This book contains the famous description of the madman announcing theDeath of God.Obviously Nietzsche sees himself as the madman, sacrificinghimself to bring humanity the awful news.What's odd is that Nietzsche wascertainly not the first person to proclaim God's death; in fact, as hehimself notes elsewhere, many educated people had already become eitheragnostic or atheistic.None of them, however, found this as earthshakingas Nietzsche.The reason, I think, is that he had an essentially religiousnature. The word "spiritual" recurs throught the book.In oneremarkable passage he even chastises St. Augustine for being insufficientlyspiritual.The Gay Science is a pivitol book for Nietzsche because it isthe first in which the tension between the spiritual seeker and the atheistbecomes manifest.Gone is the skeptical pose of "Human All TooHuman"; instead we have the anguish of a man torn between twoconflicting ideals.The tension, while it ravaged Nietzsche, did producesome brilliant ideas and unforgettable prose, even if it did not ultimatelylead to a liveable philosophy.
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