What I’m Hearing
In line with the overall goal of Open Doors, here I will link lists of the books or other content I’ve consumed and comment on what’s most recent.
These lists serve three functions.
Answer the question, “who or what am I currently being influenced by?”
Create a network of ideas expanded upon in \my various po
Serve as amicroblog —a place for any impressions, reactions, and hot takes.
In the last few weeks, I’ve finished two works of fiction. First was the very good, great even, The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe: the first book in the Book of the New Sun Quartet. I won’t go much into the plot here except to say that it’s essentially a fantasy/sci-fi bildungsroman of the character Severian—an apprentice turned journeyman “torturer” who is writing in the narrative in the past tense as, I think, the “autarch:” something like a monarch in the fictional world. The story is great because it is, well, fun while also doing what the genre can do best: dig into or at least ask good philosophical questions.
I also finished Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. I thought I’d love the collection as I loved the HBO miniseries based on the stories. The stories aren’t not good (forgive the double negative. I think it matters here) but they’re just kind of upsetting in an unappealing way. That may be a strange way of putting it, but I can hold it in contrast with a novel like No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy—very (very) different subject matter, but also upsetting in an appealing way. I’m not one to say characters have to be likable for stories to be good—a silly concept—but Olive, in the book at least, was just something of a pain to read about. Maybe it was Frances McDormand playing Olive (as well as the rest of the cast) that made me love the miniseries. I will forever cite this as the perfect example of when the film/show was better than the book (contrary to what people always seem to claim). The last thing I’ll say, because this really is getting too long, is that maybe the best part of the collection is the depiction of Crosby, Maine. The town really is a character all its own: a lovely one, too.
I just finished The Iron Flute, a collection of Zen koans compiled by Genrō Ōryū in the 18th century and commented on by him, his disciple, Fugai, and 20th-century Zen master, Nyogen Senzaki. Zen koans are often thought of by laypeople as something like riddles to be solved, but this is a mistake. I’m not a student of Zen, but my understanding after hearing commentary from those listed as well as other figures in Zen like Henry Shukman and Zen master, Thích Nhất Hạnh, that koans, in a way, represent realization in themselves. They aren’t to be puzzled over but rather to be absorbed, as it were. Koans are to be meditated on—not as something like a mantra but as more of a window to the nature of self, experience, or reality.
One of the main ways I’ve listened to long-form journalism was the Audm app. Professional readers would read pieces from The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and others. A \couple of years ago, The New York Times purchased Audm, and it has long been the intention to migrate these features over to the new The New York Times Audio app. This wouldn’t be a problem, except that it turns out they’ve only created an app for iPhone, and Android users are effectively left in the dark. For the visually impaired interested in good journalism, this fact is disappointing, to say the least. That being said, I’m also aware that, in recent months, I’ve commented here several times about my disappointment in what I’m hearing. Still, it’s an odd feeling. The switch comes in just a few days which means, among other things, I’m really going to have to rethink what I’m writing here. Oh well—more time for books.
I’ll keep this short: partly because Fiction went so long, partly because I’m exhausted, partly because I almost just forgot about Wordle, and mostly because my wife is going to be quite upset if I crawl into bed too late and wake her up—God help us all. Anyway, I’m sure I’ve written about it here before, but I’ve been on a streak of listening to The Best of Car Talk. Without exaggerating, I think it’s fair to say that it’s one of the best podcasts out there—and this is coming from someone who voraciously consumes almost nothing but audio content. It was a tragedy when the show stopped running, but NPR airing re-runs, in order, and then continuing with the podcast is saintly indeed. I’m currently in 1994 and all I can say is I’m glad I never had to drive those heaps (though my first car was a ‘96, I think, Bonneville and that was alright. A boat, but alright). However, Tom and Ray Magliozzi are surely two of the most wonderful people to have walked the Earth (or, at least, talked on the radio). It’s a shame I can’t listen to an episode tonight while I lay in bed: I’d just be laughing and wake up my wife. Maybe I’ll try anyway. It’s worth it.
