| Several Nietzsche’s thoughts demonstrated the importance of walking in his life, through his own words or by means of his characters. |
Nietzsche rejected vehemently the Gustave Flaubert though “On ne peut penser et écríre qu’assis”. For Nietzsche, only the thoughts emerging in movement are worthwhile44 Nietzsche F. Twilight of the idols or how to philosophize with a Hammer. Translator: Daniel Fidel Ferrer (February 2013). [cited 2015/05/16]. Available from: http://uploads.worldlibrary.net/uploads/pdf/20130823204042twilightidols_pdf.pdf.
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| On Ecce Homo55 Nietzsche F. Ecce homo: how one becomes what one is. New York: Algora; 2004., Nietzsche gives several accounts on this faith: “Sit as little as possible; give credence to no thought that is not born in the open air and accompanied by free movement – in which the muscles do not also celebrate a feast”. ““On Old and New Tables” was composed during the arduous ascent from the station to the marvelous Moorish rocky haunt of Eza, – my muscular dexterity was always greatest when the creative force flowed most freely. The body is inspired: let us leave the “soul” out of it...I might often have been seen dancing; at that time I could be on the go for seven or eight hours in the mountains without a hint of fatigue. I slept well, I laughed a great deal –, I had perfect vigor and endurance”. |
Regarding the messianic book, Thus Spake Zarathustra1010 Nietzsche F. Thus Spake Zarathustra: a book for all and none. Translator: Thomas Common. Release Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #1998]Last Updated: November 5, 2012. [cited 2015/05/16]. Available from: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1998/1998-h/1998-h.htm.
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, these habits was extensively mentioned, also by Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche in the Introduction of How Zarathustra came into being, and also in the own words of Zaratrusta. She included this preface in December 1905, Nietzsche Archives, Weimar. She refers that her brother often used to speak of the ecstatic mood in which he wrote “Zarathustra”; how in his walks over hill and dale the ideas would crowd into his mind, and how he would note them down hastily in a note-book from which he would transcribe them on his return, sometimes working till midnight. “The fundamental idea of my work namely, the Eternal Recurrence of all things this highest of all possible formulae of a Yea-saying philosophy, first occurred to me in August 1881. I made a note of the thought on a sheet of paper, with the postscript: 6,000 feet beyond men and time! That day I happened to be wandering through the woods alongside of the lake of Silvaplana, and I halted beside a huge, pyramidal and towering rock not far from Surlei. It was then that the thought struck me. Looking back now, I find that exactly two months previous to this inspiration, I had had an omen of its coming in the form of a sudden and decisive alteration in my tastes more particularly in music. It would even be possible to consider all ‘Zarathustra’ as a musical composition. “In the winter of 1882-83, I was living on the charming little Gulf of Rapallo, not far from Genoa, and between Chiavari and Cape Porto Fino. My health was not very good; the winter was cold and exceptionally rainy; and the small inn in which I lived was so close to the water that at night my sleep would be disturbed if the sea were high. These circumstances were surely the very reverse of favourable; and yet in spite of it all, and as if in demonstration of my belief that everything decisive comes to life in spite of every obstacle, it was precisely during this winter and in the midst of these unfavourable circumstances that my ‘Zarathustra’ originated. In the morning I used to start out in a southerly direction up the glorious road to Zoagli, which rises aloft through a forest of pines and gives one a view far out into the sea. In the afternoon, as often as my health permitted, I walked round the whole bay from Santa Margherita to beyond Porto Fino. This spot was all the more interesting to me, inasmuch as it was so dearly loved by the Emperor Frederick III. In the autumn of 1886 I chanced to be there again when he was revisiting this small, forgotten world of happiness for the last time. It was on these two roads that all ‘Zarathustra’ came to me, above all Zarathustra himself as a type; I ought rather to say that it was on these walks that these ideas way laid me.” “…My most creative moments were always accompanied by unusual muscular activity. The body is inspired: let us waive the question of the ‘soul.’ I might often have been seen dancing in those days. Without a suggestion of fatigue I could then walk for seven or eight hours on end among the hills. I slept well and laughed well I was perfectly robust and patient.” |
| Nietzsche habits of walking were lifelong. Cate1111 Cate C. Friedrich Nietzsche, Woodstock., New York: Overlook; 2005. presents several remarks about it, an early sample regards the famous boarding school Pforta, an a late one, at his health irreversible decline period. The first was “Nietzsche began the midsummer vacation of 1859 in early July, leaving Pforta on foot and walking cheerfully home through the intervening woods.”, and the second, “During the next few months, thanks to a daily regime of long walks in the morning and again, after a siesta, in the late afternoon, Nietzsche’s outward appearance seemed to improve.” |
In summary, the theme – the wanderer, is also a constant in Nietzsche’s work, even in his characters as it can be seen in the THIRD PART – XLV. THE WANDERER of Thus Spake Zarathustra1010 Nietzsche F. Thus Spake Zarathustra: a book for all and none. Translator: Thomas Common. Release Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #1998]Last Updated: November 5, 2012. [cited 2015/05/16]. Available from: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1998/1998-h/1998-h.htm.
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: “Then, when it was about midnight, Zarathustra went his way over the ridge of the isle, that he might arrive early in the morning at the other coast; because there he meant to embark. For there was a good roadstead there, in which foreign ships also liked to anchor: those ships took many people with them, who wished to cross over from the Happy Isles. So when Zarathustra thus ascended the mountain, he thought on the way of his many solitary wanderings from youth onwards, and how many mountains and ridges and summits he had already climbed. I am a wanderer and mountain-climber, said he to his heart, I love not the plains, and it seemeth I cannot long sit still. And whatever may still overtake me as fate and experience a wandering will be therein, and a mountain-climbing: in the end one experienceth only oneself.” |
