I have to admit that I do not like this introduction at all. Instead of explaining Kierkegaard, it summarizes him. Accordingly, because it’s a summary more than anything else, it feels a lot like the concepts are empty and could be used interchangeably, which doesn’t help to clarify what Kierkegaard’s going to be on about for almost 200 pages. I genuinely cannot decide if it’s the author of the introduction, Kierkegaard himself, or philosophy as a whole to blame for this.

I have this great suspicion that the author of the Lithuanian introduction either misunderstood the word quality in how it’s used in English scholarship regarding Kierkegaard, or Kierkegaard himself misunderstood it and used the wrong word in Danish (although I’ve no clue how much he was influenced by anglophone philosophy, if at all). It could also be that this is a bigger problem of older Lithuanian translations of philosophical texts. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone messed up 50 years ago and suddenly we have ‘quality’ as in how good or bad something is instead of ‘quality’ as characteristic used in Lithuanian philosophical texts ever since like its a legit term.

Having finished this book in a few days I can say several things:

1. This is good fantasy. It’s the kind of book that—if it finds you at the right time—cures your stressed out brain. It’s whimsical, it’s light but deep at the same time, and it has kindness coded into everything it tells you. Whether you decide to continue with Discworld or not, it is worth a read as a book of its own.

2. I was overjoyed with such a lengthy representation of older women. They are funny, they care and don’t care at the same time, they can be adventurous, and many other things. It was delightfully brilliant.

3. While I could probably find a few other positive things to say, I think I should also address the fact that, at times, I felt like I couldn’t understand the space where the action was taking place. Especially towards the end when a wall got dismantled or a fire was put out. All the things characters did seemed to be happening too quickly to be physically possible while also making sense for the plot development.

Nevertheless, I’m very glad I picked this up. Team Old Witches ✊🏻