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php/home/index Existential Development of Jason Dessen in Blake CrouchAos Dark Matter:
A Kierkegaardian Perspective Arditya Rizky Pradana1.
Ida Puspita1*.
Nur Rifai Akhsan1 Universitas Ahmad Dahlan.
Indonesia *Corresponding author: ida.
puspita@uad.
ARTICLE INFO
Article history:
Received 12 September 2025 Revised 23 December 2025 Accepted 26 December 2025 Keywords:
Blake Crouch Dark Matter Existentialism Kierkegaard Three stages of existence ABSTRACT This article examines the existential development of Jason Dessen, the protagonist of Blake CrouchAos Dark Matter .
, through Syren KierkegaardAos theory of the three stages of existence: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.
Drawing on close textual analysis, the study demonstrates that Jason initially inhabits an aesthetic mode of existence marked by dissatisfaction, existential anxiety, and an illusory pursuit of freedom grounded in unrealized possibility.
His trajectory then moves toward ethical existence, in which responsibility, commitment, and moral accountability, particularly in relation to family, become central to his sense of selfhood and meaning.
JasonAos journey ultimately culminates in a form of religious existence, articulated in a contemporary, nontheistic mode, characterized by surrender, sacrifice, and a leap of faith that transcends rational calculation and ethical certainty.
By mapping JasonAos inward transformation onto KierkegaardAos existential stages, this study highlights the philosophical depth of Dark Matter and extends existing interpretations beyond scientific or rational-choice frameworks.
The article concludes that Dark Matter recontextualizes Kierkegaardian existentialism within modern science fiction, demonstrating the continued relevance of existential philosophy for negotiating contemporary anxieties surrounding identity, freedom, choice, and the search for meaning under conditions of radical uncertainty.
Introduction Questions of freedom, identity, and existential meaning have long shaped philosophical inquiry, and contemporary literature continues to engage with these concerns through innovative narrative forms.
Science fiction offers a productive space for existential reflection by destabilizing fixed notions of reality, selfhood, and causality.
Through imagined alternatives and parallel worlds, the genre translates abstract philosophical problems into lived narrative experiences.
Blake CrouchAos Dark Matter .
exemplifies this dynamic by combining speculative science with an inward exploration of choice, regret, and responsibility.
The novel follows Jason Dessen, a physicist abducted into a multiverse of parallel realities, each reflecting different life choices he might have made.
JasonAos confrontation with alternate versions of himself, especially one who chose ambition over family, forces him to reassess the meaning of freedom, fulfillment, and identity.
Rather than presenting freedom as purely liberating.
Dark Matter exposes its darker implications: anxiety, dissatisfaction, and the burden of imagining Auwhat might have been.
Ay The multiverse thus functions not only as a scientific premise but as a symbolic representation of existential possibility and despair.
Existentialism provides a critical framework for examining these concerns.
While thinkers such as Sartre emphasize freedom and choice as the foundation of human existence, such models offer limited insight into how individuals develop existentially over time.
In contrast.
Syren KierkegaardAos theory of the three stages of existence, the aesthetic, the ethical.
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php/home/index and the religious, conceptualizes existence as a progressive movement shaped by inward struggle, responsibility, and This developmental emphasis makes KierkegaardAos framework particularly suitable for analyzing literary character transformation.
Although KierkegaardAos existential stages have been widely applied in literary studies, existing scholarship on Dark Matter has largely focused on narrative structure, rational choice, or decision theory, often privileging cognitive agency over existential inwardness.
Consequently.
Jason DessenAos philosophical development, especially his movement through despair, ethical responsibility, and faith, remains insufficiently examined.
Addressing this gap, this study analyzes Jason DessenAos existential development in Dark Matter through KierkegaardAos three stages of existence.
It argues that the novel rearticulates Kierkegaardian existential philosophy within a contemporary science-fiction framework, demonstrating how modern narratives of radical freedom continue to grapple with enduring questions of meaning, identity, and commitment.
Method This study adopts a qualitative literary approach to analyze Jason DessenAos existential development in Dark Matter (Crouch, 2.
Qualitative literary analysis is suitable for examining character development, inward experience, and philosophical meaning as represented through narrative structure, language, and characterization.
