site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2592 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 23, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

2
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

So, what are you reading?

I'm still on The Dawn of Everything. Not much progress.

The conservative imprint Encounter Books has released the first volume of James Hankins & Allen Guezlo’s Western Civ textbook The Golden Thread. It’s a warts-and-all history of Western civilization, designed to be attractive to both students and casual readers, that is nonetheless a rebuttal to oikophobic, postmodern academics who genuinely dislike the West. I’m only a couple hundred pages in but am very much enjoying it.

A Bridge Too Far.

Kind of slow going. Still in planning phase before the drops. It’s honest, perhaps to the point of polemic, about how poorly things are about to go. I feel like that actually detracts from the experience.

Castles of Steel told a similar bureaucratic, egotistical tragedy. But I remember it held off on assigning blame. Bridge jumps right in.

And no, I haven’t seen the whole movie.

I'm reading through Jonathan Franzen's Freedom right now and damn, I've been devouring it. I was worried given the critical acclaim that I'd hate it, but it's been extremely enjoyable so far. Reminiscing about my days in the midwest and the people I knew from my time there.

I was worried given the critical acclaim that I'd hate it, but it's been extremely enjoyable so far.

I had the same reaction. It was a great read.

About one-fifth of the way through Cryptonomicon. The setting and tone make me want to re-read Catch-22, which I last read over a decade ago.

Currently reading The Balkan Languages by Victor A. Friedman and Brian D. Joseph, from the Cambridge Language Surveys series.

Went back to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I tried to read it once and got to about the middle and abandoned it because I just couldn't make any sense out of it. On the second attempt, I kind of understand what he's talking about much more - not exactly agreeing or liking everything, but at least I now understand what's going on. Willing to see how far I get this time and if I can get to the end without losing it again.

Also after finishing Asimov's autobiography that I mentioned a while ago, I realized I never got to read the prequels to Foundation series, and read Prelude to Foundation. Which was pretty decent, but a bit underwhelming - maybe a curse of all prequels, since reading the Foundation series (a long, long time ago) was so exciting, and the prequels do what prequels usually do - describe things that happened before the important things happened. Also, the appearance of robots there was kinda meh - yeah, robots, so what, nothing really changed. So I got exactly what I should have expected, which wasn't bad, but also wasn't an absolute must read. I'll probably read Forward the Foundation next sometime soon.

If you still don't get on with Zen you could try Pirsig's Lila.

I'm currently reading the last book in the Sun Eater series by Christopher Ruocchio. The subtextual Catholic apologia is threatening to lose its "sub" status, but it's still quite enjoyable if you're looking for something that straddles the sci-fi fantasy line in the same way as Dune.

Can you summarize the last couple of books? I'm curious what the deal with the "gods" is but didn't enjoy it enough to finish.

The evil gods are Lovecraftian monsters that may or may not be Angels who rebelled against future God.

Future God seems to be some kind of ultimate post-singularity intelligence that is impacting the past in order to guarantee its existence.

Thanks!

Threshold: Unbound Book 5 by Nicoli Gonnella.

Shogun by Clavell. Someone mentioned a new miniseries being created based on it, which I will never see (have never seen the original miniseries, either), but it reminded me of the book's existence. It seemed like every household I visited as a kid had a copy, and it was easy to spot because it was massive.

I'm half done. It's entertaining but far from high literature. The political parts are very well-written and he picked good surnames for the Japanese characters so it's easy to remember them all. No massive battles so far, but the little fights have not been well-written. Definitely his weak point. All the ways the two cultures view each other as horrific barbarians is enjoyable, but the Japanese overall come out looking better (so far).

The anti-Catholic animus is prominent and amusing. It's basically the Predator 2-arm meme between the Japanese and Protestants for hating the Catholics. I've read out-there criticism of the Jews that could be swapped for what everyone in the book thinks of the Jesuits.

I can't imagine it's all that historically accurate (and I don't mean his descriptions of castles or the messenger pigeons, which the wiki entry fixates on), so I mentally think about it as an early-1600s-Englishman traveling to the fantastic land of Nippon, where instead of elves, orcs, or dwarves, there are Nipponese creatures. Someone here mentioned wanting a high fantasy work set in 1600s Europe instead of a fictional medieval Europe where most fantasy tends to take place and I try to view it through that lens.

I loved Shogun, but I understood it completely differently after reading King Rat, Clavell's first and largely autobiographical novel. Viewing Shogun as the work of a man who lived through imprisonment by the Japanese, I think it's asking much more interesting literary questions. The book is about forgiveness, How can Blackthorne ever forgive the Japanese for boiling his crewman alive and pissing on him? Meaning how can Clavell forgive the Japanese for what he went through in Changi? And how, in turn, can the Japanese forgive the West for Hiroshima? Clavell, personally, experienced having his life saved by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how can the Japanese forgive that?

Viewed as Clavell working through those questions psychologically, I think the book is much more interesting.

What's always disappointed me about Clavell is that I read Shogun first, and all his other books are only half as good by comparison.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats