Thrillers, Espionage and Nietzsche…

I was describing the progress on my latest work-in-progress (the post-Brexit espionage thriller, still untitled) to a colleague last week and stunned myself into silence when I made a connection that I hadn’t seen before…

A few years back I read my way through some of the popular works of the most famous philosophers and came across Nietzsche, of course. I remember clearly the increasing sense of disgust that I felt about his ‘Übermensch / superman’ idea with every turning of the page in ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’, despite the fact that logically the central core of it made sense. That reaction to ideas which challenge our morals & ethics goes straight to the heart of philosophy.

What I didn’t expect was the realisation of how much I must have absorbed Nietzsche’s ideas. In my espionage-thriller the terrorist antagonists’ attitude to life is that they are superior to all other peoples and exist at a level above the control even of nation states. They manipulate global events and kill without mercy, not because they like it (although some of them do) but because it is a normal part of their existence… they believe they are superior and entitled to use that power as they see fit.

Now I’ve consciously made that connection to their background I’m fascinated too see how the writing will now be influenced by it.

The book is about 50% written… so there is still a way to go yet…

Right – where’s that pen?

— If you are interested, you can find out some more about Nietzsche here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_and_reception_of_Friedrich_Nietzsche