Either or

Author: (Dan) Kierkegaard
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: The stages of love or musical love, shadow play, first love, diary of the seducer. Nietzsche is unrestrained, Kierkegaard is shy; Nietzsche admires the power of life, Kierkegaard cherishes the fragility of life; Nietzsche lives a life of aesthetic indulgence, Kierkegaard plunges into the depths of God; Nietzsche fears and hates women, Kierkegaard is both ashamed and cherishes women; Nietzsche calls for cruelty, Kierkegaard praises sacrifice; Nietzsche's style is unrestrained, sometimes bordering on delirious exaggeration, Kierkegaard's style is melancholic, sometimes ironic with simplicity and tenderness.
Why does the Chinese intellectual world prefer Nietzsche over Kierkegaard? Does this reflect a certain structural temperament in Chinese thought? It can be imagined that if Mr. Wang Guowei had read Kierkegaard back then, his On the Words of Human Life would have been written differently.
，Kierkegaard's thought is a lament for the fragility of the existence of every individual in the present moment. The Chinese intellectual world, knowing only Nietzsche and not Kierkegaard, not only has an incomplete understanding of the structure of modern thought but, more importantly, has a deficient understanding of the existential meaning of one's own life. — Liu Xiaofeng
First Love
Anyone who intends to engage in literary creation must have noticed that it is often due to accidental external circumstances that provide opportunities for actual creation. Only those writers who are motivated to varying degrees by a fixed goal might deny this. But this is their own loss. For they are deprived of the pillars of truly healthy works by this. One of these pillars is what is traditionally called inspiration, and the other is opportunity.
The term "inspiration" may be misleading. It can mean, on one hand, that I call for inspiration, and on the other hand, that inspiration calls for me. Any writer who is innocent and naive believes that everything depends on honest will, diligence, and hard work, and those shameless writers who sell their spiritual works will not hesitate to express passionate inspiration and bold demands. Yet, this has not made significant progress. Because, Weser's statement about the hierarchy of God is still valid: "Those who are called by all rarely appear." But if one interprets this as the call of inspiration, I do not say that it is a call to us, but rather a call to those concerned, then this statement takes on a different meaning.
Before inspiration appears, the writer calls for inspiration to march forth. In contrast, others are in a predicament because, to turn their inner determination into an external one, they need another factor—this is what we call opportunity. When inspiration summons them, it is far away, beckoning them, so they can only hear its voice, and countless thoughts are presented before them. Due to the profundity of these thoughts, though each word is both clear and vivid, it seems that these words are not their habitual way of speaking.
When consciousness naturally arises, it occupies the entire content, and then, the time for possible true creation has arrived, but at the same time, something is lost—opportunity. People might say that opportunity is also essential, though in another sense, it is insignificant. Thus, he pleases God to enter these great contradictions, which creates the mystery of reality, the stumbling block for the Jews, and also the stumbling block for the foolish Greeks. Opportunity is always accidental, which is a sophism. When I logically think about accident, accident is as inevitable as necessity. Opportunity is not accidental in the ideal sense; but opportunity is considered accidental by reason, yet it is inevitable within accident.
Regarding our general opportunities, we have many vague perceptions. On one hand, we know too much about them, and on the other hand, we know very little. Mediocre creative activities neglect both opportunity and inspiration. Unfortunately, such activities are rampant. Therefore, we must admit that believing in such creative activities is always appropriate, and it completely ignores the main significance of opportunity, that is, opportunity is everywhere, just like a talkative person who never misses an opportunity to talk endlessly about himself and his own deeds, but this significant feature is lost. On the other hand, creative activities and opportunity are inseparable as husband and wife.
Those who hold this view might say that opportunity is everywhere, while others might say that everything comes from opportunity. Among these are many writers with special opportunities, as well as those who, in a stricter sense, include everyone, thus using the same verse and the same principles, and still hope that opportunity will be an opportunity to obtain appropriate rewards for the relevant writers. This kind of unimportant and accidental opportunity sometimes attempts to bring about change in our time. Opportunity often plays a decisive role; it determines the success or failure of things, making works and writers either succeed or fail. Opportunity can be arbitrary in this regard. The poet expects opportunity to give him inspiration, while he is also surprised to see that opportunity does not fulfill his wishes. Or he creates a work that he considers trivial in his heart, and then sees that due to opportunity, his work becomes famous, and he himself receives comprehensive respect and recognition. He knows well that all of this is due to opportunity. These people are devoted to opportunity; while the ones we mentioned earlier neglect opportunity, so they are always unlucky.