the part that I was mostly afraid of because of lack of run-through. The team on the studio floor as well as bothe the reporters still managed to keep it together, and even though there are visible issues with the hand over, I was proud of my team to get through that difficult part and carry on the ‘And finally…’ part and sign of. Joey and Glen did an excellent job as reporters. They were reliable and very focused as well as great in delivery.

As we had only one go to record everything along with the Headlines and no runt-through it seamed to me like one big guessing game led fully by intuition and observation. Generally, the content of out bulletin was better and we appeared stronger editorially however, our traffic was still low - only 90 UUS, which would mean roughly the same as last week (88).

From the feedback as well as after we had watched the final output we could notice that there were still sound level issues in some of the packages and some of the picture choices didn’t fully give the story away. The main weakness of this week’s WINOL reporting was the political story. Its script appeared to be biased by mixing up local and national elections, if the election was officially on we would have been in breach of the OFCOM (equal air-time). As it happens we have to have a balance ‘over time’, so the 'plug for the Tory balances up the pro-Liberal plug we had last week' (Chris Horrie), efectively, the story was balanced.

We also need to think about promotion and work on something similar to ‘Date with Fate'. Catherine deserved a special congratulations for making a genuine national story by covering a guest lecture visit and making an Orange advert story from it.

The last trip in search for Higher Man - Part 4, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

He is hesitant if he is truly happy, after speaking to animals, despite his age, he decides to go to high mountains again. He thought that animals would follow him in his mountain climbing but they stopped walking somewhere on the way, Zarathustra was once again on his own. Here starts his stream of thought, contemplation.

After he is back from the mountain he sits at the table with a Gloomy Prophet (Schopenhauer). The Prophet tells him that he has not that much time left “for his boat to sit in the dry (…), waves of great distress and affliction: soon they will lift your boat too, and carry you away”. It is the Prophet’s way of teasing Zarathustra to “Pity”, the sin he dramatically wanted to avoid. Zarathustra becomes curious and asks who is after him, the Prophet says that it is the Higher Man “that cries after him”. Eventually, Zarathustra’s response to that is “you yourself shall dance to my songs as my dancing bear (…) I too- am a prophet!”

In the following chapter Zarathustra meets the Higher Men, two Kings (any Kings or reference to Biblical three Kings looking for baby Jesus from Nazareth, to confirm the birth of the new King of Nazareth, Jesus Christ). They say that they were looking for a Higher Man, as they were told that they must hear “him, who teaches.”

Zarathustra decides to go out to the world and find the Higher Man for them and tells them to wait for him in his cave as long as it takes for him to find one.

On his way he gets bitten by a dog and has to lie down beside the swamp for the leeches to clear his blood. Then he speaks to the Conscious Man Of Spirits (probably Darwin, or any other scientist).

Further on, during his journey he meets a last Pope (imaginary character), who he speak to about Jesus’ death, he says that “pity chocked” Jesus, that he saw how man hanged on the cross and could not endure it that love for man became his “Hell and at least his death?” The Pope tries to defend Jesus’ name as a Son of God saying that he was a “hidden God, full of secrecy”. They then go onto exploring why Zarathustra has lost his faith.

Zarathustra has a new name 'The God’s killer', and the 'peace breaker'. Other characters he meets on his way are the Sorcerer who represents Wagner; the meeting shows a parody of his later poetry manner. The Shadow, who Zarathustra has conversations with, represents a free thinker. And the Voluntary Beggar is likely to be either Buddha or Tolstoy.

Eventually, Zarathustra discovers that he does not need to look for a Higher Man as he is one himself. He goes back to the cave to announce to the Kings that he is the one. They take him as the Higher Man and all together with the Prophet have a meal (reference to the Last Sapper of Jesus Christ before he was crucified). There is no bread, on Jesus’ last supper the bread was very significant, it symbolised Christ’s body that he wanted to sacrifice. He shared the bread among the disciples and said 'take it and eat it, this is my body' (Bible). Bread became a symbol of unity and became a base to traditions in Christian Church. Zarathustra clearly stated there is no bread but there is lamb instead and that is what they will eat. While eating the meal, Zarathustra and his guests spoke only of Higher Man.

