Soren Kierkegaard

Heiberg,theconversationturnedtoKierkegaard’srecentlypublishedwork
From the Papers of One Still Living, which, with its untraditional and occa-
sionally stilted style, presumably provided a source of amusement for the
twoliterarycomrades.Indeed,aftertheencounterHertzwroteinhisdiary
“theMesopotamianlanguageisastrangelanguage,”asentencetakenfrom
Holberg’s playUlysses of Ithacia, which surely had provided a little comic
relief when Hertz and Heiberg had considered Kierkegaard’s debut book.
Hertz,whowasworriedaboutthepenchantforGermanismsthatcharacter-
ized the language of younger Danish writers, saw Kierkegaard as an expo-
nent of this unfortunate development: “Those who have picked up the
German philosophy are completely incapable of practicing it in Danish.
TheirtextteemswithwordsofwhichnoDaneknowsthemeaning.Kier-
kegaard’sessayonAndersenshowswhat languagewecanexpectfromthis
philosophy.”HertzalsobelievedthathecoulddiscernKierkegaard’sstylistic
prototype in the odd German Hamann, but during a stroll on March 18,
1839,whenhetoldKierkegaardthathesuspectedHamann’sinfluence,the
answer was a clear “No.” “Ihave not read anything by him,” Kierkegaard
supposedlyanswered.IfHertz’smemoryoftheeventiscorrect,thenitwas
anoddreply,orrather,itwasadownrightlie,becauseitwaspreciselythis
Hamann whom Kierkegaard had been citing and commenting on in his
journals since September 10, 1836, sometimes, in fact, in considerable de-
tail. Indeed, one long journal entry from that year, entitled “Something
aboutHamann,”canactuallybereadasafirstsketchofwhatwouldbecome
the introductory portion ofFrom the Papers of One Still Living.
Like the style, the man, too, was puzzling, and Hertz continues: “What
a peculiar Kirkegaard! [Danish:Kirkegaard, Hertz’s common misspelling of
Kierkegaard,meansgraveyardorchurchyard]Tojudgefromvariousclues,
it would appear that the trumpets have been sounded for the resurrection
from the grave—but if that is the case, the dead have not yet recovered
theirbones,butarelyingtherequarrelingoverthem.Becausetheconfusion
is great. (The Mesopotamian language is a strange language.)” Hertz here
alludes to the hour at which the trumpet of doom will resound over the
graveyardandthescatteredboneswillbereassembled—justlikethatoddity
Kierkegaard, who had not yet found his own legs but was forever disap-
pearing into eccentric dialectic and sheer witticisms.
OnAugust8,1839,HertzranintoKierkegaard,who,hesays,expressed
satisfactionwith thecritique ofthe liberalpress hehad foundinMoods and
Situationsbut who also had objections and would have done much of it
quite differently. Hertz concluded his diary entry with the remark, “His
egoism.”ThatsamedayKierkegaardwroteinhisjournal:“Ifmywitticisms
areaffected as some people indeed maintain, well, theirs cannot be accused