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Optimistic nihilism in thus Spoke Zarathustra and Rick and Morty

2022; Linguagem: Inglês

10.53730/ijhs.v6ns6.11059

2550-6978

Anand Shaji, Beena S. Nair,

German Literature and Culture Studies

The question of existence is the latest dilemma plaguing human psyche in the 21st century. Nietzsche advocates against nihilism through the mouthpiece of Zarathustra and traces the need of surpassing naive thinking. Rick and Morty, a comic dealing with cosmic travels and scientific rupture of logic and ethics, explores the possible interpretations of the great meaning of life or the lack of it. Both texts stimulate the intellectual tendency to relate joy with the divine and post it against science. Different dichotomies of joy and sadness spin around in the helix of the comic and the adventures of Zarathustra. Kurzgesagt, a German-made animation and design studio founded by Philipp Dettmer, illustrates an outlook that can emulate joy or contentment in a universe devoid of meaning or purpose. Their ‘optimistic nihilism’ can synergise the crown of existentialism and reality of nihilism.