in the compelling prologue, jennifer ratner rosen haggen -- beginning in the 160s. she writes, it was emerson who first instructed nietzsche about philosophy in life. nietzsche was powerfully drawn to emerson because he understood what it meant to travel imaginatively through time and space in order to find a thinker to think with. i know a few individuals who travel through time and space as imaginatively or who are as compelling thinkers to think with as jennifer herself, so we're all in for a real treat this evening. please joan my in welcoming -- join me in welcoming jennifer ratner-rosenhagen to the newberry. [applause] >> thank you for that lovely introduction. thank you, newberry library, for hosting tonight's event, and thank you all, of course, for coming out tonight. all right. so it is very fitting that i find myself in chicago talking about nietzsche because it was in chicago in the early '90s during my gap years between undergraduate and graduate school that i began to read his philosophy. i knew i wanted to go on to do graduate work in u.s. intellectua