The narrative in this part is set in time; author speaks of Zarathustra growing old with white hair. It starts of Zarathustra being sat before this cave “gazing silently out”. Now when the Kings and the Prophet believe that Zarathustra is the Higher Man they will have to convince others on the “Market Square” to believe in it too.

“God has died: now we desire – that superman shall live.”

When Zarathustra meets the Lion, his prophesy is filled, he is certain of his destiny as he has seen the signal.

“Very well! The lion has come, my children are here, Zarathustra has become ripe, my hour has come!”

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 4

Zarathustra the Godless - Part 3, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The style of Part 3 of Thus Spoke Zarathustra is not only prose but also poems. It shows introspective, cheerful and calm mood; halfway between melancholy of part 2 and Dionysian ecstasy of part 3.

This part contains the Climax of the book, "the exhibition of the sustained intellectual passion which gives Nietzsche his place among the world’s great men". Eternity is external recurrence, and the child the main character, Zarathustra wants to have by “eternity” is himself. Once Zarathustra reaches end of his self-education, the fulfilment is celebrated with trilogy of poems.

“It is returning, at last it is coming home to me-my own Self and those parts of it that have long been abroad (…)”

Zarathustra is climbing the high mountain and speaking to his heart, he is trying to find the summit (solitude). He is ready to reach deeper down to “blackest stream, as that is his destiny”.

Then he speaks of his vision of the solitary man and that he discovered the Spirit of Gravity, “his Devil archenemy”. Nietzsche describes Zarathustra’s fear of falling, failing his quest as once he thrown himself high to discover truths and to overcome himself (overcome the logic) he must be destined to fall.

Hymn to solitude in a model revaluation of three voices (once he is back in cave), exhortation to cheerfulness. “But a man of my sort does not avoid such an hour: the hour that says to him: ‘Only now do you tread your path of greatness! Summit and abyss – they are now united in one!”

The scene with the shepherd with a snake in his mouth could symbolise that once Zarathustra shares certain theories with others there is no taking back of his words. Even though shepherd managed to bit snake’s head of he was “no longer shepherd, no longer a man – a transformed being, surrounded with laughing!” This quote also corresponds to how Zarathustra’s (“God’s Killer”) teaching attracts people, and he becomes a Higher Man in their eyes.

An inner dialogue is taking over the main character while he is travelling through the sea, he is thinking about what has to be overcome to seal his perfection. He realises that there is still a long way to go.

The next morning he concluded that the happiness runs after him, and that was because he did not run after women, “happiness, however,” he says, “is a woman”.

Chapter 'Before sunrise' is written in a very poetic style, it is a melancholic and quite a romantic (poetic descriptions of the nature), Zarathustra is lonely; beauty of nature reminds him of a woman who he is far away from (perhaps reference to Nietzsche missing the love of his life).

When Zarathustra came back to land, he went among people to learn what had happened while he had been away. People became ‘small’, and all they want is that nobody does them harm. He sees that as “cowardice” and they call it a virtue. There is not enough fight in them and too much calm, they are “modest and tame”, what makes them a “man’s best domestic animal.”

He feels that his time has not come yet and there is no one else thinking the way he does, people still don’t understand him but on the other hand, “of what consequence is a time that has no time for Zarathustra.”

‘On the mouth of Olives’ is another poetic monologue, slowing the action down. The chapter ‘Of Passing By’ is quite a visual and dramatic chapter. Discovers here that there are things that will not change, people that don’t want to progress and they are only to be passed by. In chapter ‘Of the Apostates’, he notices that people who he used to know have settled and turned into “stay-at-home” ones. ‘The Home Coming’ describes thoughts of solitude again; Zarathustra learns that loneliness and solitude are two different things. He summarises all the lessons he have learnt throughout the journey. “And especially that ‘he who wants to understand all things amongst men has to touch all things.” (Empiricism) When people misunderstood him, he shouldn’t have indulged them more than he did himself.

