At the end of the film, after the two have concluded their helping of each other, Nietzsche—played by Armand Assante—reads an alternate, and clearly non-Kaufmann translated, version of section 279 from The Gay Science before parting with Breuer as a friend, saying in his dialogue: "We were friends and have become strangers to each other. This is as it ought to be. We do not want either to conceal or obscure the fact as if we had to be ashamed of it. We are two ships, each of which has its goal and its course. And finally, Dr. Breuer, we have to become strangers to one another, because it's the law to which we are subject." The funny thing about this is, when Assante reads this out of the book, he has it opened up at the beginning (literally), while the section itself exists after the middle. I guess that's part of the fiction as well—that's what independent films and big production films have in common: mistakes. So, I'd like to produce here the complete version of section 279, just to show how much of this section was cut out.
Star friendship.— We were friends and have become estranged. But this was right, and we do not want to conceal and obscure it from ourselves as if we had reason to feel ashamed. We are two ships; each of which has its goal and course. Our paths may cross and we may celebrate a feast together, as we did—and then the good ships rested so quietly in one harbor and one sunshine that it may have looked as if they had reached their goal and as if they had one goal. But then the almighty force of our tasks drove us apart again into different seas and sunny zones, and perhaps we shall never see each other again; perhaps we shall meet again but fail to recognize each other: our exposure to different seas and suns has changed us. That we have to become estranged is the law above us; by the same token we should also become more venerable for each other—and the memory of our former friendship more sacred. There is probably a tremendous but invisible stellar orbit in which our very different ways and goals may be included as small parts of this path; let us rise up to this thought. But our life is too short and our power of vision too small for us to be more than friends in the sense of this sublime possibility. —Let us then believe in our star friendship even if we should be compelled to be earth enemies.
from:
AN EMANATION OF HERO MECHALITH
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