Lesser figures

Part of the pleasure of reading a biography is encountering the 'lesser' figures, like Carson McCuller's mother, without whom the biography of Carson McCullers would not exist. Reeves McCuller, the man Carson married and whose name she took, also qualifies.

As does Poul Moeller, a pioneering Danish philosopher of the early 19th century, in regard to Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher whose bio I'm now trying to read.

Moller wrote small psychological sketches, the form of which Kierkegaard later expanded, with mostly social themes. He was extremely concerned with affectation, naming three sorts: the momentary, the permanent, and the changeable.

"Affectation always has its origin in the fact that a person has been seduced by some sort of inclination without himself being aware of it."

Moller was the only person to whom Kierkegaard dedicated a book, the only other being his father.

I was thinking of my time in the village of ________France this morning and how unaffected I felt there. I told Lea Ann it was like gong for a walk in the city without my contacts: I could see just well enough to see where I was going but didn't feel the need of looking at other people or to think that other people were looking at me. Not knowing much French, I was also free from the feeling that I had to make small talk with the people in the village.