The primary data source is Dark Matter .
, treated as a literary text informed by existential philosophy.
Textual data consist of selected narrative passages, internal monologues, and dialogues that meet the following criteria: .
they depict Jason DessenAos moments of existential crisis, anxiety, or despair.
they reflect ethical decision-making related to responsibility, commitment, and family.
they illustrate acts of sacrifice or faith that signal a transition beyond rational selfinterest.
Secondary data include scholarly works on Syren KierkegaardAos existential theory and relevant literary criticism supporting the analytical framework.
Data collection is conducted through close reading, focusing on passages that correspond to KierkegaardAos three stages of existence: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.
The analysis follows Miles and HubermanAos .
interactive model, adapted for literary study.
First, data reduction is carried out by selecting and coding relevant textual segments according to existential themes and stages.
Second, data display involves organizing these passages thematically to trace JasonAos existential progression.
Finally, conclusion drawing and verification are undertaken by interpreting patterns of transformation across the stages and relating them consistently to KierkegaardAos conceptual This systematic process ensures analytical clarity while maintaining coherence between textual evidence and philosophical interpretation.
Result This section presents a detailed analysis of Jason DessenAos existential development in Dark Matter .
through Syren KierkegaardAos theory of the three stages of existence: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.
These stages are employed not as rigid chronological compartments, but as dominant existential orientations that shape JasonAos inward experience and transformation across the narrative.
The multiverse, which functions as the novelAos central speculative device, is interpreted as a narrative externalization of existential possibility, allowing abstract philosophical tensions, freedom and responsibility, choice and identity, selfhood and meaning, to be dramatized through concrete narrative JasonAos movement across parallel realities thus constitutes a sustained existential inquiry rather than a conventional quest for resolution.
His trajectory illustrates how aesthetic longing and unacknowledged despair gradually give way to ethical responsibility and self-ownership, before culminating in a form of religious existence characterized by surrender, paradox, and faith-like commitment under conditions of radical uncertainty.
Through this progression.
Dark Matter emerges not merely as a science-fiction thriller, but as a contemporary existential narrative that rearticulates Kierkegaardian philosophy within a modern speculative framework.
Aesthetic Existence: Longing.
Pleasure, and the Avoidance of Commitment In Either/Or: Part One.
Syren Kierkegaard conceptualizes the aesthetic stage as a mode of existence oriented toward pleasure, immediacy, emotional intensity, and personal distinction.
Crucially, however.
Kierkegaard emphasizes that aesthetic existence is not defined simply by enjoyment or hedonism, but by avoidance, specifically, avoidance of ethical responsibility, inward self-confrontation, and binding commitment (Kierkegaard, 1.
Individuals who inhabit this stage often live reflectively rather than decisively, masking existential despair through irony, distraction, and imaginative Jason DessenAos early existential condition in Dark Matter closely aligns with this aesthetic orientation.
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php/home/index At the beginning of the novel.
Jason appears to inhabit a stable and socially successful life.
He is married to Daniela, maintains a close relationship with his son Charlie, and holds a respectable position as a physics professor.
Yet beneath this surface stability lies a persistent sense of dissatisfaction that Jason himself struggles to articulate.
This dissatisfaction is explicitly expressed when he reflects.
AuMy life is great.
ItAos just not exceptional.
And there was a time when it could have beenAy (Crouch, 2.
The statement reveals a defining feature of aesthetic existence: life is evaluated not in terms of ethical coherence or responsibility, but in terms of intensity, uniqueness, and unrealized potential.
JasonAos dissatisfaction does not arise from deprivation, suffering, or social marginalization.
Rather, it emerges from the belief that ordinariness represents existential loss.
Kierkegaard describes this condition as aesthetic despair, a form of despair in which the individual resists actuality by idealizing unrealized alternatives .
JasonAos longing is directed toward a vaguely imagined AubetterAy life, one associated with ambition, recognition, and exceptionality, rather than toward any concrete ethical project.
This longing produces restlessness rather than motivation, as it remains oriented toward what might have been rather than what can be inwardly affirmed.
This orientation toward possibility becomes central to JasonAos self-understanding.
