232 Nietzsche
him, the death of God revealed the precarious and playful nature of
human existence—an Übermensch would have the strength and facility to
penetrate through to the invariable cosmic game. Nietzsche's transcen-
dence goes in the direction of regarding play as a basis of being. His
Zarathustra dances when he has reached this basis; he dances like the
Hindu god Shiva. Nietzsche would himself dance naked in his room
shortly before his mental collapse during his final days in Turin. His
landlady, watching him through a keyhole, caught him in the act.
So much for the existential and pragmatic aspect of this idea of eter-
nal recurrence, which becomes true by asserting itself as truth. Let us
not forget that he considered this doctrine true in a propositional sense,
as a description of the wodd as it is. With this firm claim to truth, he got
tangled up in contradictions, since he ultimately considered knowledge
a series of "fabrications." He did not exempt even the "figures of math-
ematics," which he used to determine the idea of eternal recurrence
(9,499). Thus, he was not really in a position to feel confident about
asserting the propositional truth value of his doctrine. Nonetheless, he
sought to go even further by infusing his theory with metaphysical dig-
nity. In order to render this truth more impressive, Nietzsche the anti-
metaphysician let it take the metaphysical stage. He laid claim to insights
into the natural sciences, but tried to avoid the pure immanence of the
natural sciences, because that immanence obstructs every metaphysical
quest from the outset. Nietzsche hoped to lead thinking to the point at
which traditional metaphysics veers off into transcendental speculation
in pondering the question of what lies behind the world of appear-
ances. He posed this question as well. He mounted the stage that was
otherwise reserved for God, the absolute, and the spirit. However, in
lieu of these illustrious figures of meaning, he introduced "quanta of
force," in the form of multifaceted constellations and cyclical repeti-
tion, to enact a metaphysical (rather than positivistic) drama on this
stage of pathos. It is metaphysical curiosity that sets the stage for the
whole play. Isolated from this drama of ultimate metaphysics, his doc-
trine of eternal recurrence might conceivably come across as trivial.