Caroline Coleman O'Neill has done something that may be unique in her new novel, Loving Soren, she's combined a romance novel with a learned and thoughtful presentation of religious and philosophical ideas. On its surface the novel details the infamous romance between the great Christian existentialist Soren Kierkegaard and the young Danish girl Regine Olsen, but it incorporates a meditation on the ideas that make Kierkegaard pertinent, and troubling, to this day.
Ms O'Neill kindly agreed to an e-mail interview which was conducted in late-July/early-August 2005.
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Howdy:
Congratulations on a fine book and thank you for agreeing to answer some questions.
Judd: One suspects that most of us received some exposure to Soren Kierkegaard in college but don't recall much about him. What got you so interested in Kierkegaard?
Caroline Coleman O'Neill: I was raised on Soren Kierkegaard because my father became a born again Christian in his early 40's after reading Kierkegaard. My three brothers and I grew up debating his philosophy. But Kierkegaard delights in making such extreme pronouncements - especially on the topics of renunciation and suffering - that I resisted reading him all through college and graduate school and law school. But when I was 32, my father gave me a copy of Fear and Trembling. I still didn't read it, but I read the biographical introduction, which contained a two page summary of the
love story between Kierkegaard and Regine Olsen. I was hooked - not just because the love story itself moved me, but because I saw how the love story provided the entree into Kierkegaard's philosophy. Little did I know, the book wouldn't be published for seven more years, and that in the course of writing it, not only would I have to read most of Kierkegaard's books, but I also would go on a Kierkegaardian journey of my own. The latter gave me a much more nuanced view of Kierkegaard and, I hope, makes for a better novel.
Judd: Your novel, Loving Soren, centers on Regine Olsen. How did you decide to use her as the lens through which we see Kierkegaard?
O'Neill: I had to write from Regine's point of view. Kierkegaard was so self-obsessed, he already plumbed the depths of his own point of view ad nauseum. It is a device, although it wasn't planned that way, because Regine ended up providing the "evangelical" viewpoint in the novel. As one young Kierkegaard scholar told me recently, with a big smile on his face, "it's fascinating. You've written the American evangelical perspective on Soren Kierkegaard."
I gave him a big smile back. "Maybe."
Judd: One of the great things about your novel is that the historical figures speak for themselves so much. How much research did it require for you to be able to render them in their own words?
O'Neill: I had to do a TON of research. I read 2/3 of Kierkegaard's books (a Herculean effort, as I'm not a philosopher by nature, and as I believe SK was probably manic depressive and his output during the maniacal periods was enormous); I read Kierkegaard's obsessive musings about Regine in his private diaries; I read Regine's side of the story and their letters; I read contemporary accounts (all conveniently translated in Bruce Kirmmse's wonderful Encounters with Kierkegaard); I studied biographies; and I read books on 19th century clothing and manners. I also traveled to Copenhagen and the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands). And I pored over the beautiful paintings of the period, known as the Golden Age of Danish Painting. It's probably a good thing I didn't know how much research it would require, or I never would have embarked on such a reckless journey.
Judd: What sort of though
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