If – as a fan of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda – you have
harbored a preconceived notion that Friedrich Nietzsche was a thrill-seeker
ahead of his time, but did Nietzsche lived a rather dull and boring life?
By: Ringo Bones
Maybe blame should be placed at that allegedly historically
accurate biopic of Friedrich Nietzsche titled: “When Nietzsche Wept” that stars
Armand Assante as Friedrich Nietzsche as a “melancholic” – as in someone who
suffers from clinical depression - guy always checking himself into the nearest
mental asylums whenever he feels blue. Sadly, this supposedly historically
accurate version of Nietzsche seems to be largely ignored by a very large
majority of today’s science fiction fans, especially fans of Gene Roddenberry
But are ignoring this model of a “bland and boring Friedrich Nietzsche” at our
own intellectual peril?
Fans of Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda had always harbored
this preconceived notion that Friedrich Nietzsche was an avid thrill-seeker way
ahead of his time and very much into the extreme sports of his day as based on
how the Nietzscheans in the sci-fi TV series so often much behaved. But for
better or for worse, are our intellectual selves be better off with a bland and
boring version of Friedrich Nietzsche whose existentialist insights is probably
the most “thrilling” aspect of the famed philosopher’s life?
Nietzsche, in Sect. 10 of Beyond Good and Evil, calls nihilism a type of fatalism. Gene's race matches this attitude that the only certain thing in life is that there will be death. And as any fatalist that believes in this "religion," one should welcome death. Seeking death is only exciting for the person that jumps out of the plane or some other rash and dangerous activity. I wonder if Nietzche would have ever done anything dangerous like that to conquer his depression.
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