Past Microblogs
May 4, 2023
Fiction
I recently had my first taste of Octavia Butler’s fiction in Unexpected Stories. Maybe I should have started with something that’s supposed to be a heavy-hitter like Parable of the Sower because I was a bit underwhelmed. Especially when the collection’s subtitle, Two Novellas, hinted at something a bit more substantial, I hoped to be able to dig in a bit more. The first piece barely clears the bar to be considered a long short story, and the second was maybe a third as long. Obviously, fiction doesn’t need to be long to be good, but there wasn’t much here to sustain interest.
I also just read Richard Morgan’s Altered Carbon—two sci-fi books in a row was pure coincidence—and, though better, I was again left a bit disappointed. There were a few interesting ideas here: the central premise of conscious/mind transfer into “sleeves,” “storage” as punishment for crimes, and the long-distance communication tool called “needlecasting” (basically a copy of the Ansible in Orson Scott Card’s Enderverse). In other words, semi-original but not overwhelmingly so. Otherwise, Altered Carbon is just a hard-boiled cybernoir novel. Fun, but ultimately lackluster. Oh, and there was far too much (pretty graphic) sex that added virtually nothing.
Nonfiction
I recently finished The Alignment Problem (October, 2020) by Brian Christian. Ostensibly, this book was about a common concern in AI research and among those interested that goes by the book’s namesake. Basically, the concern is that, as AI develops (especially once we get to AGI), the technology won’t be aligned with humanity’s ethical and moral interests.
First of all, those problems are far from sorted out among humans, but let’s leave that aside. Even if all humans were aligned, we’d be far from solving the alignment problem with AI. I wasn’t expecting a solution, of course, but the book basically just reiterated and expanded on what I just said in a few sentences. The Alignment Problem ends up being maybe 75% developmental psychology and spends most of the rest of its time discussing issues like racism, sexism, and others. Important problems? Of course, but I was hoping for a bit more in the way of a modern AI ethics conversation. Maybe the other 25% (being generous) discusses the history of computer science and AI development, but that only takes you halfway, at best. Christian was maybe just trying to explain the problem I can only shrug at something like that.
Journalism
Ok, so Tucker got fired. Great, but every take is out there already so I don’t have much to say. Then, Don Lemon, too. Great, but again there isn’t really a reason to say anything. Buzzfeed News shut down. That’s sort of interesting—they published a few interesting pieces over the years but… fine. If this all says anything, it’s that there could be some kind of shakeup happening in media.
I did read an interesting piece in WIRED—”This Is a Philosopher on Drugs,” by Justin E. H. Smith. He tries to make an argument about how the field has been too-long uninterested in psychedelics as a tool in theory of mind and other disciplines (medicine doesn’t come up, but it’s not hard to believe Smith would have a similar take). Maybe I’ve read too much Huxxley or am secretly a child of Alan Watts and the ‘60s. Or, maybe Sam Harris, Roland Griffiths, and others have convinced me of the value of psychedelics. But, Smith’s piece seemed a little silly. I kept thinking, “Wait, I thought this was settled.” I guess not in Smith’s circles, but oh well: I’ll take another ally.
Podcast
For once, I don’t have much to write for this section. It’s not that I haven’t heard anything interesting lately in the podcast space, but nothing is standing out in a major way. More likely, it’s that I’ve just written 800 or so words in other sections about pieces I didn’t love and it’s time to call it quits for the night. I suppose it’s worth calling out one bright light in my media diet recently. Ukraine: The Latest from The Telegraph continues to be a virtually essential resource. As I’ve written in earlier posts, I’ve cut out quite a lot of news or current events content for myself. Ukraine: The Latest is the major exception. If anyone’s interested in understanding the war from military, political, and diplomatic perspectives, here’s where to turn.
April 16, 2023
Fiction
Since my last post, I finished The David Foster Wallace Reader. This might sound hyperbolic, but I’m convinced that DFW was one of the greatest writers of all time—in English, at least. I won’t repeat what I wrote before except to say that as soon as Infinite Jest comes up on my list, I won’t be scared away by its length. Since I finished the collection, I listened to Beowulf again. I read it back in high school and then again in college. I’m no expert of course, but, as far as epic poems go, it doesn’t stand up to others like Illiad, Odyssey, or Aeneid. Currently: listening to 1984 for the first time since reading in high school. As with Tim O’brien’s The Things They Carried (Which I also read again after nearly 15 years), I’m expecting to get far more out of the book than I did originally.
