Fear and trembling

A novel “fear and trembling” is an influential philosophical work by soren kierkegaard. In the novel, through alternative retellings of the Biblical story of the Binding of Isaac, Kierkegaard examines the role of faith and its relationship with morality and ethics. I think the main point of the book is that the knight of faith, abraham carries out the sacrifice without knowing the reason why. The title also comes from a passage in the bible in which God comands his disciples to work toward their own salvation in his abscence. Abraham, throughout the book, sacrifices that which he loves his faith that he sacrigfices wothout knowong why, he sscrifices in the name of absolute faith. In the novel “fear and trembling”, the knight of faith cannot speak of his relation with the absolute, speaking is the tempetation that would break his absolute realation. The knight of faith must remain silent, so that this responsiblity remains with the absolute and sacrifiece demanded secret and the resons for the sacrifice are in themslves secret.

Søren Kierkegaard & Style

Though familiar with, this is my first time reading a primary text of Kierkegaard and it won't be my last because I am more confused than when I started and feel that I may have 'misread' it entirely. Stylistically it is very dense with Biblical allusions, metaphors, prolonged analogies and erratic prose that make is difficult to derive any one possible meaning from the text. With that in mind, I interpreted "Repetition" as an experiment in showcasing how recollection and the envisioning of an "ideal" is counterproductive to existence because its constructs a reality that is contained to a temporal space that is unattainable in the present. Kierkegaard offers repetition as a means of envisioning reality in a way that moves forward with and through time. For example, the Young Man realizes life's repetition once the girl gets married. Instead of recollecting his freedom backwards, he extracts it forwards through repetition of the loss and finds a new appreciation for the repetition of freedom he feels after the loss. This is a very skeletal interpretation of "Repetition," but I focus on it in order to try to connect the form to the content. I think Kierkegaard's style is more literary than philosophical and therefore it becomes very difficult to derive a singular meaning or truth from his work. However I think if you follow some of the prose, you may find that his form parallels the function of the content. I think one thing that Kierkegaard is trying to convey is that subscriptions to an "ideal," or a singular Truth are dangerous or counterproductive to being. He critiques the Young Man's reliance on recollection because it encapsulates the girl in an ideal state that is impossible to recreate in the present and therefore causes more harm to the Young Man. Instead, Kierkegaard offers repetition as a means of constructing the present while also collapsing into the past in order to derive multiple meanings/experiences from singular events. Stylistically, I think he is very conscious of matching form to content and by using a very dense, erratic and somewhat "stream of consciousness" voice, he is capable of forcing his readers to experience the same anxiety the Young Man experiences in trying to derive meaning from his life as the reader must derive meaning from the text.

I also think it is interesting how the book is comprised of Constantin's observations, the young man's letter and then a direct letter to the reader from Constantin. This aesthetic choice is interesting because it adds several layers to the narrative voice. As a reader, we are aware that the book is entirely composed by Kierkegaard, yet, it becomes difficult to determine what is Kierkegaard's opinion when the book is narrated pseudonymously through Constantin and then even further removed from the primary author when told through letters of the Young Man delivered to the reader through Constantin. Stylistically I think this is interesting because the form adds content to the text. This is only an extrapolation that may not be anywhere in the text, but I interpreted the layered narrative voice as a means of showing multiple extensions of Kierkegaard. If one purpose of the text is to explore how repetition results in plurality and difference, then it is interesting to read the several voices as extensions of the author, or repetitions of Kierkegaard's voice. This is especially evident in the first letter from the Young Man when he writes, "There is something indescribably salutary and alleviating in talking with you, for it seems as if one were talking with oneself of with an idea" (188). It seems to be a means of deriving the multiple out of the one therefore complimenting Kierkegaard's idea that "recollection is a discarded garment that does not fit, however beautiful it is, for one has outgrown it. Repetition is an indestructible garment that fits closely and tenderly, neither binds nor sags" (132) because recollection is temporally static whereas repetition is fluid.

Fear and Trembling

A nobel "Fear and Trembling" by Soren Kierkegaard is a philosophy about 'faith'. The definition of faith is the confident belief in a thing or a person. In my opinion, Catholic makes people slaves, giving all the power to God; those people believe everything unexplainable possible by the name of God. On the other hand, Kierkegaard shows a great passion toward God as a human. He believes that faith toward God is the most way to show a passion of mankind.
During the 18th century, everyone tried to go further from what the faith was. However, Kierkegaard said that philosophy, many people had enthusiasm for, was just a thing comes from a brain while sitting on the desk, giving no enough passion people can throw out all their things. The world is changing and cultures are passing down to the next generation, but no ability for passion works the same way. people get the ability only by struggling throughout their lives. Moreover, the only 'faith' enables the passion.
I understand his story in "Fear and Trembling" because I know the merits of the rationality, intellect, and morality. However, I'm not sure if his theory also make sense to non-religious people. While having impact on religious people, It is confusing that it also affects to non believers.

Repetition

Kierkegaard's use of imagery through the use of metaphors and similes within Repetition is one aspect his personal writing style which intrigued me the most. Imagery is seen in most literature, however, I have never come across a piece of writing in which the author's words instantaneously resonate into images in my mind. From the very beginning of Repetition, as he begins to introduce the concepts of recollection, hope, and repetition, Kierkegaard associates these concepts with aspects of everyday life and how they can be interpreted differently through these three lenses. The use of imagery continues as Constantius attempts to repeat and relive a past experience. I feel as though it is the imagery in this piece which makes it so powerful because it allows anyone to be able to relate to it.

