Reading Period: March 23 - May 03
1. History and Utopia (P), by Emil Cioran
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/455488.History_and_Utopia
In some sense, I have probably exhausted Cioran's work. I find him compelling and brilliant, but there is something about his writing style (and the translation) that makes it difficult to engage with additional material of his. It seems that Cioran's overall life philosophy is extremely compelling (and hilarious), but he lacks a diverse array of new ideas that makes his broader work seem a bit saturated.
2. The Conscious Mind (A), by David Chalmers
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/144960.The_Conscious_Mind
Extremely compelling and important book. Pure, unfiltered philosophy. The kind that risks boredom, but upon reflection exposes brilliance. It's interesting to me that there aren't more writers solely focused on the hard problem of consciousness. It seems to me the most important problem imaginable, and the most interesting. David has certainly been very influential in my own writing/thinking, and I'm shocked that this is the first book of his I've read. Looking forward to diving deeper into his ideas moving forward.
3. Elantris (A), by Brandon Sanderson
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68427.Elantris
I could definitely tell that this was Brandon's first book. Some of the writing is sloppy, and a lot of the dialogue is corny (to a level that runs the immersion). That being said, the storyline and the world-building is incredible, and there's something particularly endearing about reading Brandon's first book. I sort of got a better sense of how far he's come as a writer, and where he's unlikely to improve.
4. The Hope of Elantris (A), by Brandon Sanderson
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10852065-the-hope-of-elantris
There were a few loose ends from Elantris that needed to be tied up (the weapon cart, etc.). That being said, that's probably just something that could have been fixed during editing, and I don't think this novella is that great as a stand-alone.
5. Mortality (A), by Christopher Hitchens
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13529055-mortality
Pretty depressing. During my initial phase of questioning religion, Christopher was somewhat influential on me. I found him more mean-spirited and less convincing than the other "four horseman of the non-apocalypse," but certainly more entertaining. Reading this narrative about the end of his life was, quite simply, sad. He still maintains his wit and humor, and the last-minute jabs at religion were funny. But despite all of the failings of organized religion, at least the devout have the ability to pass into nothingness with a smile.
6. The Last Messiah (P), by Peter Wessel Zapffe
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22060860-the-last-messiah
Incredible, 10/10. Such a short, impactful read. For my own reference, as I'm sure I'll re-read these sections whenever I'm in the mood for some existential terror, here is the first chapter:
"One night in long bygone times, man awoke and saw himself. He saw that he was naked under cosmos, homeless in his own body. All things dissolved before his testing thought, wonder above wonder, horror above horror unfolded in his mind. Then woman too awoke and said it was time to go and slay. And he fetched his bow and arrow, a fruit of the marriage of spirit and hand, and went outside beneath the stars. But as the beasts arrived at their waterholes where he expected them of habit, he felt no more the tiger’s bound in his blood, but a great psalm about the brotherhood of suffering between everything alive. That day he did not return with prey, and when they found him by the next new moon, he was sitting dead by the waterhole."
And here is the last:
"If we continue these considerations to the bitter end, then the conclusion is not in doubt. As long as humankind recklessly proceeds in the fateful delusion of being biologically fated for triumph, nothing essential will change. As its numbers mount and the spiritual atmosphere thickens, the techniques of protection must assume an increasingly brutal character. And humans will persist in dreaming of salvation and affirmation and a new Messiah. Yet when many saviours have been nailed to trees and stoned on the city squares, then the last Messiah shall come. Then will appear the man who, as the first of all, has dared strip his soul naked and submit it alive to the outmost thought of the lineage, the very idea of doom. A man who has fathomed life and its cosmic ground, and whose pain is the Earth’s collective pain. With what furious screams shall not mobs of all nations cry out for his thousandfold death, when like a cloth his voice encloses the globe, and the strange message has resounded for the first and last time:
– The life of the worlds is a roaring river, but Earth’s is a pond and a backwater.– The sign of doom is written on your brows– How long will ye kick against the pin-pricks?– But there is one conquest and one crown, one redemption and one solution.– Know yourselves– Be infertile and let the earth be silent after ye.And when he has spoken, they will pour themselves over him, led by the pacifier makers and the midwives, and bury him in their fingernails. He is the last Messiah. As son from father, he stems from the archer by the waterhole."
7. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives (P), by David Eagleman
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4948826-sum
Pretty interesting read, and certainly up my alley. A collection of fictional short stories about the afterlife, such as one where you can only talk to people you interacted with in real life:
"The missing crowds make you lonely. You begin to complain about all the people you could be meeting. But no one listens or sympathizes with you, because this is precisely what you chose when you were alive."
There are 40 total scenarios, all interesting. The ending of every chapter feels profound, but I wouldn't classify this book as very profound when taken as a whole. Still worth the read.
8. Nausea (A), by Jean-Paul Sartre
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/298275.Nausea
It took me a couple years to get to finally finishing this book. Some of it is incredible, meaning stop on the sidewalk to rewind sort of incredible. However, taken as a whole I found the book somewhat disappointing, I'm not sure I find Jean-Paul that compelling as a writer (perhaps I had too high of expectations).
9. Better to Never Have Been (A), by David Benatar
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/660518.Better_Never_to_Have_Been
'My life is amazing, but I recently had a papercut. Thus, I wish I was never born.'
Negative utilitarianism is very interesting to me. As someone who finds anti-natalism both compelling and hilarious, I honestly think David did a terrible job arguing for it here. I was expecting great things along the lines of a Cioran or Ligotti, but I believe my high-school self could have given more compelling arguments than David. He simply makes assumptions, refuses to back them up (besides implying that they are "obviously true"), and then he makes a conclusion. It's a horrible way to craft a narrative, and makes for an extremely underwhelming book. David states that a life of steadily declining achievement is "worse" than the opposite, as the trajectory of a life can make it better or worse than another, even if the "utils" are the same. Why? If you have a horrible 10 years, and amazing 10 years after, or the opposite, but the total level of pleasure/utils/well-being is equal, why is one better than the other? Because David simply states that believing anything else is silly? He makes these sort of unfounded claims over and over again.
Some say it's worse to kill a fetus than a 20 year old, since a fetus has a longer life remaining to be lived. David says that we can tell that this logic is obviously wrong, since most of us believe it is worse to kill a 20 year old. What? Having your "philosopher hat" on for even a moment makes this book unbearable. David claims that there is a big harm in existing, but killing yourself should never be done. Why? If good and bad are evenly distributed, but bad is 10x less "good" than good because David says so, both living and existing seem pretty bad. Why not kill yourself, philosophically speaking?
Nevertheless, I do think negative utilitarianism does pose some actual important points. It's difficult to think about the repugnant conclusion or population ethics if you are a util-maxxing utilitarianism, and people like David rightly point out how many utilitarian beliefs are illogical. There are just simply more impressive authors out there to hear this sort of criticism from.
10. Tractatus Logico Philosophicus (A), by Ludwig Wittgenstein
Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12075.Tractatus_Logico_Philosophicus
Honestly, I barely comprehended most of this. Without a final LLM summary, I would have missed a lot of the important ideas conveyed.
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