314 Nietzsche
wrote to Franz Overbeck in high spirits, but these cheery sentiments
were punctuated by sentences like the following: "I am afraid that I am
shooting the history of mankind into two halves" (Β 8,453; Oct 18,
1888). How are we to interpret this statement? Nietzsche sent Peter Gast
instructions to take him as an "inspiration for an 'operetta.'" He did not
want to be regarded as a tragic figure. "I indulge in so many silly jokes
with myself and entertain so many clownish private notions that now
and then I stand grinning for half an hour right on the street... I believe
that when a person has achieved such a state, he is ready to be a 'savior
of the world'" (B 8,489; Nov. 25,1888).
For all of its exuberance, this statement was meant in earnest. In a let-
ter to Ferdinand Avenarius on December 10,1888, he indicated as much:
"It is almost a formula for my philosophy that the deepest mind must
also be the most frivolous" (B 8,516f.). As long as he was feeling
extraordinarily well, he had litde incentive to expedite publication of his
final works, in particular Ecco Homo: "Sometimes I see no reason why I
should unduly hasten along the tragic catastrophe of my life, which
begins with 'Ecce'" (Β 8,528; Dec 16,1888). Why not linger a while at
the beautiful plazas, drinking coffee, meandering from tavern to tavern,
greeting women at the market, and enjoying the afternoon light and the
colors of Turin, which he compared favorably to the landscape paint-
ings of Claude Lorrain: "a Claude Lorrain such as I never dreamed" (B
8,461; Oct. 30, 1888). Why not stay a "satyr" (B 8,516; Dec. 10, 1888)
instead? A famous and enigmatic aphorism in Beyond Good and Evil won-
ders: "All around the hero everything becomes a tragedy, all around the
demigod, a satyr play, and all around God everything becomes—what?
Perhaps a 'wodd'?" (5,99; BGE § 150) If Nietzsche had advanced all the
way to a satyr and satyr play, he was already halfway down the road to
deification and rebirth.
But even in the final weeks, Nietzsche was assailed by doubts.
Friends let him down. If even the market women showed him respect,
why not his friends? Surely they ought to discern the demigod in this
clown! Only Peter Gast was able to do so. No matter how friendly and