I'm plodding through Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra in one or two page chunks at bedtime and I'm honestly not getting the sense he was a great writer.
The way it reads I can see how people could tie him in with Ayn Rand and Hitler, and I'm wondering if the writers I've read who have good things to say about his work have been filtering it through their own lenses to an extreme degree.
Maybe I should read Twilight of the Idols instead?
@radiophobicsherkpop It depends what you're looking for in Nietzsche. He's been incredibly influential in the history of 20thC European thought in particular, though I'm not saying that reading his work is likely to be particularly edifying to those who aren't really interested in the history of ideas. Many of his most insightful contributions have been so influential that they are now accepted as conventional wisdom,to the point where reading them can feel like "yeah, obviously, so what?".
And these bits are scattered amidst plenty of petty snark, bitter invective, narcissistic megalomania and self-aggrandising clumsy mythopoeia (such as TSZ).
There's also some bits of genuinely funny satire (sometimes requiring familiarity with contemporary writers, or historical texts) and nuanced psychological insight. It's a real mixed bag.
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