IDEE FIXE

[RonPrice]

In his introduction to The Journals of Kierkegaard(1834-1854) Alexander Dru writes that at the age of 33, from 1846 on, the whole significance of what Kierkegaard had written “suddenly dawned on him.” “His gifts and talents,” Dru went on, were to be his vocation. He had understood his mission.” It was a mission implicit in the work he had written. In 1846 he began a series of what he called his “proper” Note-books a continuation of his previously haphazard ones. Dru says that the reader can see Kierkegaard’s extraordinary destiny taking shape in these Notebooks, a destiny in the service of an idea, an idee fixe, a destiny linked to an “idea for which he could live and die.”-Ron Price with thanks to Alexander Dru, “Introduction to The Journals of Kierkegaard,” Fontana, 4th impression 1967, (Oxford UP, 1938), pp.7-10.

Your posterity your confidant
by means of your journal,
your most trusted confidant:
"The thing is to find a truth
which is true for me, to find
the idea for which I can live
and for which I can die......1

My posterity my confidant
as I leave behind all these
words--after I found a truth
which was true for me and
for which I have lived, found
a mission, a destiny, a service
to an idea, an idee fixe whose
time had come in this dark
heart of an age of transition
and gradually unfolded by
stages to array my life with
the fruits of consecrated joy.

1 This was written in Kierkegaard’s Journal on August 1, 1835. The entire collection of his Danish journals has been edited and published in 13 volumes which consist of 25 separate bindings including indices. The first English edition of his Journals was edited by Alexander Dru in 1938. A third official translation will contain 55 volumes and is expected to be completed by 2009.

2 “Were I to die now the effect of my life would be exceptional,” Kierkegaard wrote, “much of what I have simply jotted down carelessly in the Journals would become of great importance and have a great effect.” --Journals, December 1849.

Ron Price
4 July 2007

[Doreen Peri]

Welcome to the studio, Ron!

If I understand you correctly, the poem was written by Kierkegaard?

[RonPrice]

I appreciate that you should impute this piece to dear Kierkegaard. I was musing on Dru's introduction to K's Journals, but the poem is mine, again drawing on K's words. The italics which I had in my original does not seem to come across when one puts it on the site, so it is difficult to distingish K's words from mine...I shall have to be clearer in future--keeping this problem of transmission in mind.-Ron

[RonPrice]

A leit motif can be defined as "A dominant and recurring theme, as in a novel" and an idea fixe is like this, but more intense. It's an idea that dominates one's mind especially for a prolonged period : OBSESSION. I think this obsession in K's case derived from several sources. One was a developmental aspect which seems evident in his Journals as they developed and which Dru discusses in his introduction to K's Journals and another was K's psychological development which, given its intensity and problematical nature, reminds me of symptoms of mental illness and personality disorders-disorders I have myself had over many years. Kierkegaard seems to me like an old friend--suffering so many things I have suffered from. Of course, everyone is different and the cases, K's and mine, are complex.-Ron Price, Tasmania

[Doreen Peri]

OK. I don't understand your answer but thank you.

I'm going to assume that the poem was not written by you but was written by Kierkegaard.

It's important that whatever you did not write here, you use the quote code. I'll fix it for you and quote the Kierkegaard poem using quote code.

Again welcome.

[RonPrice]

I think, in future, I will simple use quotation marks around whatever phrases I have used from whatever source. -that should fix the problem too.-Ron. PS. thanks for the welcoming note...

[RonPrice]

I was responding to someone's concern about the term idee fixe. That someone did not write to me on this site but sent me an email--I could not figure out their address so I posted my reply here. I should have made that clear. Sorry about that.-Ron

[Doreen Peri]

I think, in future, I will simple use quotation marks around whatever phrases I have used from whatever source. -that should fix the problem too.-Ron. PS. thanks for the welcoming note...

OK sounds good. Hey Ron.. this is one site that has so FEW rules it's easy... just quote what you didn't write and that's it.

So glad you're here! Looking forward to reading more!