3 ms·

I had an ex that went to Bard and she adored this along with the zen motorcycle book, the windup bird book, and pretty much anything by Gladwell and his contemp

by mp05 3y ago

I had an ex that went to Bard and she adored this along with the zen motorcycle book, the windup bird book, and pretty much anything by Gladwell and his contemporaries (definitely that pretentious Lehrer guy). The comments in this thread confirm that I was correct to avoid it.

kragen 3y ago
i'm guessing you might mean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind-Up_Bird_Chronicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind-Up_Bird_Chronicle? i've really enjoyed the murakami i've read, as well as the others (by lehrer do you mean tom lehrer, the nsa mathematician?) maybe you should introduce me to your ex, or at least tell me what other books she liked
- mp05 3y ago
  =] Nah it was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Lehrer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Lehrer I heard Murakami has some good stuff and I know my wife has some on the bookshelf. But I'm more commenting on the particular milieu, if you will, of a particular pretentious type of literature that I could never really get into. Perhaps if I went to class naked when I was in college I'd understand better.
  - kragen 3y ago
    i've definitely been to hacker hot tub parties on several occasions, so i'd probably enjoy the naked classroom too i think what these authors have in common is not so much pretension as giving free rein to their very active imagination: caring as much about what could be as about what is. in the case of gladwell and lehrer, they've let it blur the lines between fiction and reporting (to everyone's detriment), but i don't think that's really the case with hofstadter, pirsig, and murakami
    - mp05 3y ago
      That's a very generous assessment of Lehrer who is about as contemptible a person as I can fathom, but I agree with your take. Different strokes.
      - kragen 3y ago
        possibly what she liked about lehrer was his vivid imagination and not his utter lack of personal integrity?
mock-possum 3y ago
Zen etc. was nearly ruined for me by others holding it up as some sort of philosophical holy book - that part of the writing didn’t appeal much to me ultimately, but the story it tells? a man struggling with mental health issues, struggling to discover and decide who he actually is and who he actually wants to be - while also being responsible for his kid, and of the kid not understanding what’s happening to his father… that part I loved. The ghost story of Phaedrus. The scene towards the end when he finally sits down with his kid and tries to explain what’s going on and what’s going to happen next, and his son’s response just gutted me. Never expected to have that emotional of a story from the way the book had been sold to me.

by mp05 3y ago

kragen 3y ago

i'm guessing you might mean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind-Up_Bird_Chronicle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind-Up_Bird_Chronicle? i've really enjoyed the murakami i've read, as well as the others (by lehrer do you mean tom lehrer, the nsa mathematician?) maybe you should introduce me to your ex, or at least tell me what other books she liked

mp05 3y ago
=] Nah it was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Lehrer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Lehrer I heard Murakami has some good stuff and I know my wife has some on the bookshelf. But I'm more commenting on the particular milieu, if you will, of a particular pretentious type of literature that I could never really get into. Perhaps if I went to class naked when I was in college I'd understand better.
- kragen 3y ago
  i've definitely been to hacker hot tub parties on several occasions, so i'd probably enjoy the naked classroom too i think what these authors have in common is not so much pretension as giving free rein to their very active imagination: caring as much about what could be as about what is. in the case of gladwell and lehrer, they've let it blur the lines between fiction and reporting (to everyone's detriment), but i don't think that's really the case with hofstadter, pirsig, and murakami
  - mp05 3y ago
    That's a very generous assessment of Lehrer who is about as contemptible a person as I can fathom, but I agree with your take. Different strokes.
    - kragen 3y ago
      possibly what she liked about lehrer was his vivid imagination and not his utter lack of personal integrity?

mock-possum 3y ago

Zen etc. was nearly ruined for me by others holding it up as some sort of philosophical holy book - that part of the writing didn’t appeal much to me ultimately, but the story it tells? a man struggling with mental health issues, struggling to discover and decide who he actually is and who he actually wants to be - while also being responsible for his kid, and of the kid not understanding what’s happening to his father… that part I loved. The ghost story of Phaedrus. The scene towards the end when he finally sits down with his kid and tries to explain what’s going on and what’s going to happen next, and his son’s response just gutted me. Never expected to have that emotional of a story from the way the book had been sold to me.