Zarathustra speaks of humans that “they crucify him who writes new values on new law tables, they sacrifice the future to themselves- they crucify the whole human future!”

To overcome humans- he has to overcome himself but, he shouldn’t expect from others what he expects from himself as not everyone is as strong as he is. And to overcome human’s logic is the way to become a worlds-man (Darwin- evolution). Becoming a superman is not the end of the evolution; Zarathustra says “There it was too that I picked up the word ‘Superman’ and that man is something that must be overcome, that man is a bridge and not a goal”.

“The good – have always been the beginning of the end”.

The stream of his thought finishes on a song of “Yes and Amen, love to eternity”.

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 3

Zatrathustra The Enlightened One - Part 2, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“Thus spoke the Devil to me once: ‘Even God has his Hell: it is his love for men.’
And I lately heard him say these words: God is dead; God has died of his pity for man.”
Zarathustra is changing, he considers himself as an enlightened now. He criticises contemporary culture. He speaks of organised religion and priesthood, priests are to him hypocrites, “they called God that which contradicted and harmed them: and truly, there was much that was heroic in their worship! And they knew no other way of loving their God than by nailing men to the Cross” (Jesus Christ Crucifixion).

Wisdom is crucial and Zarathustra is fond of it because “she” reminds him of life. The author is quite likely to be describing the woman he loved, the love of his life. She must have been very wise and precious to him as he speaks of feeling alive when being with her.

He says, “I am fond of Wisdom, and often too fond, is because she very much reminds me of life! She has her eyes, her laughter (…): how can I help it that they both look so alike?”

He says that poets are liars, and their answer for Zarathustra’s accusation is, “we know too little and are bad learners: so we have to lie.”

Further on, Zarathustra says that life should overcome virtues like “Good and evil, and rich and poor, and noble men and all the names of the virtues (…) “.

Free will is essential in his beliefs and takes him beyond the death, “yes, you are still my destroyer of all graves: Hail, my Will: And only where there are graves are there resurrections.” (Elements of Buddhism)

Self overcoming is self-mastering, putting a self discipline and believing that it is good to challenge human’s logic. The will to existence is “not true”; “there is only will to power”. Having will to power, starts a change, change brings progress and progress leads to evolution. Zarathustra speaks of enlightened men whose “will to power” walks the feet of their “will to truth”. Will to existence is not enough. For it to be life there has to be will to power, man has to want to have power over himself and that is what keeps his existence.

Good and evil are not definite; they change as they too have to “overcome themselves”. And “he who has to be a creator in good and evil, truly, has first to be a destroyer (…)”, revolutionary human, brave enough to stop believing in what is set to be believed in.

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 2

Nietzsche about men and women - Part 1, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“She knows only love, but tell me, you men, which of you is capable of friendship?’

Zarathustra, the main character in Nietzsche’s book believes that women are incapable of friendship. He doubts in human’s purity of intentions and ability to create a pure and truthful relationship with other people.

Speaking of women, Zarathustra does not value them in high purpose for humanity, he simply says that “everything about woman is riddle, and everything about woman has one solution: it is called pregnancy.”

Picturing a woman in man’s eyes he says that “the true man wants too things: danger and play. For that reason he wants woman, as the most dangerous playing.” Negative experiences from Nietzsche’s life, as he had not much luck with love of his life and his intentions of marriage were unsuccessful.

Broken heart of the author dictated a lot of cold and shallow views on women. Zarathustra says that “man should be trained for war and woman for the recreation of the warrior: all else is folly.”

Zarathustra is representing stereotypical views on family structure and relations between men and women. “Woman understands children better than a man; but man is more childlike than woman.”

He also speaks of man’s ego: “The man’s happiness is: I will. The woman’s happiness is: He will.” Even though author tries to compare men and women equally and accurately, he admits that he knows not enough about women. Author reveals it by bringing another character to the conversation, an old woman, who is listening to Zarathustra and making him realise that he does not know all about women.

