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Comment by Errancer | Hacker News Reader

Just go and read Deleuze's essays on Nietzsche. They're short and extremely insightful

You'd be much better advised to just go straight to the source and read Nietzsche, especially as he's one of the most readable, entertaining, and interesting philosophers ever.

You'd do yourself a disservice by looking at him through someone else's inevitably distorting glasses.

It is always a good idea to read a philosopher through Deleuze's words. If there's one philosopher whose main sticht was distorting others in productive ways, it's Deleuze. It is a pretty up-front distortion ("taking them from behind and giving them a bastard child"), but usually providing an incredibly useful new perspective

> especially as he's one of the most readable, entertaining, and interesting philosophers ever.

You would do me a service by declaring your sarcasm, if any is intended. Nietzsche is famously one of the most dense philosophers to get into, and there are many different ways to interpret his writings. I've struggled through works by Nietzsche, and though I would definitely recommend it and agree that it is entertaining, interesting and thought provoking, "readable" isn't a word I would use to describe it.

do you have to learn german just to read nietzsche?

As someone that has learnt German for other reasons, it definitely helps. There is a lot of word play in German in his writings that I feel translation loses. As well as emphasis in word choices stemming from German as a language that tends to either get glossed over or overlooked.

But in the end, no you don't, but it helps in the nuances of what is trying to be conveyed.

IMHO, Nietzsche was both a great poet and a great philosopher, and the former can't really be translated. I'd imagine it's a bit like watching a shakespear play in a foreign language - still a dramatic and entertaining time, but you might be left wondering what all the fuss is about.

In English, the Kaufmann translations are excellent.

That is if you want to look at the world through someone else's inevitable distorting glasses ;)

His book on Nietzsche is very good, though a bit controversial since he leans on Will to Power so much.

I've been meaning to write a blog post titled "Nietzsche loves Nokogiri" for the last... five years? Whew... The thesis is that basically, Nokogiri was the right response to the situation with Hpricot. I'm not sure how many Rubyists even remember those days at this point...

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