He repeatedly measures his present life against imagined alternatives, particularly the version of himself who pursued scientific ambition rather than family life.
In KierkegaardAos terms, the aesthetic self is haunted by possibility precisely because it refuses to commit to actuality .
Dark Matter radicalizes this existential tendency by transforming hypothetical alternatives into lived Jason is no longer merely imagining other lives.
he is confronted with them through parallel selves inhabiting different worlds.
JasonAos admission.
AuIAoll always wonderAy (Crouch, 2.
, encapsulates this aesthetic condition.
Wonder here does not function as curiosity or openness to growth, but as deferral.
It allows Jason to remain suspended between selves, postponing existential decision.
Kierkegaard warns that such fixation on possibility prevents the individual from becoming a self, since identity requires commitment to a concrete life.
JasonAos wonder thus functions as paralysis rather than Another defining feature of JasonAos aesthetic existence is his reliance on irony.
Kierkegaard argues that irony enables the aesthetic individual to recognize contradiction and dissatisfaction without assuming responsibility for transformation .
JasonAos ironic dismissal of his abandoned ambition.
AuIt died of natural causes.
Of neglectAy (Crouch, 2.
, clearly illustrates this strategy.
By framing loss as passive and inevitable.
Jason avoids confronting the ethical implications of his Ambition is treated as something that happened to him rather than as something he actively relinquished.
This ironic posture extends into JasonAos emotional life.
Even in moments of vulnerability, he frequently adopts a reflective stance that distances him from full engagement with his own experience.
He acknowledges tension, regret, and dissatisfaction, yet treats them as internal paradoxes rather than as calls to ethical or existential action.
This condition exemplifies what Kierkegaard identifies as reflective paralysis: the individual becomes acutely aware of despair but remains unwilling to move beyond reflection toward commitment .
JasonAos emotional detachment also manifests in social and relational contexts.
His tendency to observe situations rather than participate fully allows him to maintain composure while remaining inwardly disconnected.
Irony functions as a protective mechanism, shielding him from vulnerability and the risks inherent in genuine engagement.
While this posture provides temporary emotional stability, it simultaneously prevents the formation of sustained meaning rooted in responsibility and continuity.
As Kierkegaard insists, such detachment ultimately deepens despair rather than alleviating it .
By remaining ironic and emotionally withdrawn, the aesthetic individual avoids decisive involvement in life, allowing dissatisfaction to persist beneath a surface of composure.
JasonAos reliance on irony thus reinforces the instability of his aesthetic existence and prepares the conditions for its eventual breakdown.
Closely related to irony is the aesthetic illusion of freedom through non-commitment.
Jason articulates this belief when he reflects that Auno damning choices have been made, no paths committed to, and the road forking out ahead is pure, unlimited potentialAy (Crouch, 2.
On the surface, this statement celebrates openness and possibility.
Yet Kierkegaard argues that such a posture conceals a deeper existential anxiety rooted in the fear of finitude and boredom .
For Kierkegaard, boredom is not a trivial state of monotony but an existential threat arising when life lacks inward commitment and continuity .
JasonAos reluctance to choose reflects precisely this condition.
Commitment threatens to expose the hollowness of aesthetic freedom, whereas preserving possibility allows him to defer confrontation with As Jason encounters countless versions of himself, possibility loses its promise and becomes repetitive, generating sameness, fatigue, and alienation rather than meaning.
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php/home/index This condition is accompanied by persistent anxiety rather than fear.
In KierkegaardAos formulation, anxiety arises not from a specific external danger but from the openness of possibility itself, it is a condition he famously describes as the Aodizziness of freedomAo .
JasonAos emotional life reflects this condition through diffuse unease that cannot be attributed to marital conflict, professional failure, or material deprivation.
Satisfaction coexists with restlessness.
coexists with unease.
Significantly.
Jason does not initially recognize this anxiety as existential.
He interprets it as mood, fatigue, or nostalgia, thereby aestheticizing it rather than confronting it as a demand for commitment.
Kierkegaard cautions that within the aesthetic stage.
anxiety is often misrecognized and transformed into emotional texture rather than understood as an existential signal .
The multiverse amplifies this affective instability rather than resolving it.