When speaking of men and women, the main character seeks new values and creation of good and evil. He says that “ truly, men have given themselves all their good and evil (…), they did not take it (…), it did not descend to them as a voice from heaven. Man first implanted values into things to maintain himself- he created the meaning of things, a human meaning!”

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra , Part 1

Who was “The Dead Dog” for Zarathustra- Part 1

After Zarathustra spoke to the Dying Man (Jesus), he had to leave the town as people started to hate him, he was carrying a “dead dog”. I believe the dead dog is in the book a memory after the Dying Man, the memory of Jesus that is in Nietzsche's mind. Nietzsche kept the message and lessons that he got from Christ’s life; he was still full of faith that Jesus' message was truth, even though he was only a human.

Zarathustra’s companion (Jesus) is dead but he kept a memory, of him. Zarathustra realized that it was not about the “dead body” he was carrying, he says that he needs life companions not dead ones now, meaning, that after Jesus died his message should be applied to other people.

“Zarathustra shall not speak to the people but to companions”, equality in humans and mutual love and trust, then he says: “Zarathustra shall not be hands-man and dog to the hand!”, it is not about the power over other people or manipulation but equality.

Zarathustra is against hierarchies in churches, he says, “Behold the faithful of all faiths! Whom do they hate the most? Him who smashes their tables of values, the breaker, the law-breaker- but he is the creator.” In Nietzsche’s new belief the hierarchy of Christian Church does not matter, hierocratic structure of the church is not necessary. It was undermining the power and prestige of the Church, as an institution. As you can imagine the Church could not approve of this theory.

Zarathustra calls himself a creator of a new philosophy that seriously threats the power and position of the Church. He also decided to find people who would join him and spread the truth.

He says that “man is something that must be overcome: and for that reason you must love your virtues-for you will perish by them.” He speaks of himself as an enlightened. In the scene with a tree, he discovers that there is no point in being an inventor of a new truth if there is no one to share it with. And so he decided to do.


TBC in ‘Nietzsche about men and women in Thus Spoke Zarathustra’ post

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 1

The Tight-Rope Walker & Jesus from Nazareth - Part 1, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

The book describes scene with the Tight-Rope Walker, which metaphorically looks like the scene from Jesus Christ' life when he was captured and tangled and then had to carry his own cross to the hill called Golgotha where he was crucified. The Market Square could symbolise Golgotha, the final place of Jesus’ and Tight-Rope Walker's destination.

In the middle of tight-rope walker (possibly Jesus) way, “the little door opened again and brightly-dressed fellow (…) followed the former (…)”, this could symbolise the appearance of Devil in Christ’s way onto the Golgotha’s hill. Devil as a hesitation going through Jesus’ mind, the question whether he is the One and if he is doing the right thing as well as simply fearing cruel death that was just half way ahead of him. The hesitation that was growing more with every step he was taking closer towards his hill of destiny (Market Square).

Then, Jesus fell few times on his way, because of the heavy weight of his cross and weakening gradually, in Nietzsche’s book this moment is described, “When he saw his rival thus triumph, lost his head and the rope; he threw away his pale and fell.”

In Bible, St Simon helps Jesus to pick his cross up and carry it. With a second fell, St Veronica wipes Christ face from sweat and blood. The conversation between Zarathustra and Dying Man, happened next, "All you have spoken of does not exist: there is no Devil and no Hell. Your soul will be dead even before your body: therefore fear nothing anymore!”. Zarathustra could be a voice of hesitation in Jesus’ mind before his death. The voice that says that Jesus dies for nothing and that metaphysical God does not exist, and therefore Jesus is not a Son of God but simply a human.

My other understanding of this scene is that perhaps Nietzsche has put Zarathustra next to Jesus, as if he walked the way to crucifixion with him, and told Jesus that he is going to die and he is a normal human being. Dying Man then said “If you are speaking the truth, (…) I leave nothing when I leave life. I am not much more than an animal which has been thought to dance by blows and starvation!”. The author shows again his leading idea that God died and humans not only killed him but also helped to burry him.

