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My Beautiful Despair: The Philosophy of Kim Kierkegaardashian
“Reflective maxims on life, death, sin, and emptiness, salted with luxury accessories of the Kardashian lifestyle...@KimKierkegaard is dross turned gold, redemption through absurdity in a hundred and forty characters.” – The New Yorker
In “the ultimate meeting of the sublime with the ridiculous” ( London Evening Standard ) My Beautiful Despair blends the existential philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard with the superficial musings of Kim Kardashian West, based on the popular Twitter feed @KimKierkegaard. Kierkegaardashian shares thoughts on fashion, beauty, brunch, and the relentless waves of existential dread that wash over us day after day.
A sample of the revelations
– I have majorly fallen off my workout-eating plan! AND it's summer. But to despair over sin is to sink deeper into it.
– Obsessed with protecting your skin, lips, hair & face from the sun? Close the cover of the coffin tight, really tight, and be at peace.
– I like my men like I like my a momentary comfort in the midst of all my suffering.
– What is the operation by which a self relates itself to its own self, transparently? Selfie.
– What if everything in life were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears? Scared LOL!!
– I’ve been going to bed a little bit earlier each night, to get a taste of death.
In an age where the line between news and entertainment is blurrier than ever before, and the difference between a celebrity and the leader of the free world is nil, Kierkegaardashian’s insights perfectly reflect our absurd, hilarious, and deeply disturbing new era.
@KimKierkegaard has been admired, praised, and adored in The New Yorker , The Washington Post , T he New York Times, Financial Times, The Economist, New York, Buzzfeed, and more, and has amassed nearly a quarter of a million Twitter followers, including J.K. Rowling and Anna Kendrick. Now in a humorous, illustrated gift book, perfectly suited for our existential times, Kierkegaardashian’s philosophical insights are juxtaposed for the first time with Dash Shaw’s brilliant black-and-white illustrations.
In “the ultimate meeting of the sublime with the ridiculous” ( London Evening Standard ) My Beautiful Despair blends the existential philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard with the superficial musings of Kim Kardashian West, based on the popular Twitter feed @KimKierkegaard. Kierkegaardashian shares thoughts on fashion, beauty, brunch, and the relentless waves of existential dread that wash over us day after day.
A sample of the revelations
– I have majorly fallen off my workout-eating plan! AND it's summer. But to despair over sin is to sink deeper into it.
– Obsessed with protecting your skin, lips, hair & face from the sun? Close the cover of the coffin tight, really tight, and be at peace.
– I like my men like I like my a momentary comfort in the midst of all my suffering.
– What is the operation by which a self relates itself to its own self, transparently? Selfie.
– What if everything in life were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears? Scared LOL!!
– I’ve been going to bed a little bit earlier each night, to get a taste of death.
In an age where the line between news and entertainment is blurrier than ever before, and the difference between a celebrity and the leader of the free world is nil, Kierkegaardashian’s insights perfectly reflect our absurd, hilarious, and deeply disturbing new era.
@KimKierkegaard has been admired, praised, and adored in The New Yorker , The Washington Post , T he New York Times, Financial Times, The Economist, New York, Buzzfeed, and more, and has amassed nearly a quarter of a million Twitter followers, including J.K. Rowling and Anna Kendrick. Now in a humorous, illustrated gift book, perfectly suited for our existential times, Kierkegaardashian’s philosophical insights are juxtaposed for the first time with Dash Shaw’s brilliant black-and-white illustrations.
- GenresHumorPhilosophyPoetry
144 pages, Hardcover
Published July 31, 2018
6 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 22, 2023
This is so bad - mixing the sayings of Kim Kardashian with Søren Kierkegaard! But it is so bad it becomes transcendentally good! Read this as you ponder where we are going as a culture that seems fixated on celebrity as wellsprings of profound knowledge - truly Fear and Trembling to the nth degree!
August 10, 2018
I have majorly fallen off my workout-eating plan! AND it's summer. But to despair over sin is to sink deeper into it.
Before finding My Beautiful Despair, I had no clue behind the concept of Kierkegaardashian ('The love child of Søren Kierkegaard and Kim Kardashian'), so I was in for a treat when it came to this revelation of a book.
A mash-up of Kim’s tweets and observations with Kierkegaard’s philosophy, Kim Kierkegaardashian shares their musings on fashion, beauty, brunch, and the relentless waves of existential dread that wash over us day after day.
