A philosophy webcomic about the inevitable anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also Jokes

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A Seducer's Diary

Kierkegaard: "To understand the Aesthetic life, we must understand a man who seduces a woman merely to be interesting."
Friend at a cafe: "How does he do that, Kierkegaard?"

Kierkegaard: "He schemes and seduces her, to make her believe she loves him."

Kierkegaard: "Then, just as they are the verge of marriage, he cunningly convinces her against the idea so that she breaks off the engagement herself."

Kierkegaard: "Why does he do this? Not for the act of seduction itself, but of the possibility of it."

Kierkegaard: "For the poetry of it. The irony. To create an interesting moment out of the boredom and tedium of everyday life."

Friend: "So that's what you did with Regine Olsen? Seduced her and left her merely to make life interesting?"

Kierkegaard: "Alas, yes, i am not proud of it ethically, but i used her in a game to create a beautiful, interesting moment of poetry."

Friend: "I heard you broke it off because
you are so depressed that you cry yourself to sleep every night, knew you'd make a terrible husband.."

Kierkegaard: "Sure i mean...that too. I'd say it was about fifty fifty..."
"Have you ever actually seduced anyone?" "I once seduced my own despair, does that count?" "No."

Diary of a Seducer was an essay by Kierkegaard used to explain the aesthetic life. He wrote it shortly after breaking off his engagement with Regine Olson, which he said was because he could not commit to being a husband, and like the comic says, due to his profound depression. Rumors circulated that it was based on his own broken engagement, but that was unfounded. It's possible that Kierkegaard published it to try to make himself look a bit cooler though.

Not totally related, but Kierkegaard's journal of how he originally "seduced" her is pretty funny too (she was already engaged to Johan Frederik Schlegel at this point, who she eventually married):

On 8 September I left home with the firm intention of settling the whole thing. We met on the street just outside their house. She said there was no one at home. I was rash enough to take this as the invitation I needed. I went in with her. There we stood, the two of us alone in the living room. She was a little flustered. I asked her to play something for me as she usually did. She does so but I don’t manage to say anything. Then I suddenly grab the score, close it not without a certain vehemence, throw it onto the piano and say: Oh! What do I care for music, it’s you I want, I have wanted you for two years. She kept silent. As it happens, I had taken no steps to captivate her, I had even warned her against me, against my melancholy. And when she mentioned a relationship with Schlegel, I said: let that relationship be a parenthesis for I have first priority...she mostly kept silent.

Diary of a Seducer was an essay by Kierkegaard used to explain the aesthetic life. He wrote it shortly after breaking off his engagement with Regine Olson, which he said was because he could not commit to being a husband, and like the comic says, due to his profound depression. Rumors circulated that it was based on his own broken engagement, but that was unfounded. It's possible that Kierkegaard published it to try to make himself look a bit cooler though.

Not totally related, but Kierkegaard's journal of how he originally "seduced" her is pretty funny too (she was already engaged to Johan Frederik Schlegel at this point, who she eventually married):

On 8 September I left home with the firm intention of settling the whole thing. We met on the street just outside their house. She said there was no one at home. I was rash enough to take this as the invitation I needed. I went in with her. There we stood, the two of us alone in the living room. She was a little flustered. I asked her to play something for me as she usually did. She does so but I don’t manage to say anything. Then I suddenly grab the score, close it not without a certain vehemence, throw it onto the piano and say: Oh! What do I care for music, it’s you I want, I have wanted you for two years. She kept silent. As it happens, I had taken no steps to captivate her, I had even warned her against me, against my melancholy. And when she mentioned a relationship with Schlegel, I said: let that relationship be a parenthesis for I have first priority...she mostly kept silent.

Philosophers in this comic: Soren Kierkegaard
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