Then, Zarathustra says that “uncanny is human’s existence and still without meaning: a buffoon can be fatal to it.” Although Nietzsche denies existence of God he admits a deep impact from his life and memory hard to forget, the “Dead Dog”.

TBC in the "Who was the Dead Dog for Zarathustra" post

he University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 1

Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, PART I

“Behold I teach you the Superman”- hidden metaphors

Part 1 is written in a style of a speech of a preacher-philosopher. Zarathustra begins of speaking of overcoming the superman, becoming like apes (Darwin’s influences).

“Once blasphemy against God was the greatest blasphemy, but God died, and there upon these blasphemies died too.”

The metaphorical Christian content of his messages comes out of his once deep Lutheran belief which he is now rejecting and trying to find the truth and answers, a new ultimate, not only spiritual but also down to earth sense and rules of life.

He tries to find a new set of values and virtues that would be closest to truth and creation of their truthful definitions (“What good is my virtue”, “What good is my justice?”), through which he is aiming to find inner peace and happiness as a human being (“What good is my happiness?”) and also a scientific satisfaction close to finding proofs and clear explanations to human’s behaviour and reasons for human’s existence and the right religion (“What good is my reason?”).


Jesus Christ 'Super'-human

The book is written in multiple metaphors, Zarathustra (Greek thinker) talks about pity referencing to Jesus Christ’s prophecy (Lutheran/Christian religion in author’s life), Zarathustra, the awakened one, says “What good is my pity? Is not pity the cross upon which he who loves man is nailed?”

Nietzsche shows the core of his wonders as well as emotional and spiritual connection to Jesus Christ. Then Zaharustra says “But my pity is no crucifixion!” representing author's views against belief in Christ’s prophecy as a Son of God. He says “I love those who do not first seek beyond the stars for reasons to go down and be sacrifices: but who sacrifice themselves to the earth”. It is implication that the author thinks that Christ was a human being who with his charismatic approach and strength could be called a Superhuman. If everyone tried to follow passionately the values they believe that are truth and serve a good purpose to themselves and others and become happy through that, then such people could be called a Super-people, meaning “that the earth may one day belong to the Superman”.

If it is Jesus that author has in mind in this piece of text, to be a Superhuman, then the theory above would make Jesus a very strong and powerful man by obeying his own truthful beliefs and that mede him so happy that he wanted to share it with others so that they could follow his footsteps to be happy too. All that would make Jesus an amazing and virtues human being that tried to help others and show how important it is to believe, love, have hope and desire to keep becoming a better person and challenging yourself, systems and rules that look deceitful and unfair to humanity (self-overcoming of morality through truthfulness).

Zarathustra speaks of love for knowledge and science (as science can proof existence of Jesus as a human being), at the same time he loves one “who wants knowledge that one day the Superman may live. And thus he wills his own downfall.” He wants to base his belief on knowledge. This quote could be also an indirect hidden belief of the author that if Jesus was a Son of God this sentence would symbolise the Apocalypse, when Jesus will come down among the humans again and choose those who he will make (And thus he wills his own downfall) to happy and they all will become super-humans.


“I love him who loves his virtue: for virtue is will to downfall and arrow longing.” - Sacrifice

In further part Zaharustra says, “I love him who loves his virtue: for virtue is will to downfall and arrow longing.” Just like Jesus, “love him” could mean taking an example of the one who loves his virtuous beliefs, and who believed in what was his aim of life even though it was the “downfall”-Jesus was hated and crucified for his beliefs. The rest of the prophecy says about rising from the dead and rejoining with his father in heaven, till he will step down to earth again in the Judgment Day. The time of waiting for that day could be in the book an “arrow of longing” to rejoin with Jesus. It could be also Christ’s hope and faith that people understood his message and “longing” for the next time he will come back to earth.

