I've been making extremely slow progress with The Portable Nietzsche, but it's not the great philosopher's fault. I'm not too sure it's really mine either. I suppose the Toad work's to blame, along with the siren song of Crimso's Radical Action blu-ray disc which I've found myself watching obsessively in what little spare time I've been carving out of late.
I'll tell you what, though - Nietzsche's thoughts on the Greeks are as ferocious as his astonishing moustache, and make for compelling reading even when there isn't time to read. Some familiarity with the basics of Greek culture (I've read my Homer, I know my tragedians, my Plato, my Aristotle) tends to lead to a sense that they're much like us, a sort of comfort in their company (despite the nightmare-inducing qualities of The Iliad.) But Nietzsche summons their Strangeness, their Otherness.
The greater and more sublime a Greek is, the brighter the flame of ambition that flares out of him, consuming everybody who runs on the same course. Golly. I don't think I would have lasted too long back then.
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