
Cruel Intentions: on Søren Kierkegaard - lermontov
http://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/cruel-intentions/
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wfo
I think this discussion of Kierkegaard falls a little flat as an introduction
to him for those who haven't already read him. One thing about his writing
that is curiously missing in this piece is how /funny/ he is. He is witty,
sarcastic, hilarious, and eminently readable. For example, here's a very short
chapter from Either/Or (it's from the aesthetic perspective A)

[http://sorenkierkegaard.nl/artikelen/Engels/145.%20THE%20ROT...](http://sorenkierkegaard.nl/artikelen/Engels/145.%20THE%20ROTATION%20OF%20CROPS.pdf)

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hprotagonist
I wonder to what extent that's just a question of historical distance.

Off the top of my head and in no particular order of "greatness" or time:
Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer, Donne, Thoreau, Kafka, and Melville are also, in
their own ways, capable of really good comedy. We just see them as "classics"
and thus they're stuffy and meant to be taken seriously.

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cableshaft
Voltaire's Candide was pretty darn funny too. That's all I've read of his,
though, so I'm not sure if all his writing is like that.

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hprotagonist
he was trying to be funny (and stick a knife in liebnitz), anyway. Voltaire's
definitely got the "biting satire" down pat.

