I just learnt about him and ordered my first book of his last night. Odd.
Philip Roth has died
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Re: Philip Roth has died
#12His book "Plot Against America" helped to change my worldview. It was the first time I thought about the fact that it was not a foregone conclusion that America is a country that hadn't fallen to fascism in the mid 20th century, and led to me start reading history with a more critical eye. After that I realized just how much history is comprised of shades of grey rather than right and wrong.
I have made the experience that merely anything in life has shades of grey. It causes a lot of cognitive dissonance for me. For most people, including me, it is thus easier to simply stick to one particular world view. At least for a certain time. So as a smart person, either you are some sort of “schizophrenic” or you ignore some facts and possible interpretations and stick firmly to one side of the coin. Both is di…
> It causes a lot of cognitive dissonance for me.
Why? To understand what is actually going on one doesn't have to be in the "dissonant" state. What's needed is just the understanding that simplifications we use to "model" the surroundings are just that, and be aware of the cases when our models are too wrong to even be the right simplification in the given context.
In short, in some contexts, a "spherical cow" is approximate enough, in some others, it isn't. And both the "model" and what is "enough" can be checked for validity of the assumption.
The same should be done for the sources of your information: are they biased by design? Do they have an agenda? Can you directly confirm that the information they present is valid? Sometimes even a lot of "information" hides some basic facts that, when considered, would invalidate the whole premise of the specific "presentation."
Politically, you don't have to believe in everything the "messenger" stands for to check and accept that some specific information is true. An example, one thinker noted:
- The effective political definition in the USA media of the "peace process" is simply "whatever option the USA wants in the moment." Therefore, it's by definition impossible that the USA is "against the peace process" and such news you will never read, even if the USA actively supports the war for years.
This claim can be verified. And if true, it gives you a different perspective of the news you read. Orwellian, in 1984 sense? Sure. People always think that such works of fiction are "simply a fiction." In fact, they are very much based on the real-life experiences of the author in his world in the time he lived. The ways humans interact doesn't change fast, the same patterns can be traced through the centuries.
Another example: I've found out that Tom Lehrer sung "The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be" in 1953. (Knowing the lyrics is needed to be able to follow). Not knowing enough, I didn't understand that he was able to make such a song then. But checking his biography (on the internet) it seems that he as a mathematician before he wrote the song worked for the NSA (or whatever the equivalent was called then) in the places where actual atomic bomb tests were prepared. He personally seems to confirm that in some of his recorded appearances cheerfully saying something like "I was in the West working as the spy." Understand that gives you a new view to his lyrics.
The third example, real life actually has enough "movie like" stories:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls
Re: Philip Roth has died
#13His book "Plot Against America" helped to change my worldview. It was the first time I thought about the fact that it was not a foregone conclusion that America is a country that hadn't fallen to fascism in the mid 20th century, and led to me start reading history with a more critical eye. After that I realized just how much history is comprised of shades of grey rather than right and wrong.
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Is that really your takeaway from Philip Roth’s work? Maybe you were reading David Lee Roth by accident?
Re: Philip Roth has died
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have made the experience that merely anything in life has shades of grey. It causes a lot of cognitive dissonance for me. For most people, including me, it is thus easier to simply stick to one particular world view. At least for a certain time. So as a smart person, either you are some sort of “schizophrenic” or you ignore some facts and possible interpretations and stick firmly to one side of the coin. Both is di…
I think you're right, and there's definitely a balance to be had here. The first time I came across the notion that there might be a downside to keeping everything 'hypothetical' was in reading William James (I think it was in his Pragmatism lectures). He points out the opposition between 'thought' and 'action'. There is a tradeoff in continuing to think about certain subjects in that your ability to act on things re…
Thanks for sharing. I should probably just start the startup I’m thinking about for so long ;-)
Re: Philip Roth has died
#15Last year, he was one of the 18 authors to be published, while still alive, in the "Bibliothèque de la Pléiade". (More than 250 authors has been published in this collection)
It is a reference edition in France of the complete works of classic authors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblioth%C3%A8que_de_la_Pl%C3%...
Re: Philip Roth has died
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you're right, and there's definitely a balance to be had here. The first time I came across the notion that there might be a downside to keeping everything 'hypothetical' was in reading William James (I think it was in his Pragmatism lectures). He points out the opposition between 'thought' and 'action'. There is a tradeoff in continuing to think about certain subjects in that your ability to act on things re…
Thanks for sharing. I should probably just start the startup I’m thinking about for so long ;-)
You should. And fail, quite probably, then start another. And so on. Or duke it out with the first one. And succeed. Or not.
Re: Philip Roth has died
#17An astonishing writer who couldn't write a bad book. But one is allowed to pick favorites, so here they go: Operation Shylock, I married a communist, and The plot against America.
I've read only 3 1/2 of his books: Operation Shylock, Plot against America, Portnoys complaint: and part of American Pastoral -- which I had trouble getting through. I wonder if others found it too dense? Otherwise, the above 3 books are really great!
Read all of American Pastoral. After the sad and slightly less interesting middle section, the plot flares up right at the end, as a long prepared payoff.
Re: Philip Roth has died
#18An astonishing writer who couldn't write a bad book. But one is allowed to pick favorites, so here they go: Operation Shylock, I married a communist, and The plot against America.
I've read only 3 1/2 of his books: Operation Shylock, Plot against America, Portnoys complaint: and part of American Pastoral -- which I had trouble getting through. I wonder if others found it too dense? Otherwise, the above 3 books are really great!
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Re: Philip Roth has died
#19His book "Plot Against America" helped to change my worldview. It was the first time I thought about the fact that it was not a foregone conclusion that America is a country that hadn't fallen to fascism in the mid 20th century, and led to me start reading history with a more critical eye. After that I realized just how much history is comprised of shades of grey rather than right and wrong.
I enjoyed it but I found the ending ludicrous. It turned into a kind of political melodrama. Which I thought was a pity.
Sabbath's Theatre I enjoyed much more. I think he was always best when he was focused on the personal.