University of Plymouth may edge out over Durham University but the simple virtue of my liking Utopia more than Beyond Good and Evil. I've read about 7 pages of the former and 16 of the latter. Perhaps I am reading Nietzsche too fast and need to take time to mull over what he is saying, but right now I think he is being a little to florid in his writing. While reading, I inwardly grown "get on with it! What are you trying to say?" In the words of Shakespeare, "Brevity is the soul of wit". Nietzsche spends in awful lot of time referencing other philosophers and enjoys sprinkling Latin phrases where ever he can--this I am not impressed with, as a novice reader cannot read and fully understand him without having the internet and a dictionary on hand to comprehend what he is talking about. Wouldn't be the mark of a great philosopher that he can explain his ideas to people without their having to be philosophy scholars already? What good is it if only philosophers can understand you?
Utopia, on the other hand, was written almost 500 years ago, and I have not had a problem understanding that!-- is that not evidence of More's superior writing skills? Here are a couple of quotes that I enjoyed from the first few pages of Utopia, I think I'll have to re-read Nietzsche at a slower pace or at least talk to Bro. Chaucer about it.
"Most people know nothing of learning; many despise it"
"I would rather say something inaccurate than tell a lie, because I would rather be honest than clever"
"You must do everything you can to make yourself as agreeable as possible to the persons you live with, whether they were provided by nature, chance, or your own choice, as long as you don't spoil them by your familiarity or turn servants into masters through over-indulgence."
Now I wonder...
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