At the end of this speech Zarathustra says “Behold, I am a prophet of the lightning and a heavy drop from the cloud: but this lightning is called Superman.” He calls himself a Superman a successor of Jesus Christ’s message and admirer of his strength and impact on humanity. Zarathustra also introduces an Ultimate Men, who do not understand his message, the “most contemptible men”.


Zarathustra the Roman judge Pontius Pilate

“You can have the Superman! And all the people laughed and shouted. But Zarathustra grew sad and said to his heart: They do not understand me: I am not the mouth for these ears.”

This scene could be another reference to Bible, to the scene when Pontius Pilate who was the ” Equesrianprocurator of the Roman province of Judea(...) best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized his crucifixion.” (2) In Mark’s Gospel for example, Mark “portrays Pilate as extremely reluctant to execute Jesus, blaming the Jewish priestly hierarchy for his death.” (2)

Pilate gave choice to the crowd to free either Jesus from Nazareth (Superman) or Barabas the criminal (ultimate man). The crowd was paid to choose Barabas and Jesus was sent for crucifixion. Zarathustra is playing Pilate in this symbolic scene, he wanted the crowd to choose the Superman, but after hearing people shouting to free Barabas, he had to follow their choice. When Zarathustra says, “I am not mouth for these ears” it could symbolise situation that Pilate was in, he was not the one that people would listen to and so, even though he was the judge, it was not in his power to free Jesus.

Another biblical reference is hidden in the scene with tight-rope walker.

TBC in 'The Tight-Rope Walker from Thus Spoke Zarathustra and Jesus from Nazareth'


The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV,
1. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 1
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontius_Pilate

Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Essence

“The self-overcoming of morality through truthfulness, the self-overcoming of the moralist into his opposite into -we - that is what the name Zarathustra means in my mouth.” Nietzsche

The essence of the Thus Spoke Zarathustra is finding the mining’s of the central concepts of life, to find the truth. Zarathustra, the main character speculates that “Jesus would have said: I am the truth.” He, on the other hand, introduces his theory that the truth is what you “yourself are”, and the truth becomes one when “you yourself give it”. Zaharustra concludes that the “truth is not something that can be proved or disproved: it is something which you determine upon, which in the language of the old psychology, you will.”

The main character Zarathustra was originally, a Greek thinker, a founder of the ancient Persian religion. The essence of this religion was a conflict between Ahara Mazda, the god of light and Angra Mainyu, the god of darkness and evil. Nietzshe uses Zarathustra’s name to metaphorically reference to roots of one of the eldest religions which Christianity is thought to have anthropologically to be connected with, ancient Apollonian representing light and logic against Dionysian with the cult of intoxication and ecstasy.

Nietzsche explained that Zarathustra the thinker, was “the first to see in the struggle between good and evil(…) the translation of morality into the realm of metaphysics, as force, cause, end-in-itself, is his work. (…)”, and added that Zarathustra was “more truthful than any other thinker”.

Main concepts that Nietzsche touches in his book are Amor Fati, Eternal recurrence, will to power, living dangerously, Great noontide and the Superman theory.

Nietasche introduces in his book theory that The God is dead for him and His successor in a Superhuman, who people eventually, fail to understand. Superhuman’s antithesis is an Ultimate Man, who sacrifices the future to his own present. He repeats numerously that human’s existence is ‘uncanny’. Zarathustra’s band of disciples display Nietzsche’s views on various subjects of questions, e.g. ‘education of the spirit’, ‘negative virtue’, ‘metaphysical world’, ‘religion between mind and body’, ’the nature of virtues’ and many others.

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV,
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Part 1

XIX century Music and Religion influences, ‘What would Greeks do?’

“The Unity of Science and Art”, Lecture 1

In Music, 1872 the birth of tragedy from ancient Greece influenced the spirit of XIX century music. We can see that ancient Greeks created incredibly strong influences that have had an impact on many spheres of life of numerous cultures.

Dionysus, god of music was a Homophrodite God of intoxication and ecstasy. The Dionysian Religion that consisted of festivals would very often end up with mass suicide.

Music was significant; it was explicable, purely subjective and highly numeral.