Now in a humorous, illustrated gift book, perfectly suited for our existential times, Kierkegaardashian’s philosophical insights are juxtaposed for the first time with Dash Shaw’s brilliant black-and-white illustrations. A sample of the revelations included in My Beautiful Despair include:
This quick read, conveying the depth of despair through triviality, got a hearty laugh out of me. Though for the most part, I felt more confused with the art choice for certain pieces, more than the actual nonsensical writing included in the book.
Plus, I'm not that big of a Kardashian fan (not even a fan, really) to care enough.
ARC kindly provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: July 31st, 2018
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August 30, 2020
A book that reminded of Edward the Hamster, 1990-1990, a hilarious book that attributes deep philosophical musings on despair and the meaning of life to Edward, a hamster whose owners found particularly gloomy. In My Beautiful Despair the same kind of absurd juxtaposition takes place, assuming that the Danish existentialist philosopher/theologian Soren Kierkegaard and Kim Kardashian (West!) have a baby, Kim Kierkegaardashian, who keeps a diary of daily musings in the form and length of tweets! Tweets?! Maybe you have heard of them?!
This is an hilarious production by the alternative comix artist Dash Shaw, who illustrates and maybe does the writing, which are a mishmash of tweets from Kim and the philosophical ideas of Kierkegaard. Kierkegaardashian shares thoughts on fashion, beauty, brunch, and if you have any idea of how Kierkegaard might have viewed Kim's way of life, her celebrity, it kinda makes crazy sense.
I can't really do better than what Sinon and Schuster do in providing you with examples:
– I have majorly fallen off my workout-eating plan! AND it's summer. But to despair over sin is to sink deeper into it.
– Obsessed with protecting your skin, lips, hair & face from the sun? Close the cover of the coffin tight, really tight, and be at peace.
– I like my men like I like my coffee: a momentary comfort in the midst of all my suffering.
– What is the operation by which a self relates itself to its own self, transparently? Selfie.
– What if everything in life were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears? Scared LOL!!
– I’ve been going to bed a little bit earlier each night, to get a taste of death.
This is an hilarious production by the alternative comix artist Dash Shaw, who illustrates and maybe does the writing, which are a mishmash of tweets from Kim and the philosophical ideas of Kierkegaard. Kierkegaardashian shares thoughts on fashion, beauty, brunch, and if you have any idea of how Kierkegaard might have viewed Kim's way of life, her celebrity, it kinda makes crazy sense.
I can't really do better than what Sinon and Schuster do in providing you with examples:
– I have majorly fallen off my workout-eating plan! AND it's summer. But to despair over sin is to sink deeper into it.
– Obsessed with protecting your skin, lips, hair & face from the sun? Close the cover of the coffin tight, really tight, and be at peace.
– I like my men like I like my coffee: a momentary comfort in the midst of all my suffering.
– What is the operation by which a self relates itself to its own self, transparently? Selfie.
– What if everything in life were a misunderstanding, what if laughter were really tears? Scared LOL!!
– I’ve been going to bed a little bit earlier each night, to get a taste of death.
March 6, 2019
This book -- hardly more than a hardcover pamphlet, really -- is a satirical look at modern values (such as they are) as filtered through an imagined combining of the minds of famed philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and famous-for-being-famous, um, person Kim Kardashian. Accompanied by line drawings, each page presents a line or two of observation in which liebestod and lipstick seem to carry equal value. It's a funny conceit which apparently originated with a Twitter scribe known as @kimkierkegaard. I'm not sure this slim volume could afford to be any thicker without wearing out the joke, but what's here is a choice look at what passes (and used to pass) for deep thoughts in a world where shallow is now as deep as it often gets.
October 31, 2024
I know as much about Kim Kardashian as the next guy and I'm familiar with Kierkegaard.
This was hilarious. It's a mish-mash of what you'd expect Kim to post on Instagram/Twitter with Kierkegaard adding his depressing philosophy to it.
– Obsessed with protecting your skin, lips, hair & face from the sun? Close the cover of the coffin tight, really tight, and be at peace.
The twitter length text pieces are matched with wonderful artwork by Dash Shaw that adds to the absurd mood. I have no idea who actually wrote the text, perhaps it was Dash Shaw? It feels like his kind of humour to me.
This was hilarious. It's a mish-mash of what you'd expect Kim to post on Instagram/Twitter with Kierkegaard adding his depressing philosophy to it.
– Obsessed with protecting your skin, lips, hair & face from the sun? Close the cover of the coffin tight, really tight, and be at peace.
The twitter length text pieces are matched with wonderful artwork by Dash Shaw that adds to the absurd mood. I have no idea who actually wrote the text, perhaps it was Dash Shaw? It feels like his kind of humour to me.
