The book takes the term from Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where it is used in the context of the often nauseating quality of existence.

This wilful destruction of values and the overcoming of the condition of nihilism by the constructing of new meaning, this active nihilism, could be related to what Nietzsche elsewhere calls a ' free spirit ' or the Übermensch from Thus Spoke Zarathustra and the Antichrist, the model of the strong individual who posits his own values and lives his life as if it were his own work of art.

* Friedrich Nietzsche published Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

In 1911 / 1912, Orff wrote Also sprach Zarathustra ( Thus Spoke Zarathustra ), Op.

Despite his rejection of the Macchiaioli approach, Modigliani nonetheless found favour with his teacher, who referred to him as " Superman ", a pet name reflecting the fact that Modigliani was not only quite adept at his art, but also that he regularly quoted from Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Strauss went on to write a series of increasingly ambitious tone poems: Death and Transfiguration ( 1889 ), Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks ( 1895 ), Thus Spoke Zarathustra ( 1896 ), Don Quixote ( 1897 ), A Hero's Life ( 1898 ), Symphonia Domestica ( 1903 ) and An Alpine Symphony ( 1911 – 1915 ).

Important precursors of Expressionism were: the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche ( 1844-1900 ), especially his philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra ( 1883-92 ); the later plays of the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg ( 1849-1912 ), including the trilogy To Damascus 1898-1901, A Dream Play ( 1902 ), The Ghost Sonata ( 1907 ); Frank Wedekind ( 1864-1918 ), especially the " Lulu " plays Erdgeist ( Earth Spirit ) ( 1895 ) and Die Büchse der Pandora ( Pandora's Box ) ( 1904 ); the American poet Walt Whitman ( 1819-92 ): Leaves of Grass ( 1855-91 ); the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky ( 1821-81 ); Norwegian painter Edvard Munch ( 1863-1944 ); Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh ( 1853-90 ); Belgian painter James Ensor ( 1860-1949 ); Sigmund Freud ( 1856-1939 ).

The Übermensch ( German ) ( English Overman or Superman ) is a concept in the philosophy of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche — he posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ().

The list includes Macbeth ( 1886 — 7 ), Don Juan ( 1888 — 9 ), Tod und Verklärung ( Death and Transfiguration, 1888 – 9 ), Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche ( Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, 1894 – 95 ), Also sprach Zarathustra ( Thus Spoke Zoroaster, 1896 ), Don Quixote ( 1897 ), Ein Heldenleben ( A Hero's Life, 1897 – 98 ), Symphonia Domestica ( Domestic Symphony, 1902 – 03 ) and Eine Alpensinfonie ( An Alpine Symphony, 1911 – 1915 ).

Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ().

Thus Spoke Zarathustra ( Nietzsche, F .) Penguin Classics: Penguin Publishing ( Originally published 1885 )

Nietzsche's Teaching: An Interpretation of Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None () ( also translated as Thus Spake Zarathustra ) is a philosophical novel by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885.

Thus Spoke Zarathustra was conceived while Nietzsche was writing The Gay Science ; he made a small note, reading " 6, 000 feet beyond man and time ," as evidence of this.

Other aspects of Thus Spoke Zarathustra relate to Nietzsche's proposed " Transvaluation of All Values ".

The overman ( Übermensch ), a self-mastered individual who has achieved his full power, is an almost omnipresent idea in Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Many criticisms of Christianity can be found in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, in particular Christian values of good and evil and its belief in an afterlife.

Harold Bloom has criticized Thus Spoke Zarathustras style, calling the book " a gorgeous disaster " and " unreadable ".

The Common translation, which improved on Alexander Tille's earlier attempt, remained widely accepted until the more critical translations, titled Thus Spoke Zarathustra, separately by R. J. Hollingdale and Walter Kaufmann, which are considered to convey more accurately the German text than the Common version.

