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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   2056 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 8, 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?

Still on Paradise Lost. It's incredibly boring whenever the good guys are talking.

Paper I'm reading: Csiszar's Seriality and the Search for Order: Scientific Print and its Problems During the Late Nineteenth Century

I just started Pale Fire by Nabokov. Just finished Vagabounds by Hao Jingfang, translated by Ken Liu.

I’m reading The Count of Monte Cristo. I was also attempting to listen to Watership Down on Audible, but for the second time in five years, found it wasn’t holding my attention. I think it’s a sign that this book is not for me.

I just finished The Wager which was a quick and fun read. I'm going to read Days of Rage next. I tried reading Snow Crash but I thought it was one of the worst books I've ever read.

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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.


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