This article is a part of a
series on my three literary mentors: Karen Blixen, J.R.R. Tolkien and Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry.
The series could be said to
follow Kierkegaard´s three stages on the way to becoming a true self: the
aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. Each of these “stages on life’s way”
represents competing views on life and as such potentially conflicts with one
another. In my interpretation Karen Blixen belongs to the aesthetic stage. Tolkien
and Saint-Exupéry belong to the ethical and religious stage, though this
doesn´t mean that aesthetics not is a part of their work. It certainly is.
After all: their works are of a high literary quality, and the concept of
beauty is quite central.