A book about nothing

Kierkegaard is a gifted writer. He writes what he wants because he knows he's saying something worthwhile and lets his reading public be darned if they can't figure it out. He reminds me of Melville. He'd rather sell almost no books and say something of value than sell many books but say nothing of value.

This book gets at why I read books. Nothing to me is more important than understanding who we are as human beings and Kierkegaard gives an understanding for that within this book. He presumes the reader comprehends Hegel's "Science of Logic" and he writes in the style of Hegel's "Phenomenology", a style that involves thinking about the abstract by considering it within an abstract and then going towards a concrete. A way of thinking about thought that I love.

The book has multiple takeaways but to get there various concepts get thrown at the reader through the paradoxes that Kierkegaard always has lurking about in his books. The particular is not the universal and the universal needs the particular, or Adam is not the race but each man is a member of the race. He takes this theme and plays with it and gets at the paradoxes that gives us our understanding. Every man is different but yet we think of them as part of a race or as humanity. Each individual is only like the others but is not the others. Adam, the first man, or what we call a man, is part of the race. He'll say that 'the sensuous is not the sin but its the sinfulness that gives us the sin". The truths we believe are falsifications since the particular is not the universal nor the general the singular. (There is a whole lot of Nietzschean thought floating around in this book).

He does talk about anxiety and he'll say that "anxiety is about nothing". That's a real theme he has within this book. It's the nature of being or existence or how do we deal with nothing and what does it mean. He mentioned that one of the last acts of Christ was when a demon came up to him and said "what do you have to do with me" showing how the "anxiety for the good is demonic" since the demon believes Christ (goodness) should have nothing to do with him. If this book was all I knew about Kierkegaard, I would think he was not religious because the way he frames his arguments and how he used the bible only to make his points.

He's got a chapter on 'now' and what does it mean. I found it way more illuminating than the modern book "Now: The Physics of Time" which I read just the week before. Kierkegaard really gets the concept in non-physics speak and understands what our instants mean. He doesn't put that chapter in for no reason. He knows the convolution between our understanding about our existence and the nature of being immortal and the understanding of immortality and the more we know our now the further we will be from the ultimate good (the infinite). He understands the pieces and knows how to put them together.

The fun part for me was later in the book: "Irony is jealous of earnestness". He's getting at our understanding of our authenticity, but he uses the word 'earnestness' or 'inwardness'. In Heidegger's division II of "Being and Time" the "Time" part he clearly is indebted to Kierkegaard and this book for how Heidegger develops his dasein (a thing that takes a stand on its own understanding or as Kierkegaard is doing in this book getting at our own understanding of human being). There are difference between the writers but the overlap includes that our understanding needs the anxiety about the nothingness for our authenticity to be actualized within our finite time because being is time and time is finite.

There's a part of me that said he is mocking Hegel, religion, and the psychology of his times and doesn't really mean what he is writing, but even if that were true, he is telling a story about the human experience such that you know at times he just wants to 'howl!' and have the world wake up to why we must experience (and feel!) life to its fullest in ways that only Kierkegaard knows how to get at.

No doubt, this is a complex book beautifully written.

11 people found this helpful

A deeply positive account of anxiety

A dense work that requires multiple listens, but will reward with insight over many years. Surprisingly helpful to hear it in addition to just reading. One helpful tip: the narrator does a great job overall, but in introducing the demonic he mistakenly reads “reversed” instead of “reserved” a few times. Later in the reading the error is corrected.

11 people found this helpful

The Deep End

Kierkegaard is a heroic thinker, capable of brilliance that few (if any) can match. He can also be difficult to follow and this is not his easiest book. His reputation and influence are now well established, so — rather like reviewing Shakespeare — any comments about the author would likely say more about the reviewer than the reviewed.

This note, then, is in praise of the book reader. I cannot imagine anyone doing as much justice to the text as Mr. Rapkin. He kept it lively and clear with just the right lilt. Kudos!

Typically, I listen to audible books while doing other activities, particularly jogging. This book demands your attention and focus (I found myself often rewinding to recover from momentary distractions) so it exceptional for making the time go by easily. I wish all books were so engaging.

3 people found this helpful

Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom

Sometimes, I am overtaken by a desire to read philosophy. I'm usually overcome with this impulse because of some random reason. DFW leads me to Wittgenstein. Trump leads me to Nietzsche. I chose this book because I am going to Copenhagen with my family in a couple months and wanted to pin down a couple Danish authors/writer before I left. I figured it was either a book about anxiety or a book about mermaids. Oh, the possibilities. The possibilities of choice made me anxious. But I pressed forward. I picked up this small book that seemed heaver than I first thought. Actually, every page I turned seemed to push the scale on this book. It grew heavier and heavier. What the hell am I doing? Do I really need to explore Kierkegaard's thoughts about original sin, the individual, progression, the flow of time, dogma, dread eroticism, sensuality, modesty, self-knowledge, demons, faith, repentance, anxiety?

I once read, and I think this was attributed to Brian Eno, that the Velvet Underground's first album only sold a few thousand copies, but everyone who bought one formed a band." The Concept of Anxiety sold only 250 copies in the first 11 years after publication, but everyone who bought it seriously __________ . <--- Insert philosophy joke about Anxiety here. I would have written the joke myself, but the fact that the joke only exists in abstract, in possibility, MUST make the joke more funny. Once the joke gains form, becomes actual, the joke loses the possibility of humor. The joke dies. God dies. Alone.

Look, I'm a fairly smart guy. But sometimes these BIG philosophy books throw me for a loop. They make me feel like I need to study and not just read the book. This is a book where I would probably get more out of it through some sort of 400-level classroom dialectic. I need somebody with more experience with Hegel, Jewish thought, Socrates, and Christian ethics and existentialism than I possess to brief. To hold my hand through this book. To smack my hand as I wander off into unexplored tributaries. Alas, being an adult reading this alone on my bed, I have none of those things. I have my friends on GR. I have a dictionary. I have a fairly large library. I have time (crap, if I write time here now, will I have to explore past, future, eternity, etc?).

Anyway, it was worth it. It wasn't too much to bear. I read it. I'm glad I did. Now I can go visit Søren Kierkegaard and Niels Bohr in Assistens Cemetery and feel like I at least did my best to visit that holy ground with proper dedication and consecration.

15 people found this helpful

Hiroshima couldn’t kill me

And neither will this. You thought you could keep Francis away, jokes on you! Put that your vape pen boomer!

Worth it

required repeats but only for the sheer density and economy of language used. Gold mine.

excellent book

and excellent narration if you love K. philosophy
I enjoyed it a lot...
if you relate to K.'s philosophy listen to this.

2 people found this helpful

Incomprehensible

Might as well have been in Old Norse, good for sleep, no clue if this was Kierkegaard or Prof Irwin Corey

2 people found this helpful

Painful

Oh so painful. I listened to this book for school. Don’t do this to yourself.