Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Jesus, and "The Genius of Fools"

There is nothing so unbecoming a fool as genius, and it is a terrible misfortune to meet with so many fools possessed of -- or, rather, possessed by -- genius, each unconscious of how to interpret, or tame, their daemon.

Shakespeare, for instance, was on a level with his genius, but Nietzsche "happened" to Nietzsche, like some fantastic, psychedelic trip. Granted, the latter is, -- at least, to my mind,-- far more interesting, and very far from a fool (though he was fooled). His genius surpassed Shakespeare's, but, to his own astonishment, to the perdition of his philosophy, and, ultimately, to madness, it also surpassed himself.

So vast, so rich, and so abyssmal was Nietzsche's daemon, that he lived in danger and in fear of dissolving into God. If he aggressively asserted some of the most aggressive assertions, it was only in a desperate attempt to maintain his ego, and his sanity. Gifted and cursed with tremendous empathy and sensitivity to the perspectives of others, he wanted only an identity -- but the most solid and secure identity he could envision.

Nietzsche was more of a mystic than the mystics, and his roots gripped the earth as they do when the plant is pulled. Nietzsche refused to die, in the mystical sense. He would not be reaped, and the only fruit he determined to give would be his own. This is why his "rich gifts wax poor". Had he surrendered, -- had he surrendered -- he might have been a greater Christ than Christ.