u/fryteagen

So, I made a post yesterday about The Gay Science and many suggestions were to start with a more
"simple" / fundamental text of Nietzsche's.
My question now is, what should I know / research when beginning The Will to Power? Is there any precursive measures I should take regarding things I may encounter in the text?
I simply feel as though every text I approach seems to require more and more background knowledge, and as someone who is just starting to get into this topic, that makes it difficult.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you sincerely.

So, I posted here yesterday about The Gay Science and many suggestions were to start with a more “simple” / fundamental text of Nietzsche’s.
My question now is, what should I know / research when beginning The Will to Power? Is there any precursive measures I should take regarding things I may encounter in the text?
I simply feel as though every text I approach seems to require more and more background knowledge, and as someone who is just starting to get into this topic, that makes it difficult.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you sincerely.

Frankly, this may sound like a completely foolish question as I just began reading philosophy content, and this is my first post. Anyways, I just recently started reading Nietzsche's The Gay Science (Walter Kaufmann's translation, if that's important) and this question came into my mind during my reading of Book 1.

There is a couple quotes in specific that pointed me towards this idea, and they push me heavily towards thinking he had some sort of anti-liberal views--at the very least--hence my asking of this question. The quotes are as follows:

On page 96, it's written, "Indeed, in times of 'corruption' the power and force of the national energies that are expended are probably greater than ever and the individual squanders them as lavishly as he could not have formerly when he was simply not yet rich enough." (The Gay Science, 96)

On page 102, it's written, "Buying and selling have become common, like the art of reading and writing. Everybody has practiced it even if he is no tradesman, and gets more practice everyday." (The Gay Science, 102)

Then, on page 103, it's written, "One can imagine social conditions in which there is no buying and selling and in which this art gradually ceases to be necessary." (The Gay Science, 103)

The last bit there, where he says that 'this art' will gradually cease to be necessary, is what connected this idea together, although the underlying theme I had noticed long before. Like I said before, I may just be completely oblivious and be asking a question with an obvious answer, but I didn't want to turn to AI to answer questions for me. So, any insight would be appreciated!

Thank you in advance.