"Repetition"

The author of this literary piece has a unique style of writing in my opinion. At the start of the passage he sounds like he is talking in circles and merely just rambling about the importance and significance of repetition versus recollection. However, as the passage proceeded I came to realize that Kierkegaard uses a lot of metaphors in his writing. For instance, he describes the scene of the young man in love to "a grape at the peak of its perfection" and the way the juice of the grape trickles when it is cut open, which he compares to the way he imagines the young man's blood would flow in the veins and out a wound. He uses the example of the young man in love to demonstrate to the reader the superiority of repetition over recollection.

Sandra Olascoaga

Repetition

One of the quotes from Repetition that I think really symbolizes Kierkegaard's style is, "Recollection's love is the only happy love, says an author who, as far as I know him, is at times somwhat deceitful, not in the sense that he says one thing and means another but in the sense that he pushes the thought to extremes so that if it is not grasped with the same energy, it reveals itself the next instant as something else." Kierkegaard's style is very much the same, and I feel like he was referring to himself when he wrote this. In Kierkegaard's writing there are a web of interconnected theories and observations that can seem contradictory if the meaning of one of them is missed. This, combined with his long-winded style and extravagant and very ornate wording led to me to a similar experience as James: I had to constantly reread passages when I first began this narrative.

Kierkegaard's wording, although it can be quite forceful and filled with lofty ideas, is also very delicate. He seems to add a lot of personal flavor to his phrasing. This personal flavor also goes beyond just his phrasing but extends to the narrative as a whole. I believe this was brought up previously, but it seems that one of the reasons for his use of the name Constantius is to help cultivate a certain persona and a certain style of writing that would not fit if it were him doing the writing.

Kierkegaard's style of writing is a bit akin to a mystery novel in some sense. The way in which he introduces his ideas and then shows seemingly unrelated examples that unfold into an interconnected web leaves a lot of room for the reader to come up with his own theories and can be very thought provoking. The reader must at times fill in some blanks until the real meaning is shown. This seems to be what Kierkegaard was getting at in terms of the overall idea of repetition - that repetition is necessary to live a decent life. Without repetition, life would not be able to exist in any sort of interconnected fashion and it would not be worth living.

Kierkegaard's Repetition

As James mentioned, Kierkegaard is a philosopher and therefore is not blunt when it comes to making points. He likes to get a full examination of the point he is trying to make, This makes his philosophical style repeat itself just to further enhance his views.

Although this Repetition is the story told by Constantius, Kierkegaard uses a theme recollection to support his ideas. Constantius tries to feel the same way he once felt for a female and apply them to another female. What he observes is recollection, or the sadness felt when he is unable to fully repeat his feelings. Through the use of recollection, we can see where the title of Repetition comes from.

I believe that Kierkegaard uses the pseudonym Constantius for the stories he wants to tell. By using this alias Kierkegaard allows himself to be anyone he wants to be, at any age and any location. This allows him to come with whatever stories he wants so that he can further prove his points. I think using the reason for using a young man is the new feelings he may get. As described above, the story deals with Constantius' feelings as he tries to recreate them. A younger man is naive enough to try and recreate them, while an elder man knows the recreation cannot be made.

Kierkegaard's Writing

I have read Kierkegaard previously and he writes with a narrative style using detailed accounts of his life, imaginary and other textual references (from the bible for example) to illustrate what he is trying to convey. In Repetition, he employs the use of a fictional character in order to tell the audience how important repetition and it's contrast to "recollection" and "hope" is. I think that his usage of repetition is similar to how we define behavior and action resulting from habit. In my opinion, Kierkegaard uses the story of the boy who falls madly in love to depict how recollection, which is stated to be reliving the past through memories, is what should not be done and actually makes man unhappy and compares it to a garment.

I think that repetition can be ascribed to how we behave and how our expectations are formed due to repeating certain aspects of our life. I think Kierkegaard's account of recollection and repetition are elaborate explanations for the literal meanings. His accounts also depicts how repetition has transformed from ancient to modern times.

I think that this reading influences our writing styles by providing a different perspective on how we can deliver our points; with the use of examples and personal accounts to convey one's point.

On Style and Kierkegaard

Thanks, James, for starting us off. Now, a point I'd like to bring up. Did anyone notice or think about the fact that on the one hand, Repetition was published under the pseudonym and in the voice of "Constantin Constantius" and on the other, that the book is written also from the point of view of the young man? What do you think this implies and what is the reason for it? That is, what purpose does it serve?

Kierkegaard's Style

When I first began reading Kierkegaard's Repetition I felt like I was rereading sentences multiple times to decipher his meaning. Since it is philospohical explanation about the necessity of repeition in one's life, sometimes the circular ways of reasoning threw me for a loop. Once I adjusted to the basic flow of his writing and started to wrap my head around his ideas, two specific parts of his writing I found to be very effective to keeping me attentive.

Every so often, Kierkegaard would use a very compact and meaningful similes to convey his ideas. One in particular that stood out was: "Of what good is an armchair of velvet when the rest of the environment does not match; it is like a man going around naked and wearing a three-cornered hat." If he only commented on the armchair agitating his sense of repeition, I would have certainly had to have read it multiple times. I enjoyed these compact statements, however, that gave me an image to encapsulate his emotions rather than dilluted explantations of them.

The other aspect of writing I wanted to note is how descriptive he is just to set the scene. The exmaple here would be when he first arrives in Berlin and describes Gensd'arme Square. In the passage his recollection of a room where "...the pale light of the moon blends with the strong light from the inner room," caught my attention. the entire passage is descriptive enough that you could visualize the room, the furniture, the lighting, and his memory of it being the most beautiful place he had ever seen. This memory helps support his idea of recollection setting standards that will only lead to dissapointment in the future, and is done so vividly it is easy to understand why he feels this way.

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