title: The Flame of Eternity: An Interpretation of Nietzsche's Thought
author:  Krzysztof Michalski 
description: "There was a deep continuity between the vision set out in <i>The Flame of Eternity</i> and the life [Krzysztof Michalski] lived. . . . His thought informed his life; and his life, as a thinker, a lover, a friend, is integrated in moving ways into his final work."<b>---Tamsin Shaw, <i>New York Review of Books</i></b><br /><br />"[V]aluable. . . . The author rightly grasps Nietzsche's uniqueness and originality, anticipating the crisis of European thought about to unfold with the onset of the 20th century." (<i>Choice</i>)<br /><br />"[T]his is a marvelous book, absorbing, inspired and full of insights. It will be of interest to Nietzsche scholars, and to all those--not necessarily academics--with an interest in modern European thought, in religious studies, and in the connections between these disciplines."<b>---Viola Brisolin, <i>European Legacy</i></b><br /><br />"This remarkable book is an attempt to understand that most enigmatic of philosophers, Friedrich Nietzsche. It reads for us the central notions of Nietzsche's work, culminating in the <i>Eternal Return of the Same</i>. The special illuminating power of Michalski's interpretation comes not just from his reading Nietzsche in the context of the philosophical tradition, but even more in his placing it in constant comparison to Nietzsche's foil and reference point, the Christ of the Bible. Most strikingly of all, Michalski helps us to grasp Nietzsche by exploring with insight and feeling the dimensions of human experience which this philosopher strove to lay open for us."<b>Charles Taylor, author of <i>The Secular Age</i></b><br /><br />"There are many books on Nietzsche. Some of them are distinguished by their learning and analytical power, some by their beauty. Very rarely can we find a book that combines both: learning and beauty. We see this unusual virtue in Michalski's book."<b>Leszek Koakowski, author of <i>Main Currents of Marxism</i></b><br /><br />"This is an excellent and original interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy as a whole, as well as a remarkable piece of scholarship and argumentative skill. Michalski has managed to achieve the happy balance that all of us professional philosophers strive for: he has succeeded in writing a philosophical book that has a lot to say to scholars and Nietzsche experts as well as to the general educated public. This is a rare feat indeed."<b>Piotr Hoffman, University of Nevada, Reno</b>
zlib_text:  
   
   
   
   
  The Unbearable Lightness Of Being 
   
   
  By 
   
  Milan Kundera 
   
   
  Courtesy: 
   Shahid Riaz 
  Islamabad – Pakistan 
  shahid.riaz@gmail.com 
  http://esnips.com/UserProfileAction.ns?id=ebdaae62-b650-4f30-99a4-376c0a084226 
   
   
   
  
  "The Unbearable Lightness Of Being" By Milan Kundera 2
  PART ONE 
  Lightness and Weight 
  The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other 
  philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experienced it, and that 
  the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum! What does this mad myth signify? 
  Putting it negatively, the myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once 
  and for all, which does not return, is like a shadow, without weight, dead in advance, 
  and whether it was horrible, beautiful, or sublime, its horror, sublimity, and beauty mean 
  nothing. We need take no more note of it than of a war between two African kingdoms 
  in the fourteenth century, a war that altered nothing in the destiny