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/lit/ - Literature

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3944712 No.3944712 [Reply] [Original]

What book by this sexy son of a bitch should I start with?

>> No.3944750

Yes.

>> No.3944760

no

>> No.3944769

>people still getting tricked by this drawing

>> No.3944775

>>3944750
>>3944760
either/or

>> No.3944777

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/dk/kierkega.htm
if you can't understand it your not cut out for philosophy

Fear and Trembling or Either/Or depending on your religious understanding

>> No.3944783

>>3944769
>implying I don't want to get fucked by this drawing

>> No.3944789

The Sickness Unto Death was actually the first one I started with. There is this really chilling part of the book where Kierkegaard describes a wide array of personalities...and he WILL describe you. You will read one of those personalities and chills will go up your spine as he describes your very soul with eerie precision. And then he will tell you how to improve that soul.

>> No.3944809

I have a really hard time taking believers seriously. I mean, christianity, really?

I do wonder how much am I missing, though.

>> No.3944825

>>3944809
Fear and Trembling is a work that tackles one of the trickiest subjects of Christianity: faith. Kierkegaard made me turned onto Christianity more than The Bible or Dostoevsky did.

>> No.3944940
File: 18 KB, 377x393, soren.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3944940

Not so sexy now eh?

>> No.3944978

the 3 essentials are Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, and the Sickness Unto Death

Either/Or is the first chronologically, and is alos the longest. It is also the most mundane, but I find it really interesting because it is written with a 'preface' from a guy who found all these notes in an old desk and compiled them into a philosophy book. Then, the text is written from the perspective of mainly two different people writing letters to each other and journal entries from these characters. All of the characters are actually Kierkegaard, and none of them particularly represent Kierkegaard's beliefs. In that way, it is almost like epistolary novel disguised as philosophy.

Fear and Trembling is written by another pseudonym but one that more closely resembles Kierkegaard. It's much shorter, and it's basically about the absurd nature of faith.

The Sickness Unto Death is maybe the greatest text I've ever read. It is ALSO written by a pseudonym, but actually, Kierkegaard was going to submit it as written by himself, but felt the claims in it were too powerful that he felt scared of it being in his name.
It's about why the sickness unto death is despair, and even though faith is completely absurd, it's the only cure to despair. Also, keep in mind with this one, the first page or so is extremely convoluted. A lot of people think he was satirizing Hegel's style of writing when he wrote it, and I know it deters a lot of people from the whole book

either way, these are his main 3, and they kind of build off of one another. So you could read them chronologically, but I'd actually recommend reverse chronologically. Once you get these 3 done, look into his other stuff. I especially think his dairy entries are good. Kierkegaard originally planned for all his work to be pseudonymously attributed for eternity, and his only recognition for his writing would be his massive diary

>> No.3944997

Don't start with Either/Or, it's long and complicated and often times (deliberately) boring. It's very interesting but save it for when you're more accustomed to Kierke-chan.

Start with either Fear adn Trembling or The Concept of Anxiety.

Fear and Trembling is about ethics, the validity of biblical belief and the Hegelian Dialectic in relation to faith.

The Concept of Anxiety is one of Chuck Palahniuk's favourite books and is about dread, anxiety, the motivations for human actions, and general existential dilemmas.

I'd also recommend reading secondary literature on him

>> No.3945018

>>3944997
Oh and there's a collection of Kierkegaard's private letters and journal entries which seems pretty interesting

>> No.3945162

>>3944978
I think I sort of get the first few pages. Do you know what is meant by a negative relation vs a positive one?

>> No.3945372

>>3944777
I didn't get it...

>> No.3945393

>>3944777
thats one huge opening sentence

>> No.3945397

>>3944769
Yeah, I know, he was actually a hunchback.

>> No.3945566

Fear and Trembling talks about the Knight of faith and all that, right? I guess I'll read it so I'll sound smarter when talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

>> No.3945590

>>3944712
I'm tired of seeing this anthropomorphised fish on the front page.

>> No.3945605

>>3944809
>I do wonder how much am I missing, though.

You're missing everything that matters.

>> No.3945652

>>3944809
I'm the same way. I've read a tiny bit of this dude, and a lot of Dostoevysky as well (only mentioned because someone earlier mentioned him), and although I can sit in awe of the extent to which they tackle the subject, the foundations upon which their ideals are based tend to be romantic in nature, in that they tend, at their cores, to be faith based and they provide no real compelling reason to believe them if you don't share their faith--and I don't. As such I I'd liken the whole thing to watching a genius who assumes that 1 + 1 = 3, and then derives a new form of calculus based on that assumption; it's pretty in some ways, but ultimately kind of fruitless (and in other ways a little depressing).

With that said this is an early opinion, I'm still reading his stuff, so we'll see if this opinion changes.