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greenweasel11 's review for:
The Sickness Unto Death
by Alastair Hannay, Søren Kierkegaard
Very accurately describes the human condition. Or at least my condition. Kierkegaard seems to have been a very funny fellow; I want to learn Danish just so I can more fully appreciate all his wordplay.
I thought while I was reading it that it was destined for a five-star review and a spot on my "favorites" shelf, but for now it only gets four stars. Perhaps that will change when I've had a few weeks to let it settle in my mind; I'll probably revisit certain parts now and then.
What else can I say here? Well, in 2015, for what reason I recall not—no, wait, I actually do recall. I was in the stacks at Hale Library, most likely after getting out of my 8:00 a.m. MATH 222 (Analytic Geometry and Calculus III) and found a copy of this book, and I had heard of Kierkegaard somehow (maybe only through the Switchfoot song "Sooner or Later"), and the title sounded exceedingly intriguing, but I couldn't check it out because even though I was currently enrolled I never bothered to go to the Union and get a student ID card printed. I guess I probably could have checked it out anyway by taking it to the help desk and telling them my ID number, but I was too timid for that and was only willing to use the self-checkout machine, and I couldn't use that without a card. Anyway, I decided that I wanted to read it, so I submitted a request for the public library to buy a copy, and I checked it out as soon as it arrived and carried it around for the first few weeks of twelfth grade and read a few pages and annoyed people by memorizing and quoting the impenetrable first few sentences, but you know how it is with six AP classes—I didn't really have time for extracurricular reading, especially not something as dense as this. So I eventually returned the book, unfinished, to the library. And now here I am, having falteringly started reading it at the end of December and really started reading it less than a fortnight ago, and I'm finally done.
So I guess the point is: just have faith, man.
I don't think I fully understand what he means by "the offense." I mean, "Offence is unhappy admiration," and "The sin of despairing of the forgiveness of sins is offence," but what exactly is that supposed to mean??
And "the paradox." An endnote sort of explains what he means, but I guess I would have to read some of his previous works to grok that.
What does he mean by "relation," anyway? I suppose I'm really still stuck on the first page. Like, a set of tuples? Is this a rigorous philosophical notion explored at length elsewhere, or something Kierkegaard made up for this book and expects us to grasp straightaway?
I think that's all for now.
(Thu 03 Feb 2022 04:41:56 PM CST)
I thought while I was reading it that it was destined for a five-star review and a spot on my "favorites" shelf, but for now it only gets four stars. Perhaps that will change when I've had a few weeks to let it settle in my mind; I'll probably revisit certain parts now and then.
What else can I say here? Well, in 2015, for what reason I recall not—no, wait, I actually do recall. I was in the stacks at Hale Library, most likely after getting out of my 8:00 a.m. MATH 222 (Analytic Geometry and Calculus III) and found a copy of this book, and I had heard of Kierkegaard somehow (maybe only through the Switchfoot song "Sooner or Later"), and the title sounded exceedingly intriguing, but I couldn't check it out because even though I was currently enrolled I never bothered to go to the Union and get a student ID card printed. I guess I probably could have checked it out anyway by taking it to the help desk and telling them my ID number, but I was too timid for that and was only willing to use the self-checkout machine, and I couldn't use that without a card. Anyway, I decided that I wanted to read it, so I submitted a request for the public library to buy a copy, and I checked it out as soon as it arrived and carried it around for the first few weeks of twelfth grade and read a few pages and annoyed people by memorizing and quoting the impenetrable first few sentences, but you know how it is with six AP classes—I didn't really have time for extracurricular reading, especially not something as dense as this. So I eventually returned the book, unfinished, to the library. And now here I am, having falteringly started reading it at the end of December and really started reading it less than a fortnight ago, and I'm finally done.
So I guess the point is: just have faith, man.
I don't think I fully understand what he means by "the offense." I mean, "Offence is unhappy admiration," and "The sin of despairing of the forgiveness of sins is offence," but what exactly is that supposed to mean??
And "the paradox." An endnote sort of explains what he means, but I guess I would have to read some of his previous works to grok that.
What does he mean by "relation," anyway? I suppose I'm really still stuck on the first page. Like, a set of tuples? Is this a rigorous philosophical notion explored at length elsewhere, or something Kierkegaard made up for this book and expects us to grasp straightaway?
I think that's all for now.
(Thu 03 Feb 2022 04:41:56 PM CST)