I Am Dynamite: A Life of Nietzsche
By Sue Prideaux,
Faber, 444pp, £25/$30
Nietzsche is alive as most philosophers aren’t. This is partly because – in one sense – he wasn’t a philosopher at all, or at least not what we commonly understand as a philosopher. He wrote no coherent work, developed no system, advanced no argument. Instead, he threw off sparks: brilliant and disturbing observations. For years, I tried reading Thus Spake Zarathustra, but I never read it through, finding much windy nonsense; much too that was enlightening, alarming, exhilarating. I guess many have had the same experience.
