For the first time in a while I'm reading Nietzsche's astonishing Thus Spoke Zarathustra—astonishing in so many ways, of course, but principally for its compelling aesthetic intensity, which is not unrelated to what it offers in the way of a view.
There's that passage where the buffoon leaps over a man in the crowd, causing the tightrope walker to plunge to his death. The buffoon then threatens Zarathustra, inciting him to leave lest the buffoon leap over him too.
The buffoon silences the crowd and emits a cry like the devil when he leaps.
So I thought immediately of our Pierrot project, and whether we (you, dear reader and us) might be able to think some more philosophical clowns.
Did Giraud read Nietzsche? Did Schoenberg? The answer to that last question is yes—he had at least two of Nietzsche's books on his shelf.
