literature, concerned less about contemporar yreaders than about future
ones. At some point in the summer of 1843 he jotted down some tumultu-
ous lines that could serve as a sort of a literar ymanifesto for the willful and
profoundl yoriginal bod yof writings he had just begun: “Little b ylittle,
being an author has become the most contemptible thing. He is generally
compelled to present himself like the advertising icon inAdresseavisen,
which depicts a gardener’s helper, hat in hand, bowing and scraping, recom-
mending himself to us with his good references. How stupid. The person
who writes must understand what he writes about better than the person
who reads it, otherwise he shouldn’t write.—Or one must take care to
become a slipper ylaw yer who knows how to hoodwink the public.—I
won’t do that, I won’t do that, I won’t do that, no, no. The hell with the
whole business. I write as I want to, take it or leave it. Then of course other
people can do what the ywant, refrain from bu ying, from reading, from
reviewing, et cetera.”
Even though Kierkegaard’s enormous productivit yfromEither/Orup to
and including thePostscriptcould hardl ybe explained as one, extended,
indignant protest against lack of recognition b yHeiberg, it is striking that
in the course of a relativel yshort time he altered his entire enterprise, which
in its disdain for Goethe and Hegel was now diametricall yopposed to ever y-
thing that Heiberg and his circle worshipped and lionized. Of course, this
demanded a formidable talent, but Kierkegaard had what it took, as he is
pleased to inform us in his journal. “I know ver ywell that at the present
moment I am the most gifted thinker of the entire younger generation,”
he wrote in 1843 in a displa yof exuberant self-consciousness, but then—
thank God—he remembered that he was also a theologian and quickly
added that he knew ver ywell that this talent “could be taken awa yfrom
me tomorrow,” indeed, even before he was finished with the sentence he
was writing.
He did, however, manage to finish quite a number of sentences before
the talent he had been granted ran out, for his talent was both wide-ranging
and deep-reaching and could therefore also be employed for the purpose
of edification.
Spiritual Eroticism
Two Edifying Discoursesis a modest little book of fifty-two pages, published
on Ma y16, 1843, at a price of thirt y-two shillings. The discourses are dedi-
cated to “Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard, formerl ya hosier here in the cit y”
and are accompanied b ya preface dated Ma y5, 1843, the edif ying author’s