September 29, 2020
This is a one-joke joke book, but it’s an awfully good joke.
The title more or less says it all. This is a mash-up of the banalities of Kim Kardashian and the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard. I can well imagine the milk-out-the-nose reaction of the anonymous (at least within the book) author when she or he first thought of it. It sounds just right, and it has that edge of absurdity to it.
If I’d been clever enough to think of the original concept, though, I doubt I’d have sensed the full implications of it. Each spread of pages here offers a tweet-length of insight.
Consider: “A nude lip is subtle. It asks, Who is this pallid figure, who tried to carry a world but overstrained himself, and broke is soul?”
Or: “Here’s a quick anti-aging trick: die.”
Or: “I feel dull and without joy; my soul is so empty & void. Black liner, messy hair kinda day.”
Not all of them hit, but a surprising number do. It’s a can’t-stop-at-just-one kind of book, the kind where you pick it up again and again, and then read through.
We get some variety in the rhythm of the joke. Most of the early ones start with a Kardashian kind of quote and smack us at the end with a Kierkegaard; many of the later ones reverse that. Still, it’s always the same joke, connecting the vapid to the subtle and despairing.
The more I reflected on it all, though, the more I wondered about the sense that this is a profound insight. Consider that it’s sometimes possible to be so nerdy that you’re cool, or so hungry that you lose your appetite.
This is an instance where someone can be so superficial that it becomes profound or, again, the reverse.
I can’t quite call that brilliant, but it is compelling. And, here, it comes in bite-sized bits (with striking illustrations) that make it something worth dipping into more than once.
The title more or less says it all. This is a mash-up of the banalities of Kim Kardashian and the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard. I can well imagine the milk-out-the-nose reaction of the anonymous (at least within the book) author when she or he first thought of it. It sounds just right, and it has that edge of absurdity to it.
If I’d been clever enough to think of the original concept, though, I doubt I’d have sensed the full implications of it. Each spread of pages here offers a tweet-length of insight.
Consider: “A nude lip is subtle. It asks, Who is this pallid figure, who tried to carry a world but overstrained himself, and broke is soul?”
Or: “Here’s a quick anti-aging trick: die.”
Or: “I feel dull and without joy; my soul is so empty & void. Black liner, messy hair kinda day.”
Not all of them hit, but a surprising number do. It’s a can’t-stop-at-just-one kind of book, the kind where you pick it up again and again, and then read through.
We get some variety in the rhythm of the joke. Most of the early ones start with a Kardashian kind of quote and smack us at the end with a Kierkegaard; many of the later ones reverse that. Still, it’s always the same joke, connecting the vapid to the subtle and despairing.
The more I reflected on it all, though, the more I wondered about the sense that this is a profound insight. Consider that it’s sometimes possible to be so nerdy that you’re cool, or so hungry that you lose your appetite.
This is an instance where someone can be so superficial that it becomes profound or, again, the reverse.
I can’t quite call that brilliant, but it is compelling. And, here, it comes in bite-sized bits (with striking illustrations) that make it something worth dipping into more than once.
June 24, 2018
Brutal
The mashed up musings in this little gift volume are priceless sendups of both celebrity culture and of the outer reaches of Kierkegaard's existential despair. Kim doesn't come off well, of course, but Soren runs neck and neck with her, which may be unfair to Kierkegaard, but maybe not. Read a few of the excerpts in any of the blurbs or book sites and you'll know almost immediately whether this bit of high-end snark tickles your funny bone.
But here's a surprise bonus - like some sort of insane Mad-Libs project, some of these mashups make more sense than the original sources. Take this for example: "I love your Tumblr's infinite scroll-down feature & the unfathomable, insatiable emptiness behind it." This is a social media/existential dread mashup that makes profound sense.
So, this book is good for a lot of laughs, and a few thoughtful laughs, and is, at the very least, the absolutely best thought-for-the-day collection ever. Now, where is the Sartre/Kanye daily calendar?
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
The mashed up musings in this little gift volume are priceless sendups of both celebrity culture and of the outer reaches of Kierkegaard's existential despair. Kim doesn't come off well, of course, but Soren runs neck and neck with her, which may be unfair to Kierkegaard, but maybe not. Read a few of the excerpts in any of the blurbs or book sites and you'll know almost immediately whether this bit of high-end snark tickles your funny bone.
But here's a surprise bonus - like some sort of insane Mad-Libs project, some of these mashups make more sense than the original sources. Take this for example: "I love your Tumblr's infinite scroll-down feature & the unfathomable, insatiable emptiness behind it." This is a social media/existential dread mashup that makes profound sense.