Nonfiction
The David Foster Wallace Reader also included several essays—a few of the hits: “Getting Aqy From Being Already Pretty Much Away From it All,” “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” “E Unibum Pluras,” and several others. Again, the man is a master. I explained his suicide to my wife and honestly said that we’re probably lucky to have as much material as we have—I’ suspect he held off suicidal urges far longer than could be expected—but I can’t help but imagine and desire his commentary on nearly everything that has transpired since his death in 2008. Maybe I should pick up a collection like The Best American Essays 2022, but I doubt I’ll read something that compares favorably. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic. I’m sure someone else will emerge—it happens in every genre: Ted Chiang in science fiction, for example. But, not yet.
Journalism
Again, I have to punt in this category. I’m sure there is a lot going on in this category that I’m unaware of, but nothing is leaping out the way it did even just a few years ago: i.e. “One By One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps,” published in The Atlantic. In other news, I’m still thinking about what will happen to the link beside this post. What is the purpose of that page? I could simply delete it, but that seems lazy.
Podcast
In contrast to what I wrote above for Journalism, quality in the world of podcasts, at least those I’m listening to (click the link to see a list), is either maintained or improving. However, I also don’t have much to say in this category. Again, this seems like a personal problem. I’ve batted around the idea with a friend of recording our own for a while now, but no one has the time, energy, or a great idea for topic/structure. I’ll keep my 0 readers posted. Expect something around 2047.
March 31, 2023
Fiction
I’ve recently been on a David Foster Wallace kick. From his first published story, at age 25 no less, “The Planet Tilaphon As it Stands in Relation to The Bad Thing,” to Infinite Jest—segments of it for now, at least,—I’m convinced that he may be the greatest American writer of the last 100 years or more. Yes, that’s saying a lot, and there is a lot of competition, but it may very well be true. The man is simply a genius. It’s hard to put into words in a short form like this, but his ability to weave together character, setting, situation, and conceptt into coherent structures is astonishing.
Nonfiction
Most recently, I’ve completed a Great Courses series titled Great Ideas of Philosophy by Daniel N. Robinson—a series of 60 lectures covering a timeline from Plato (and a bit earlier) to Wittgenstein and other 20th-century thinkers. My first impression” this is supremely useful as a survey to reference back to. My second: this feels like it’s missing something(s) and is entirely focused on Western thought. To be fair, what did I expect? World philosophy can’t possibly be covered in a single series of lectures. However, Robertson does seem to think, or at least gives off the impression, that there really only is a Western philosophical tradition—near the beginning, he virtually sweeps aside the East and, really, anywhere outside of Europe except for some brief encounters with the Arabic world.. So, yes, useful but not essential.
Journalism
It has been about a year and a half since my last post here in this micro-blog format. It’s not that I’ve stopped reading the wonderful pieces written \for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, and others, but I’d be lying if I said my relationship with journalism hasn’t changed. I’ve read several good pieces recently—there have been a few good pieces on AI in WIRED lately—but written journalism seems to have lost some importance for me. Most of this is coming from my side, I’m sure, but I just haven’t seen quality pieces like what I was seeing a few years ago. I’d like to say more about that in a ReflectionsI post, so I’ll leave it there for now. Needless to say, I’m not quite sure what the “Journalism” page on this site should look like.
Podcast
Recently, I decided that my incessant listening to legal, political, and news podcasts was having a negative impact on my mental wellbeing. It’d be irresponsible of me, I think, to abandon these subjects completely, and I’m keeping up without diving head first. The only exception is following the war in Ukraine—that seems important for me to stay up on and doesn’t cause the same headache. Ukraine: The Latest from The Telegraph is the best I’ve found so far. Otherwise, I’m listening to more The Best of Car Talk, The Moth, and others in the fun or -interest categories. Then there are my staples like Making Sense, Knowledge Fight, and Decoding the Gurus. So far, so good.
2023
Please wait for 2024
2021
A year of trying to discover just what I was interested in.