JasonAos aesthetic orientation is further evident in his tendency to treat life as an artwork rather than as a moral task.
Kierkegaard describes this mode of existence as one in which experience is curated, observed, and stylized rather than shaped through responsibility .
JasonAos sensitivity to atmosphere, music, and memory reflects this posture.
transforms uncertainty into aesthetic experience, as when he reflects.
AuIn the shadow of this moment, my life is achingly beautifulAy (Crouch, 2.
Music functions similarly as an aesthetic refuge.
JasonAos immersion in sound.
AuThelonious Monk spins on the old turntable A the crackle of static between tracksAy (Crouch, 2.
, allows him to dwell in mood rather than decision.
These moments intensify feeling but postpone commitment, reinforcing the aesthetic preference for reflection over action.
This aestheticization is closely tied to postponement.
JasonAos attachment to unfinished projects reflects a preference for anticipation over fulfillment.
He admits.
AuThe den is filled with stacks and stacks of rare vinyl that I keep telling myself IAoll get around to organizing one of these daysAy (Crouch, 2.
Satisfaction is derived not from completion but from the preservation of possibility.
JasonAos treatment of love further reveals the limits of aesthetic existence.
His recollections of Daniela emphasize moments of emotional intensity rather than sustained ethical responsibility, as in his memory.
AuI see you again, like the first time we met A this new countryAy (Crouch, 2.
Love is framed as an experience to be remembered rather than a commitment to be renewed.
Kierkegaard distinguishes such aesthetic love from ethical love, which requires continuity, obligation, and selfhood over time .
Ultimately, aestheticization does not eliminate despair but refines and conceals it.
By transforming uncertainty into beauty.
Jason avoids confronting its existential source.
As Kierkegaard warns, aesthetic reflection without commitment leads not to integration but to fragmentation .
JasonAos life remains emotionally rich yet existentially unstable.
The aesthetic stage reaches its terminal point in what Kierkegaard terms unacknowledged despair, a condition that disguises itself as normalcy .
Jason continues to function professionally and socially, yet his life lacks inward His exchange with his alternate self.
AuYou killed your ambition, didnAot you?Ay / AuIt died of natural causes.
neglectAy (Crouch, 2.
, reveals loss without responsibility.
Moments of crisis briefly expose values buried beneath aesthetic evasion.
When Jason pleads.
AuI will do anything A I love my family A pleaseAy (Crouch, 2.
, an ethical core surfaces.
Yet these responses remain instinctive rather than As Kierkegaard insists, despair must be recognized as despair before transformation becomes possible .
JasonAos aesthetic existence thus collapses not through catastrophe but through exhaustion.
Pleasure, irony, and possibility can no longer conceal the demand for commitment.
This internal collapse prepares the transition into the ethical stage, where responsibility, continuity, and self-ownership begin to replace aesthetic dispersion as the foundations of meaning.
Ethical Existence: Self-Ownership.
Responsibility, and the Limits of Moral Coherence Jason DessenAos movement into the ethical stage marks a decisive reconfiguration of his existential orientation.
Either/Or: Part Two.
Syren Kierkegaard conceptualizes ethical existence as a mode of life grounded in responsibility, continuity, and inward self-ownership .
Unlike the aesthetic stage, which privileges immediacy, emotional intensity, and the preservation of possibility, ethical existence requires the individual to affirm finitude and accept the binding consequences of choice.
Life is no longer experienced as a series of isolated moments or unrealized alternatives but as a coherent narrative that must be assumed as oneAos own.
In Dark Matter, this ethical transformation emerges gradually through JasonAos sustained confrontation with danger, loss, and relational obligation.
His repeated encounters with alternate versions of himself expose the existential cost of aesthetic dispersion.
Rather than expanding freedom, multiplicity fragments identity and erodes meaning.
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php/home/index that is actively affirmed and sustained.
Ethical existence thus emerges not as an abstract principle but as a practical response to existential fragmentation.
This reorientation is articulated explicitly when Jason states.
AuI made a life with themAy (Crouch, 2.
The ethical significance of this declaration lies in its assertion of agency.
Jason no longer treats his family life as an accident, a compromise, or a misfortune resulting from abandoned ambition.
