First, this is the best explanation of the experience of reading the book I’ve seen. Thanks for writing it.
Second: there are only a few ungarbled prescriptions, but they are related, and may be the ones worth focusing on.
“Don’t outsource your understanding.” The entire work demonstrates this precept at a meta level. Especially treating translations and translators as suspect.
“Read hard things, and classics in particular. Be aware of the cultural moment but have firm points of reference outside it.” His shotgun-full-of-Freud literary criticisms beg you to go read the classics for yourself. At one point he flat says to put the book down and pick up Thucydides. Of course I’d be getting Thucydides from Hobbes but hey.
Finally and relatedly, attend to the relationship between what you think, consume, and do. Fantasy is powerful, which is why fiction — internal or external — is powerful. The line about actual and fantasy infidelity netting to the same guilt stuck with me, bare assertion that it may be.
Whether this book was necessary to achieve that end — or if it does so any more effectively than did Watch What You Hear — is extremely debatable. It rehashes the blog often enough to make me wonder if the author simply wanted to preserve some of that work in a more permanent medium, internal contradictions be damned.
Re: book club emails, you could check out what Freddie DeBoer does, he has multiple types of emails (including a book club) and you can opt in to the ones you are interested in receiving, so you could receive only regular posts, only book club posts, or both.
Might be a better experience than having people check the site manually.
First, this is the best explanation of the experience of reading the book I’ve seen. Thanks for writing it.
Second: there are only a few ungarbled prescriptions, but they are related, and may be the ones worth focusing on.
“Don’t outsource your understanding.” The entire work demonstrates this precept at a meta level. Especially treating translations and translators as suspect.
“Read hard things, and classics in particular. Be aware of the cultural moment but have firm points of reference outside it.” His shotgun-full-of-Freud literary criticisms beg you to go read the classics for yourself. At one point he flat says to put the book down and pick up Thucydides. Of course I’d be getting Thucydides from Hobbes but hey.
Finally and relatedly, attend to the relationship between what you think, consume, and do. Fantasy is powerful, which is why fiction — internal or external — is powerful. The line about actual and fantasy infidelity netting to the same guilt stuck with me, bare assertion that it may be.
Whether this book was necessary to achieve that end — or if it does so any more effectively than did Watch What You Hear — is extremely debatable. It rehashes the blog often enough to make me wonder if the author simply wanted to preserve some of that work in a more permanent medium, internal contradictions be damned.
Clearly, the "Astral Codex Ten" guy hates you.
My review of the book in question might be shorter: "Sadly, not porn".
Figured out who Teach reminds me of: Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.
Re: book club emails, you could check out what Freddie DeBoer does, he has multiple types of emails (including a book club) and you can opt in to the ones you are interested in receiving, so you could receive only regular posts, only book club posts, or both.
Might be a better experience than having people check the site manually.