Frederick Delius based his major choral-orchestral work A Mass of Life ( 1904-5 ) on texts from Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

Latin American writer Giannina Braschi wrote the philosophical novel " United States of Banana " based on Walter Kaufman's translation of " Thus Spoke Zarathustra "; in it, Zarathustra and Hamlet philosophize about the liberty of modern man in a capitalist society.

* Thus Spoke Zarathustra, translated by Walter Kaufmann, New York: Random House ; reprinted in The Portable Nietzsche, New York: The Viking Press, 1954 and Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1976

* Thus Spoke Zarathustra, translated by R. J. Hollingdale, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1961

* Nietzsche's teaching of the " raising of the wrist " possibly references the rising of the sun at the beginning of " Thus spoke Zarathustra.

* Nietzsche, Friedrich ( 2008 / 1885 ), Thus Spake Zarathustra, trans.

* Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus spake Zarathustra, translated by Thomas Common

* Also sprach Zarathustra ( Thus Spake Zarathustra ), Op.

Thus the overall ratios of the three coinages remained roughly equivalent.

Thus, this notion, which remained relevant throughout Chinese history, reflects the order of nature.

Thus, they initially opted for project approval and censorship guidelines while leaving what remained of the industry in private hands.

Thus, when World War II broke out in September 1939, Greece remained neutral.

Thus, Alexander remained in command of the 15th Army Group, and, with the support of numerous allied commanders, controversially authorised the bombing of the historic abbey at Cassino, which resulted in little advance on the German Winter Line defences.

Thus encouraged, the encircling regiments remained in place, maintaining continual pressure, until weakened British dispositions enabled the host to make a final surge forward.

Thus, Peter Wimsey remained forever fixed on the background of inter-war England, and the books are nowadays often read for their evocation of that period as much as for the intrinsic detective mysteries.

Thus the Mary Rose was subject to salvage from the sixteenth century and later, but a very large amount of material, buried in the sediments, remained to be found by maritime archaeologists of the twentieth century.

Thus, Romania was created as a personal union, albeit a Romania that did not include Transylvania, where the upper class and the aristocracy remained mainly Hungarian, although Romanian nationalism inevitably ran up against Hungarian nationalism at the end of the 19th century.

Thus Lenin remained the enfant terrible of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, although in this point in the war his following in Russia was as little as 10 000 and he must have seemed no more than the leader of an extremist wing of a bankrupt organization.

Thus, Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open ( dating to 1905 ) became and have remained the most prestigious events in tennis.

Thus, the consular year dating was abandoned in practice, even though it formally remained until the end of the 9th century.

Thus Babylonian mathematics remained stale in character and content, with very little progress or innovation, for nearly two millennia.

Thus, there remained a net total of 3. 55 million workers in as many households for whom jobs were to be provided.

Thus they remained till the Wednesday of Easter week, and Kaloyan had by that time approached so near, that he encamped at about five leagues from the Crusaders.

Thus, by the spring of 1860, only four states remained in Italy — the Austrians in Venetia, the Papal States ( now minus the Legations ), the new expanded Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Thus, the trade was canceled and all aforementioned players remained with their original teams.

Thus ecclesiastical intercourse between Rome and Constantinople was restored, but the mutual reserve over the dogmatic question of Monothelitism remained.

Thus the gouvernements became hollow structures, but they still carried a sense of the old provinces, and so their names and limits have remained popular until today.

Thus, a series victory in India, which Australia had not achieved since 1969 – 70, remained elusive.

Thus the county seat was established at McPherson and has remained since.

Thus, the Graham Lakes region has remained entirely rural, and the lake shores of both East Graham Lake and West Graham Lake remain undeveloped.

Thus it stresses that Edward voluntarily remained celibate, something unlikely to have been true and not corroborated by any other source.

Thus many of Repton's 400 or so designs remained wholly or partially unexecuted and, while Brown became very wealthy, Repton's income was never more than comfortable.