Instead, he recognizes it as the outcome of deliberate For Kierkegaard, ethical existence begins precisely at this point: when the individual claims responsibility for their life narrative and acknowledges that their existence is something they must answer for .
Ethical selfhood, however, involves more than retrospective acknowledgment of choice.
It requires the ongoing structuring of identity through continuity, obligation, and perseverance.
JasonAos ethical awakening therefore entails a revaluation of repetition.
His reflection.
AuWhat a miracle it is to have people to come home to every day.
To be loved.
be expectedAy (Crouch, 2.
, signals a profound reversal of aesthetic values.
In the aesthetic stage, repetition is feared as boredom and constraint.
in the ethical stage, repetition becomes meaningful because it sustains relationships and obligations over time.
To be AuexpectedAy signifies acceptance of mutual dependence and accountability, conditions that bind the self to others in enduring ways (Kierkegaard, 1.
Kierkegaard emphasizes that ethical existence is sustained not by emotional intensity but by perseverance .
This understanding becomes evident when Jason responds to relational crisis not with withdrawal or irony but with effort.
When Daniela asks.
AuHow do we fix this?Ay.
Jason replies.
AuIAom working on itAy (Crouch, 2.
The language is significant.
Love is no longer framed as an affective state or spontaneous feeling, but as labor.
JasonAos response reflects KierkegaardAos insistence that ethical life is lived as a task, requiring patience, discipline, and endurance rather than emotional Ethical existence also demands integrity and unity of the self.
JasonAos earlier aesthetic identity was fragmented, defined by imagined alternatives and comparisons with unrealized selves.
As he enters the ethical stage, he begins to accept the complexity of his lived identity rather than measuring himself against idealized versions of what he might have Ethical selfhood does not eliminate contradiction.
instead, it integrates contradiction into a coherent sense of JasonAos recognition that his identity is multifaceted rather than binary reflects this movement toward inward coherence.
He no longer seeks wholeness through dispersion but through fidelity to the life he inhabits.
Moments of stillness play a crucial role in consolidating JasonAos ethical seriousness.
His decision to sit across from his house for an entire day represents a departure from aesthetic restlessness and compulsive action.
This stillness is not paralysis or indecision but ethical attentiveness.
The house symbolizes the life Jason seeks to reclaim his family, his history, and his obligations.
By remaining present rather than fleeing into speculation or action.
Jason confronts his existence directly.
Kierkegaard insists that ethical life requires precisely this capacity for inward confrontation: the willingness to face oneAos life as it is, rather than escape into possibility or distraction .
Repentance further strengthens JasonAos ethical selfhood.
Kierkegaard defines repentance as moral self-recognition without evasion .
JasonAos admission.
AuI did something else stupid.
I used some of our money to buy a phoneAy (Crouch, 2.
, may appear minor in narrative terms, but its ethical significance lies in the manner of acknowledgment.
Jason evaluates his action without irony, justification, or displacement of blame.
He recognizes fault as his own and accepts its consequences.
This moment marks a decisive departure from aesthetic detachment and reinforces JasonAos commitment to ethical integrity.
Through these developments.
JasonAos ethical existence takes shape as a mode of life grounded in responsibility, continuity, and self-ownership.
Yet Dark Matter also makes clear that ethical seriousness, while necessary, is not sufficient to resolve the deeper anxieties generated by radical uncertainty.
Ethical existence stabilizes JasonAos identity, but it does not shield him from loss, fear, or existential risk.
Responsibility persists even when outcomes cannot be secured.
This limitation becomes explicit when Jason confronts suffering across multiple realities.
His reflection.
AuMy son is dead in there.
Daniela is dyingAy (Crouch, 2.
, functions not merely as an expression of grief but as an ethical rupture.
Jason recognizes that moral responsibility does not grant him the power to prevent loss or restore coherence.
The ethical demand to care for others remains absolute, yet its fulfillment becomes impossible.
In Kierkegaardian terms.
Jason confronts the boundary at which ethical universality can no longer secure meaning .
This confrontation does not negate ethical responsibility.
rather, it exposes its insufficiency.
Jason does not abandon care, obligation, or accountability.