So, this book is good for a lot of laughs, and a few thoughtful laughs, and is, at the very least, the absolutely best thought-for-the-day collection ever. Now, where is the Sartre/Kanye daily calendar?
(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
June 25, 2018
Reminded me of Edward the Hamster, I loved it. Wish there was a little more content and, if I'm being honest, not like 100% Kim Kardashian but a mish-mash of *it girls*. But whatever, I dug it.
January 3, 2019
Waaayyy funnier than it had any right to be.
August 3, 2018
I am not interested in Kim Kardashian. But this book spoke volumes. First rate for the anti-reality set.
kindle
August 1, 2018I love the author's humor and found myself laughing pretty often while reading this clever little book!
May 24, 2018
For the Kardashian fan in your life who is also an intellectual.
January 23, 2026
Slim on content but what’s included is amusing.
August 7, 2018
My Beautiful Despair is by the author of the wonderful Twitter account Kim Kierkegaardashian. For those not familiar with this bright spot on Twitter, this account combines the tweets of Kim Kardashian with the writings of 19th century Danish existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. The combination of Kim Kardashian's relatively vapid tweets and Kierkegaard's existential writings might sound like mixing peanut butter and sardines at first, but they blend together so nicely, like peanut butter and bananas. My personal favorite was: "I like my men like I like my coffee: a momentary comfort in the midst of all my suffering." There are wonderfully weird illustrations that accompany each musing. I've been a fan of this Twitter account for a while, and while this book different offer anything particularly different, I enjoyed reading it and dying of laughter.. This would be a great gift for your one friend who shares your exact same dark sense of humor.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
August 11, 2018
Brilliant! I confess I know KK’s secret identity, but that doesn’t bias my opinion at all. Brilliant!
January 30, 2019
I would have given the Twitter feed five stars. The book is still hilarious, but very light on content; we get one quote per two-page spread (in a book that doesn't have many pages to begin with) and lots of artwork that doesn't really add anything. It cracked me up, but it could have been way better if they had just included more tweets.
June 22, 2019
weirdly, wonderfully brilliant.
”I feel dull & without joy;
my soul is so empty and void.
Black liner, messy hair kinda day.”
“Weary of people, weary of myself, so weary
that I need an eternity to rest. That’s why I
always carry a pillow when I’m traveling.”
“Today’s look: a terrible, insatiable
existential hunger, plus my
new favorite boots.”
”I feel dull & without joy;
my soul is so empty and void.
Black liner, messy hair kinda day.”
“Weary of people, weary of myself, so weary
that I need an eternity to rest. That’s why I
always carry a pillow when I’m traveling.”
“Today’s look: a terrible, insatiable
existential hunger, plus my
new favorite boots.”
Want to read
May 12, 2018Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
June 23, 2019
yacht life
August 6, 2018
So... the introduction was absolutely beautifully done. Five stars. Really a pretty good riff off the "I found it in a desk I bought at the thrift store" theme of Either/Or. but the rest is excerpts from the twitter feed, with some art. Now, I think this might make a five star coffee table book if you get the print version, but it doesn't make for a lot of meat, and I think art on the kindle is... well, it would have been much better if it was a printed book and I kept it on my coffee table for the amusement of guests, I think.
November 6, 2024
This book has a truly inspired format: every page features a drawing by Dawn Shaw, along with a quote from Soren Kierkegaard juxtaposed with a quote from Kim Kardashian.
An example: I feel dull and without joy; my soul is so empty & void. Black liner, messy hair kinda day.
An example: I feel dull and without joy; my soul is so empty & void. Black liner, messy hair kinda day.
August 12, 2018
“My ship plowed through the storm. Looking into the waves, I grew dizzy, for I sensed the chasm between myself and the infinite. Yacht life.”
July 24, 2019
Amusing. :)
December 27, 2019
Funny but feels like the wrong format.
September 17, 2020
I Can't Even
This is the self-awareness of one that has drowned in melancholy more than once.
Now I need to read Kierkegaard.
This is the self-awareness of one that has drowned in melancholy more than once.
Now I need to read Kierkegaard.
October 20, 2020
Fun and clever! I don’t know much about Kierkegaard but I didn’t need to in order to appreciate this book.
January 19, 2021
I, like any other passion-filled knight of faith, despair deeply over the news of the split of Kim Kierkegaardashian and Reginye Wolsen.
January 23, 2026
Hilarious! Quick and entertaining read.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews