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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   808 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 11, 2026

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So, what are you reading?

I finally finished Al-Ghazali's The Book of Knowledge. I thought it would be a quasi-religious manual about logic and argument, but it turns out to be a remarkably interesting attempt to consolidate and support the basic opinions of Islam's Prophet and the Companions on the topic of knowledge in comparison to what was deemed knowledge in his time.

...the most satisfied state of mind for the sagacious is to deem yourself alone in the universe with God, in front of you is death, the day of judgment, reckoning, heaven, and the fire; ponder deeply on what will serve you best in that which is before you and abandon all else.

Otherwise I'm attempting Said's The Question of Palestine, for reasons unrelated to my reading on Islam or contemporary events, being more interested in the idea of Othering. I'm still on Bly's Iron John, and some day soon, I hope, I will make progress in The Dawn of Everything.

A bit over halfway through Blindsight. Honestly, I can't say I'm loving it. It may be destined for the charity shop.

It's one of my favorite first contact stories. What didn't you like so far?

I think it's mainly a style thing. The narration is so dense with jargon that there are often times when I literally cannot follow what's happening. Maybe this wouldn't be such an issue if I was a bigger sci-fi head.

I'm likewise having trouble keeping track of which character is which, an especially galling failing given that the narration makes such a big point of how different the characters are (both from each other and the human norm). One of the main characters has multiple personalities, but might as well not for all the difference it makes to her voice.

I may read too much sci-fi, then, because I was all-in on the jargon.

The audiobook has good delivery with distinct voices for all the characters; Spindel and Cunningham talk quite differently while both being stemlords.

The narration is so dense with jargon that there are often times when I literally cannot follow what's happening.

I think this has to be somewhat intentional, it forces you into the role of the narrator, who also doesn't understand what's happening. I'm only being half ironic. I found this to get better the longer you read. But yes, Blindsight is probably the book benefiting most from a re-read I can think of right now.

I'm likewise having trouble keeping track of which character is which, an especially galling failing given that the narration makes such a big point of how different the characters are

I know what you mean about the multiple personalities, that confused me to no end when it was introduced first. And I agree, three of them are extremely similar (I think their points of distinction are "mother", "child with romantic interest" and "child who uses curse words". But I was fine with that, if I remember correctly they mostly work different parts of the linguist job. The rest of the crew (vampire, STEM-autist, military woman and the narrator) are pretty distinct in my memory and reasonably well done voices. But that's not what Watts excels at anyway. I mostly love Blindsight for his unique ideas, the central premise, his world building, how he structured the story, and - yes - his prose. The last one is up to taste, and there can be no disputes about taste.

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