Instead, he discovers that ethical life cannot guarantee justice, safety, or resolution.
Kierkegaard describes this condition as the point at which ethical existence opens toward the religious, not through rejection of ethics, but through its exhaustion under extremity .
At this threshold.
JasonAos moral awareness acquires a transcendent dimension.
He no longer regards alternate lives as morally negligible or interchangeable.
His grief extends beyond his own reality, revealing an expanded moral horizon.
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Ethical universality demands impartiality, while JasonAos love remains irreducibly This tension cannot be resolved within ethical reasoning itself.
Kierkegaard insists that when universal ethics collides with absolute inward commitment, the individual must either collapse into despair or move beyond ethics .
JasonAos narrative illustrates this tension with clarity.
Ethical seriousness prepares him for the religious leap, but it does not itself constitute that leap.
Ethical existence thus functions as a necessary but incomplete stage, one that structures identity and responsibility while simultaneously revealing its own limits.
This ethical exhaustion prepares the ground for the final movement into the religious stage, where meaning is no longer secured through responsibility alone but through faith, surrender, and inward commitment beyond rational Religious Existence: Faith.
Paradox, and Absolute Commitment Jason DessenAos entry into the religious stage constitutes the most radical transformation in his existential journey.
In Fear and Trembling.
Syren Kierkegaard defines the religious stage as a mode of existence grounded in an absolute inward relation that exceeds ethical universality.
Faith, in this sense, is not doctrinal belief but existential trust: a willingness to act decisively without certainty, justification, or social validation .
Whereas ethical existence is structured by responsibility, continuity, and moral coherence, religious existence emerges precisely at the point where these structures prove insufficient.
In Dark Matter.
JasonAos religious transformation appears in a contemporary, non-theistic form.
His faith is not directed toward a theological doctrine but toward meaning enacted through love, surrender, and commitment under radical uncertainty.
This transformation becomes visible through JasonAos changing relationship to fear, control, and moral Rather than seeking mastery over contingency.
Jason gradually relinquishes the demand for certainty, accepting uncertainty as a permanent condition of existence.
The leap of faith is first articulated in JasonAos willingness to act despite anxiety.
His admission.
AuI feel a glimmer of panic A but I smile in spite of itAy (Crouch, 2.
, captures KierkegaardAos insistence that faith does not abolish fear but transforms the individualAos relation to it.
Anxiety is no longer interpreted as a signal to retreat or calculate further.
it becomes inseparable from commitment itself.
Jason does not overcome anxiety through rational explanation or empirical assurance.
He accepts it as the price of decisive action.
This structure of faith is further condensed in JasonAos appeal.
AuJust trust meAy (Crouch, 2.
The request offers no explanation and no guarantee.
It demands assent without proof, positioning commitment prior to justification.
Kierkegaardian terms, this moment exemplifies the leap of faith, in which the individual acts without appeal to universal norms or shared rationality .
Jason assumes responsibility not only for his own action but also for the irreducible risk borne by those who follow him.
A defining feature of religious existence is the establishment of an absolute relation expressed through love without Jason confronts the temptation to secure his familyAos safety through control and disappearance, yet he ultimately refuses this path, acknowledging.
AuI donAot have the right to keep them for myselfAy (Crouch, 2.
This renunciation marks a decisive movement beyond ethical calculation.
Love is no longer grounded in entitlement, protection, or certainty, but in reverence and restraint.
Jason affirms what he loves absolutely while simultaneously relinquishing control over it, embodying the paradox at the heart of Kierkegaardian faith (Kierkegaard, 1.
The religious stage becomes most controversial in JasonAos willingness to suspend ethical universality.
His declaration.
AuI will kill them all for you A I will do anythingAy (Crouch, 2.
, cannot be reconciled with ethical reasoning or moral However.
KierkegaardAos concept of the teleological suspension of the ethical clarifies this moment.
JasonAos readiness to act does not arise from moral indifference or aesthetic impulse, but from absolute inward obligation.
Like Abraham in Fear and Trembling.
Jason acts as a single individual standing alone before the Absolute, beyond the mediation of universal norms .
Crucially.
Jason does not attempt to justify or defend himself.
He does not seek moral recognition, consensus, or This isolation is intrinsic to religious existence.