Pythagoras of Samos, an Ionian Greek philosopher was a founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism.(2) “Pythagoreanism is a term used for the esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were considerably influenced by mathematics. Pythagoreanism greatly influenced Platonism.” (1) They had a theory that the music of the Spheres was reflecting mathematical harmony (metaphysics of music).“Pythagoras made influential contributions to philosophy and religious teaching in the late 6th century BC. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, and he is best known for the Pythagorean theory which bears his name. However, because legend and obfuscation cloud his work even more than with the other pre-Socratic philosophers, (...)

We do know that his disciples believed that everything was related to mathematics and that numbers were the ultimate reality. It was said that he was the first man to call himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom, and Pythagorean ideas exercised a marked influence on Plato, and through him, all of western philosophy.”(2)

Schopenhauer, one of the most fascinating musicians of the centuries showed the same we harmony of spheres, formless music, life force. The force is bad though, it symbolizes evil as it causes existence, struggle against force.

Western European Art comes together in Wagner’s Opera. In Tristan and Iseult, sexual experiences are strongly expressed, sexual euphoria is so powerful that it killsApollonian religion is a philosophy of logic, light and knowing.

Apollo and Dionysus represent opposite ideas (Greek Tragedy), we could even say that Apollonian belief suppresses Dionysian, the same action can be observed in Christianity.

The best proof for Christianity to be anthropological, it takes a lots of influences from other beliefs and philosophies, it is build on other ones and uses other theories to explain its own theories. Puzzled picture built from many separate pieces that it inhabited from the past.

Setting Nietzsche with Christianity is a significant philosophical clash, it is easy to imagine that Christians do not approve of Nietzsche as he undermines their hierarchy and shows it in light of meaningless set of values and points out on how church became an insignificant and hypocrite institution demanding power and wealth instead of staying in spiritual spheres of humans life.


The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV, Lecture1
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoreanism
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus
4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_and_Isolde

Friedrich Nietzsche and Immanuel Kant

THE UNITY OF SCIENCE AND ART

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, the murderers of all murderers, console ourselves?”(1a) Nietzsche

Year 1883 was flooded with new influences, it was a time of “eruption of words” (1a) and metaphors; its word-play suggests an “eruption of feelings.” (1a)

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), was born in Lutheran Religion which, after years of study and belief, he decided to abandon and replace with freelance philosophizing. He became the sceptic of the XIX century (“Cogito Ergo Sum”1a). He was very much of a “pioneer in the demolition of ancient habits of mind and moral prejudices“(1a). One of the biggest misteries that he was trying to solve was finding out what is truth. He believed that the truth is something to which you submit and you create yourself, “it is the expression of a particular kind of life and being which has, in you, ventured to assert itself.” (1a) He believed that the truth is a “concept of human’s mind” (1a), he questions, if the personal truth equals “the sole origin of the truth of the earth”(1a).

Nietzsche was a professor of Philosophy (Basel University), who wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, using a distinctive style using metaphors, irony and aphorism. (1) He discovered writings from Samos proving that Samos knew about Solar parallax way before Copernicus. The key of his studies were pre-Socratic, early Greek societies. He believes that humanity should be overcome, he is anti-racist but also anti-democratic (Social Darwinis, Social-Biological concerns, anti-Liberal views) “Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism.” (1)

XIX century was also dominated by Immanuel Kant who was a Prussian philosopher.Kant was the last influential philosopher of modern Europe in the classic sequence of the theory of knowledge during the Enlightenment beginning with thinkers like John Locke. Kant created a new perspective in philosophy which has continued to influence philosophy through to the 21st century. One of his most prominent works evolved around an investigation into the limitations and structure of reason itself. “He suggested that by understanding the sources and limits of human knowledge we can ask fruitful metaphysical questions. (...) He concluded that all objects about which the mind can think must conform to its manner of thought. Therefore if the mind can think only in terms of causality – which he concluded that it does – then we can know prior to experiencing them that all objects we experience must either be a cause or an effect. "(2)

However, it follows from this that "it is possible that there are objects of such nature which the mind cannot think, and so the principle of causality, for instance, cannot be applied outside of experience: hence we cannot know, for example, whether the world always existed or if it had a cause. “ (2) He also believed that everyone has a moral compass for recognizing Good and Evil. Everyone is equal and is able to see when they are good or bad regardless what rules society dictates.

