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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   3404 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 2, 2023

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.

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So, what are you reading?

I'm picking up Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist. It has been on the backlog for a while as an influential book, but a careless thought has finally given me a reason to be interested: I wonder what impact wokeness has had on highly successful minorities.

Paper I'm reading: Thiele's Things Fall Apart: Integrity and Visibility in Democratic Liberal Education.

Last night I finished reading Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time, which my girlfriend bought for me because she said I reminded her of the protagonist, Pechorin. I'd never read a Russian novel before (unless you count Lolita and Ayn Rand's novels, which is a stretch) and I'd heard they had a reputation for being slow and dull, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's pacy, engaging and even funny in places. When I started reading it last night, Pechorin had just arrived in Pyatigorsk, and to my surprise I found it so engrossing that I stayed up past my bedtime to finish the whole book. It was oddly moving and I'm still digesting it.

Pity that Pechorin is such a dickhead. I guess the comparison doesn't reflect very well on me. If anything I'd say he's both braver and more charismatic than me.

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