For Kierkegaard, faith must be borne alone.
it cannot be translated into ethical language without losing its character .
JasonAos refusal to rationalize his actions confirms his movement beyond ethical mediation and into religious inwardness.
Religious existence is further defined by absolute risk.
Kierkegaard insists that faith requires the willingness to relinquish security, coherence, and even moral intelligibility without assurance of return .
JasonAos declaration.
AuWe leave with nothing but the clothes on our backsAy (Crouch, 2.
, signifies more than pragmatic necessity.
It reflects detachment from material guarantees, strategic planning, and instrumental control.
Meaning is no longer secured through preparation or calculation but entrusted to commitment itself.
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php/home/index This surrender is intensified by JasonAos acceptance of solitude.
When he acknowledges.
AuNow I have to go the rest of the way aloneAy (Crouch, 2.
, he confronts the defining loneliness of faith.
Companionship, reassurance, and shared understanding fall away.
Jason proceeds without witnesses, confirmation, or certainty.
This solitude does not signify despair but acceptance of faithAos burden, aligning with KierkegaardAos insistence that religious existence isolates the individual even as it grounds meaning.
The metaphor Jason employs, likening his leap between realities to jumping from an airplane without knowing whether the parachute will open, captures the existential structure of faith with striking clarity.
The act is undertaken with full awareness of danger and without guarantee of survival.
Yet Jason proceeds nonetheless.
As Kierkegaard insists, faith begins precisely where calculation ends .
JasonAos final affirmation.
AuI donAot want their lives.
I want mineAy (Crouch, 2.
, must therefore be understood not as sentimental closure but as existential integration.
This declaration rejects the logic of optimization that governs both aesthetic longing and ethical calculation.
Meaning is no longer sought in improvement, comparison, or control, but in fidelity to one finite life.
The multiverse exposes the emptiness of the belief that more options produce more meaning.
JasonAos journey demonstrates that infinite possibility fragments identity rather than fulfilling it.
By choosing one imperfect life and inhabiting it with seriousness.
Jason enacts KierkegaardAos claim that authentic existence is achieved not by escaping contingency but by committing within it (Kierkegaard, 1.
Religious existence thus completes JasonAos existential development, grounding meaning not in certainty or universality, but in faith, surrender, and absolute inward commitment under conditions of radical uncertainty.
Conclusion This study has examined the existential development of Jason Dessen in Dark Matter .
through Syren KierkegaardAos three stages of existence: the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.
The analysis demonstrates that JasonAos character arc closely corresponds to these stages, revealing an inward transformation that unfolds alongside the novelAos speculative engagement with the multiverse.
Rather than functioning merely as a science-fiction thriller.
Dark Matter emerges as an existential narrative that interrogates freedom, responsibility, and the search for meaning under conditions of radical uncertainty.
JasonAos journey begins in the aesthetic stage, marked by dissatisfaction, anxiety, and fixation on unrealized As the narrative progresses, he moves into the ethical stage, where responsibility, commitment, and moral accountability, especially toward his family, become central to his sense of self.
His journey culminates in a religious stage articulated in a contemporary, non-theistic form, characterized by surrender, sacrifice, and a decisive commitment made without rational certainty.
This final movement reflects KierkegaardAos concept of the leap of faith, in which authentic existence is achieved through inward commitment rather than control over infinite possibilities.
Theoretically, this study contributes to existential literary studies by demonstrating the continued relevance of KierkegaardAos developmental model for analyzing contemporary speculative fiction.
By foregrounding inwardness, despair, ethical responsibility, and faith, the analysis extends Kierkegaardian existentialism beyond its traditional philosophical and realist literary contexts, offering an alternative to readings of Dark Matter that privilege scientific logic or rational choice alone.
Future research may build on this study by applying KierkegaardAos stages of existence to other works of speculative fiction or by undertaking comparative analyses with existential frameworks proposed by thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre or Albert Camus.
Such approaches may further illuminate how contemporary literature negotiates enduring questions of freedom, identity, and human agency in an age defined by multiplicity and uncertainty.
Conflict of interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Acknowledgement The author would like to thank all parties who have helped in the process of publishing this article.
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