The Fall of the House of Usher

           

            On Sunday I finished reading Soren Kerkegaard’s “Philosophical Fragments”. I think we’ll be covering it over a few lectures, which is good, because I found it complex and convoluted and hard to understand fully. It seems to be a Christian philosophical argument claiming to be one step beyond Socrates because of the added element of Faith.

            I downloaded the complete works of Edgar Allen Poe, and after Kerkegaard it was a relief to read Edgar Allen Poe’s “A Man of the Crowd”. The story has great descriptive writing. A man who’s just gotten over an illness is watching passers-by through the window of a London café and sees an old and evil looking man that he feels compelled to follow. He follows him for several hours through all parts of the city and learns nothing.

            I read Nietzsche’s preface to “A Genealogy of Morals”. Nietzsche is so much more enjoyable to read than Kerkegaard. He makes his point much more simply.

            I read Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”. It is an ominous and spooky story, well told.