will be historically referred to as the polymath premium

the penguin isn’t a nihilist. Faustian is closer. but imo the closest read is thst it’s Kierkegaard’s Knight of Faith, which is why it has so much resonance conviction, mission, the willingness to walk toward oblivion for something you can’t fully explain tbh Nietzsche wasn’t even close to a nihilist. he diagnosed nihilism as something to be overcome. he’d hate getting this framed as nihilism or existentialism. instead, Kierkegaard gives the precise structure. he described three stages of existence: aesthetic, ethical, religious. the aesthetic is detachment, irony, burnout. the ethical is duty, rebellion, the individual defined against the collective. the third stage is faith. the Knight of Faith makes a double movement. first, infinite resignation. fully accepting you will lose everything. then the absurd leap, which means committing anyway, with no rational justification that translates to anyone else. Abraham walking up the mountain to sacrifice Isaac. he can’t explain why. he just walks. this is what people are responding to in the penguin. not despair. commitment so total it becomes illegible. the colony can only see madness because faith doesn’t fit their categories. Herzog calls it a death march. the colony would agree. the Knight of Faith does not care.