A Meditation: Existentialism and the Art of the Essay

I am intererested in philosophical essys, and how Nietzsche and Kierkegaard incorporate the techniques of the essay into their stories. It interests me the way in which the two really use essays as the meat of their works; Namely, the essays propel the story. in fact, the story is little more than a nicely framed thought. I speak of Nietzsche's Zarathustra and Kierkegaards's Either/Or , the works with which I am most familiar according to each. The form of these treatises is much simpler than the more literary forms found in Dostoevsky, Sartre, and Camus' works. The novels and plays of the latter three, though in content similiar to Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, find as much merit as literature (perhaps more) as they do philosophy. Nietzsche and Kierkegaard have definite literary trends in their works, but they don't stand seperate from the philosophy. Their isn't enough plot present.
The short story can never be a mode for these essayists, as they can never compress their thoughts. All they can do is write as much as they did. But here I stand with the benefit of hindsight, the benefit of seeing and holding their greatest works. Perhaps they can write stories just as well- but in fact, I respect Nietzsche and Kierkegaard for not being novelists: it was not their art- and I am glad they instead chose to be essayists, pamphleteers, polemicizing their age, a thorn in the side of every individual who ever had the misfortune to read these prophets (although prophets for the Devil or for God: who can know?).