Little Miss Nietzschean Sunshine
Harry Bleattler

In defense of teaching Thus Spake Zarathustra:

In the recently released movie Little Miss Sunshine, one of the characters, Dwayne, is the malcontent son of a dysfunctional family who has taken a vow of silence until he reaches his goal of gaining admittance into the Air Force Academy. He is an alienated and bitter young man. During the first half of the film he is always seen clutching a well-worn copy of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, the source of his rebellion against family and society. Dwayne's character is played for laughs as is his obsession with Nietzsche’s book. At the beginning of the semester when I explained to my Western Civilization students that we would be reading this work I was greeted with blank stares. When I mentioned to them that this was the book read by the disaffected youth from Little Miss Sunshine a series of knowing nods and chuckles sped across the room. They now knew exactly what book I was talking about.

A few weeks before Christmas I had the opportunity to attend a new Broadway musical, Spring Awakening. The critics have written nothing but raves about this groundbreaking new show with its cast of young talent, daring subject matter and, surprisingly, its cultural currency--no small feat given that the show is set in late nineteenth century Germany. The plot centers on a teenager, Melchoir, and his friends who spend most of the next two and half hours complaining about how sexually repressed they are and how their parents and teachers are driving them to back-alley abortions, suicide, and sadomasochistic activity. Blah, Blah, Blah. Yes, the show has some beautifully written songs, an energetic cast and a few moments of groundbreaking staging but in the end, for me at least, it is one long whine. No big deal, right? Wrong. Melchoir's character is clearly Nietzschean in nature and he has a few speeches that come right out of Thus Spake Zarathustra. The musical ends with the cast singing about the day that is coming when we will all break free from the repressive chains of morality that prevent us from being our true, free, and sexually-explored selves. Thus ends Nietzsche: The Musical!

The above are two very recent examples of the cultural currency of this book. In one instance it is used for laughs; in the other for social change. The sooner our students are prepared to respond to the relativistic nihilism of this philosopher, the better. I believe our students are ready.