Friedrich Nietzsche rejects Kant’s theory and says that there are people who have other moral values than others, superior people, he also doesn’t believe in Democracy and rejects Christian morality. He quite likes Napoleon (India and Egypt XVIII century conquer). After the defeat of Napoleon, European Culture was widely open on influences from beyond Europe (Buddhism, Hinduism).

In a book, From Bauhaus to our House, the author describes the theories and times when a new spiritual and philosophical movement Bauhaus began influencing different spheres of life. Bauhaus founder, Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was deeply influenced by Nietzsche.

Going back to Kant’s philosophy, he “believed himself to be creating a compromise between the empiricists and the rationalists. The empiricists believed that knowledge is acquired through experience alone, but the rationalists maintained that such knowledge is open to Cartesian doubt and that reason alone provides us with knowledge. Kant argues, however, that using reason without applying it to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason.” (2)

He also followed his theory of Knowledge (NUMERAL, PHENUMERAL), he believed in existence of other universes, numeral worlds. He had an esthetic response to arts and faith in romantic love.


The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV, Lecture1
1a) Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
1) http://www.blogger.com/6)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nietzche
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kant

History and Context of Journalism XVII - XIX Century influences

“The Unity of Science and Art”, Lecture 1

One of the greatest persona’s of XVII century Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel a German philosopher, revolutionized European philosophy with his historicist and idealist account of the total reality as a whole (2) believed that there are no fixed values. On the other hand, Schopenhauer (1818, Buddhist, Hindu) believed that world is suffering caused by a constant desire. In Buddhism reaching nirvana is to desire nothing, as when you desire something it causes pain.

After French Revolution (1820s) there were wide reactions on defeat of Napoleon and that is when all theories and set values went back to basics (1830-Greek type of churches, repressed society).

In 1848 Europe was flooded with another numerous revolutions. And soon after in 1859 in science another magnificent mind in human’s history, Charles Darwin (1809–1882), a “British naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection” (1), led on to revolutionary discoveries that changed the world for ever. From his Origin of Species we now know that 3mln years ago world was ruled by Homo Erectus, "an extinct species that originated in Africa and spread as far as China and Java about 1.8 to 1.3 million years ago" (3), and Homo sapiens (Latin: "wise man" or "knowing man") come from the great ape family and are the beginning of humans. Evidence indicates that modern humans originated in Africa about 200,000 years ago. (4)

“The closest living relatives of humans are gorillas and chimpanzees, but humans did not evolve from these apes: instead these apes share a common ancestor with modern humans (...) ‘after 6.5 [million] years of separate evolution, the differences between chimpanzee and human are ten times greater than those between two unrelated people and ten times less than those between rats and mice’, suggested concurrence between human and chimpanzee DNA sequences range between 95% and 99%.“ (4)

In 14 March 1879 Albert Einstein the father of modern physics, “theoretical physicist, philosopher and author who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists and intellectuals of all time”, brought further developments in the world of science. “Einstein is best known for his theories of special relativity and general relativity. (...) He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.” (1)

Along with all greatest minds of human’s history, Nietzsche was an important figure from Copernicus vision, introducing new theories. Friedrich Nietzsche was not very well known in England until the post war period. He influenced all aspects of life.

1880s was taken over by a Contemporary Modernism, in time of world Revolutions and birth of tragedy people started to contemplate beyond Good and Evil and revolutionise of all values began.

It these times, one of the greatest scientists, a polish pride, Nicolaus Copernicus, who was “the first astronomer to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe”(1), leads a chain of significant changes to the world’s history.

The University of Winchester Journalism Course
History and Context of Journalism, Part IV, Lecture1
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hegel
3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus
4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens