Thus Spoke Zarathustra - On Sleep

[apachama]

Any Nietzsche fans here? I was thinking about Nietzsche's brief writing on sleep in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and wondering what people here think of it. We're all dreamers, so I guess we're all sleepers too. It seems to me that we do stay awake in order to dream well. But not in the way the sage in this chapter says. We are not obliged to keep virtues in our daily life. Rather, the way to acquire powerful dreams and good sleep is to act on dream advice and put yourself into situations where you must overcome yourself. I guess the main difference is that the aim is not a peaceful sleep, but a peaceful sleep with powerful dreams. Dreaming, it seems to me, is part of the process of acquiring your own values through your subconcsious. I find emotionally powerful, interesting dreams develop from a life well lived in which dreaming is taken seriously. Spoiler for The Academic Chairs of Virtue: II. THE ACADEMIC CHAIRS OF VIRTUE. People commended unto Zarathustra a wise man, as one who could discourse well about sleep and virtue: greatly was he honoured and rewarded for it, and all the youths sat before his chair. To him went Zarathustra, and sat among the youths before his chair. And thus spake the wise man: Respect and modesty in presence of sleep! That is the first thing! And to go out of the way of all who sleep badly and keep awake at night! Modest is even the thief in presence of sleep: he always stealeth softly through the night. Immodest, however, is the night-watchman; immodestly he carrieth his horn. No small art is it to sleep: it is necessary for that purpose to keep awake all day. Ten times a day must thou overcome thyself: that causeth wholesome weariness, and is poppy to the soul. Ten times must thou reconcile again with thyself; for overcoming is bitterness, and badly sleep the unreconciled. Ten truths must thou find during the day; otherwise wilt thou seek truth during the night, and thy soul will have been hungry. Ten times must thou laugh during the day, and be cheerful; otherwise thy stomach, the father of affliction, will disturb thee in the night. Few people know it, but one must have all the virtues in order to sleep well. Shall I bear false witness? Shall I commit adultery? Shall I covet my neighbour's maidservant? All that would ill accord with good sleep. And even if one have all the virtues, there is still one thing needful: to send the virtues themselves to sleep at the right time. That they may not quarrel with one another, the good females! And about thee, thou unhappy one! Peace with God and thy neighbour: so desireth good sleep. And peace also with thy neighbour's devil! Otherwise it will haunt thee in the night. Honour to the government, and obedience, and also to the crooked government! So desireth good sleep. How can I help it, if power like to walk on crooked legs? He who leadeth his sheep to the greenest pasture, shall always be for me the best shepherd: so doth it accord with good sleep. Many honours I want not, nor great treasures: they excite the spleen. But it is bad sleeping without a good name and a little treasure. A small company is more welcome to me than a bad one: but they must come and go at the right time. So doth it accord with good sleep. Well, also, do the poor in spirit please me: they promote sleep. Blessed are they, especially if one always give in to them. Thus passeth the day unto the virtuous. When night cometh, then take I good care not to summon sleep. It disliketh to be summoned--sleep, the lord of the virtues! But I think of what I have done and thought during the day. Thus ruminating, patient as a cow, I ask myself: What were thy ten overcomings? And what were the ten reconciliations, and the ten truths, and the ten laughters with which my heart enjoyed itself? Thus pondering, and cradled by forty thoughts, it overtaketh me all at once--sleep, the unsummoned, the lord of the virtues. Sleep tappeth on mine eye, and it turneth heavy. Sleep toucheth my mouth, and it remaineth open. Verily, on soft soles doth it come to me, the dearest of thieves, and stealeth from me my thoughts: stupid do I then stand, like this academic chair. But not much longer do I then stand: I already lie.-- When Zarathustra heard the wise man thus speak, he laughed in his heart: for thereby had a light dawned upon him. And thus spake he to his heart: A fool seemeth this wise man with his forty thoughts: but I believe he knoweth well how to sleep. Happy even is he who liveth near this wise man! Such sleep is contagious-- even through a thick wall it is contagious. A magic resideth even in his academic chair. And not in vain did the youths sit before the preacher of virtue. His wisdom is to keep awake in order to sleep well. And verily, if life had no sense, and had I to choose nonsense, this would be the desirablest nonsense for me also. Now know I well what people sought formerly above all else when they sought teachers of virtue. Good sleep they sought for themselves, and poppy-head virtues to promote it! To all those belauded sages of the academic chairs, wisdom was sleep without dreams: they knew no higher significance of life. Even at present, to be sure, there are some like this preacher of virtue, and not always so honourable: but their time is past. And not much longer do they stand: there they already lie. Blessed are those drowsy ones: for they shall soon nod to sleep.-- Thus spake Zarathustra.

[Original Poster]

tl;dr No but seriously I really don't understand it. He's saying we need to learn 10 things and laugh 10 times a day or we have bad dreams?

[CryoDragoon]

Well... I don't really agree with what Nietzsche has to say, but I do think he's incredibly fascinating. He has incredibly interresting ideas, revolutionary to all the rest of philosophy before his time, and on top of that: his own life story was interesting too. He is terribly hard to read, though... Metaphors, paradoxes and contradictions in his own work. Then again: that's what makes him so great to read. I haven't read anything of Nietzsche yet, but we did something in school, and I can tell you now: you cannot 'just' read something of Nietzsche. You'll have to understand his work first, the majority of the philosophy that came before him, and even then you'll probably have to go back and re-read some of his stuff in order to really get only the gist of his ideas. I don't know how much you know about Nietzsche and his philosophy, but when I read the last line 'Blessed are those drowsy ones: for they shall soon nod to sleep' and this one 'sleep, the unsummoned, the lord of the virtues', combined with the fact that he was talking about virtues, of morals, I just couldn't think of sleep, or of dreams. I had to think of the nihilist of the child, of the Übermensch and of the Will to Power. I think he's saying there are no virtues, that these are all illusions, like the ratio, like science, like 'truth', and that those who just 'give in' to this fact (i.e. the 'drowsy ones' who shall soon nod to sleep) are truly virtuous, since Nietzsche says that all there is is the Will to Power. I think this 'sleep' is a metaphor for giving in to the Will of Power, and realising it's the only thing there, and accepting that it is so. I think that's what he was talking about. But I'm no philosopher, and certainly none in the field of Nietzsche, so I don't know for sure... Amazing fellow... Confusing, but amazing...

[apachama]

The wise sage is this chapter is a person that Nietzsche seems to be knocking down through his protagonist, Zarathustra. For Nietzsche, existence is in many ways about a struggle to achieve, grow and create new virtues. I think that idea here is that there are some who believe the value of struggle is in allowing for peace. Because this guy's morality is based on peace, there will never be a point where he can truley overcome social values. In many ways, the argument of thesage seems better than the argument of Zarathustra. Especially if you take into account dreams as a source of new ideas that can help towards self-overcoming.

[Belisarius]

I think sleep is a metaphor for peace and passivity. The wise man is saying that we should be passive and accomidating to avoid conflict and lead tranquil lives. Nietzsche through Zarathustra is saying that these people will be pushed aside and will never achieve greatness. Their time is passed, they already lie.

[hungrymanz]

I love Nietzsche. Get a better translation of TSZ; I like Kaufmann's. I think sleep is a metaphor for peace and passivity. This is quite close to my own interpretation