Kierkegaard, the Seducer

So I decided tonight, since my wife is out of town, to pick back up my “Kierkegaard Anthology” and I ran across a section that I hadn’t read in some time. It is from a section called “Diary of the Seducer,” which is found in a larger work called “Either/Or.” I am a fan of most of what Soren Kierkegaard writes, but am particularly drawn to “Diary of the Seducer” because of the sheer brilliance with which he writes and his ability to express deep, penetrating emotions. What is more is that Kierkegaard is not known as a novelist or writer in that sense, but rather as an Existentialist. He is indeed the latter, but his work in the area of the former captivated me and thus I must share. I think the passage is fairly self-explanatory.

This one woman, the only woman in all the world, she must belong to me, she must be mine. Let God keep Heaven, if I could keep her. I know what I choose; it is something so great that Heaven itself must be the loser by such a division, for what would be left to Heaven if I keep her? The faithful Mohammedans will be disappointed in their hopes when in their Paradise they embrace pale, weak shadows; for warm hearts they cannot find, all the warmth of the hear is concentrated in her breast; they will yield themselves to a comfortless despair when they find pale lips, dim eyes, a lifeless bosom, a limp pressure of the hand; for all the redness of the lips, and the fire of the eye, and all the restlessness of the bosom, and the promise of the hand, and the foreboding of the saigh, and the seal of the kiss, and the trembling of the touch, and the passion of the embrace - all, all are concentrated in her, and she lavishes on me a wealth sufficient for a whole world, both for time and eternity..."

Why is it that others can always say it better than me?

P.S. I really like pictures of famous dead people, especially if they're cool looking and it just so happens that Kierkegaard is, so that's the handsome man starring at you at the top of this post. In the future I will probably continue to add pictures of the cool people I am referencing.