Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
Why does a tyrant's marketing campaign matter?
It is of no interest to you how some tyrants come to be reviled while others are lionized?
Philip Roth has died
21–30 of 79 posts
Re: Philip Roth has died
#22I started reading Roth a couple months ago as part of a project to learn how to write better fiction (I also chose Philip K. Dick at the same time for some reason...). I partly chose Roth after seeing by how much he outnumbered any other writer in terms of entries for best 100 novels of the 20th century (I don't remember who published the list, but it was something pretty credible, and he had 6 entries on there IIRC)…
You might like My Life as A Man. Read some online reviews first, though. Especially the angry ones. If those give you a laugh, you should definitely read it.
Re: Philip Roth has died
#23Re: Philip Roth has died
#24His 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.
This is tangential, but in 1933 major bankers, including JP Morgan, allegedly (and, in my mind, likely) plotted a fascist coup via a veterans' organization. The summer before, 17,000 veterans, most in their 30s, had gathered to violently demand payment of their WWI bonuses. The bankers plotted to foment and channel this anger to overthrow FDR, whom they despised. They failed in the early stages thanks to a retired major general that they approached to lead it instead exposing it to Congress.
Re: Philip Roth has died
#25There is a scene in Peter F. Hamilton's SF novel "Fallen Dragon" which immediately made me remember the restaurant "joke" from "Portnoy's Complaint".
SPOILER
Only here, the protagonist vomits violently after learning he's been treated (by his weirdo girlfriend) to some actual real meat from, yuck... a killed animal... not your regular vat-grown meat that every civilized person eats.
Oh, the power of childhood programming/imprinting...
Re: Philip Roth has died
#26His 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.
This is tangential, but in 1933 major bankers, including JP Morgan, allegedly (and, in my mind, likely) plotted a fascist coup via a veterans' organization. The summer before, 17,000 veterans, most in their 30s, had gathered to violently demand payment of their WWI bonuses. The bankers plotted to foment and channel this anger to overthrow FDR, whom they despised. They failed in the early stages thanks to a retired ma…
That retired general was Smedley Butler, who among other things is the only person to receive two different Medals of Honor (the other 18 double recipients got two from different military branches for the same action). He later became a major critic of the military-industrial complex. Remarkable guy.
Re: Philip Roth has died
#27There is a scene in Peter F. Hamilton's SF novel "Fallen Dragon" which immediately made me remember the restaurant "joke" from "Portnoy's Complaint". SPOILER Only here, the protagonist vomits violently after learning he's been treated (by his weirdo girlfriend) to some actual real meat from, yuck... a killed animal... not your regular vat-grown meat that every civilized person eats. Oh, the power of childhood program…
That was a brilliant book, one of Hamilton's best.
Re: Philip Roth has died
#28His 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…
I disagree. You can realise your ignorance without having to immediately correct every instance of it. And you can enjoy the slow uncovering of new information and points of view, building each into your worldview bit by bit. This is part of the joy of life, for me, the journey to deeper and deeper levels of understanding of the world.
And a decision to stick to one side is, in my opinion, a little lazy. No insult meant, it’s just that you seem unwilling to do the work and exert the extra mental effort, which is the dictionary definition. It seems like you have deemed dealing with complexity impossible so as to give yourself an excuse to remain biased. It’s not so difficult to enjoy being skeptical of both sides, and to prevent yourself from blindly accepting the narrative of one coin. And I feel like the world would be a great deal better if we all stopped preferring one side of the coin and appreciating both.
Re: Philip Roth has died
#29Earlier 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 disagree. You can realise your ignorance without having to immediately correct every instance of it. And you can enjoy the slow uncovering of new information and points of view, building each into your worldview bit by bit. This is part of the joy of life, for me, the journey to deeper and deeper levels of understanding of the world. And a decision to stick to one side is, in my opinion, a little lazy. No insult me…
Maybe you're right. I will
think about it
Re: Philip Roth has died
#30Earlier 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 disagree. You can realise your ignorance without having to immediately correct every instance of it. And you can enjoy the slow uncovering of new information and points of view, building each into your worldview bit by bit. This is part of the joy of life, for me, the journey to deeper and deeper levels of understanding of the world. And a decision to stick to one side is, in my opinion, a little lazy. No insult me…
Fish or cut bait.
Often the expected value of committing to one side, even if it is not the optimal choice, exceeds the probable value of the optimal choice delayed for additional evaluation.
But there is a human tendency to increasingly feel that one's choice is more obviously correct than it really was, leading to discounting contrary evidence and even demonizing those who make the opposite choice.