I read Zorba The Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis in a comparative literature class in the middle 80's. I don't remember it so much, and I thought I would reread it. I've been rereading things because I am a much more careful reader, with a lot more life experience, and theoretical and cultural experience. I was slightly interested because I saw somewhere where the book was considered Buddhist literature. Here is a quote from the book: "All these things which had formerly so fascinated me appeared this morning to be no more than cerebral acrobatics and refined charlatanism! That is how it always is at the decline of a civilization. That is how man’s anguish ends—in masterly conjuring tricks: pure poetry, pure music, pure thought. The last man—who has freed himself from all belief, from all illusions and has nothing more to expect or to fear—sees the clay of which he is made reduced to spirit, and this spirit has no soil left for its roots, from which to draw its sap. The l...