Pivot! Pivot! But not to a lifestyle brand (how passe!) - you have to create a new AESTHETIC that your book could perfectly slot into to guarantee its relevance as a TikTok subcultural signifier, in the same way "coquettes" are big into Ottessa Moshfegh. Maybe call it "Hypatiacore" - frame it as a rejection of the anti-intellectualism of Barbiecore and "girl math" while doubling as a feminist one-upping of Ben Shapiroid "facts and logic." Have enough of a veneer of intelligence that no one will notice that the aesthetic buttressing the buzzword is "classicism but slutty." (Which is of course what every great TikTok aesthetic trend is at its core, a gloss on "X but slutty." Office siren = bizcaz but slutty. Cardigancore = comfy but slutty. Etc.)
But also, everyone SHOULD read "The Default World" !! It's very good.
Hey, I'm the Adam mentioned and when has being an "intellectual" not been pathetic? It's certainly fun at the right parties but I feel like Casaubon when I want to feel like Ladislaw.
I get the feeling you think that there is some amount of outside praise or recognition that would result in, I don´t know, happiness? fulfillment? Thirty people at a reading doesn´t do it but getting a prestigious award would. I´m pretty sure it doesn´t work that way. The people who do win those awards aren´t any happier than you are (at least not in a lasting way) or if they are it´s not because of the award. Sorry if I´m hopelessly cliche and unhelpful. I just think that outside recognition -- no matter the trumpets -- doesn´t fill people up.
I ordered your novel and I'm excited to read. I wouldn't get down by any early reception. Novels are about the slow-burn. Books can take off years after publication and germinate in the culture for a very long time. And attention on Substack and word-of-mouth is worth more than most reviews anyway - in terms of human beings reading about your book and wanting to buy it - as much as reviews are nice.
I also wouldn't give up so soon on the novel self-promotion. You can keep boosting. Always people to sell on it. Next year, I plan to be quite insufferable about my book.
“In reality, unless you already yearn to know what Plato really said, you aren't going to be drawn to the Great Books project. But if you already have that yearning, then you don't really need to read a defense of the GBs.”
You know this is Meno’s paradox right?
But the answer is that even if you already love GBs you still may desire to feel your lifestyle validated by a self help book person. And if someone already has interests that GBs address, for instance they worry about how they can be persuasive, they are in fact already interested in books like Gorgias and Thucydides even they they don’t know it yet. Education is possible!
This came up in my feed and I couldn't stop reading it. The great books ARE worth reading. Maybe I'll be able to explain why on my tombstone; but right now, I'm too busy reading.
Pivot! Pivot! But not to a lifestyle brand (how passe!) - you have to create a new AESTHETIC that your book could perfectly slot into to guarantee its relevance as a TikTok subcultural signifier, in the same way "coquettes" are big into Ottessa Moshfegh. Maybe call it "Hypatiacore" - frame it as a rejection of the anti-intellectualism of Barbiecore and "girl math" while doubling as a feminist one-upping of Ben Shapiroid "facts and logic." Have enough of a veneer of intelligence that no one will notice that the aesthetic buttressing the buzzword is "classicism but slutty." (Which is of course what every great TikTok aesthetic trend is at its core, a gloss on "X but slutty." Office siren = bizcaz but slutty. Cardigancore = comfy but slutty. Etc.)
But also, everyone SHOULD read "The Default World" !! It's very good.
Obviously you're correct! See, this is why it's good to know youngsters
status anxiety is the most powerful force of the 21st century
Only the 21st?
Hey, I'm the Adam mentioned and when has being an "intellectual" not been pathetic? It's certainly fun at the right parties but I feel like Casaubon when I want to feel like Ladislaw.
I get the feeling you think that there is some amount of outside praise or recognition that would result in, I don´t know, happiness? fulfillment? Thirty people at a reading doesn´t do it but getting a prestigious award would. I´m pretty sure it doesn´t work that way. The people who do win those awards aren´t any happier than you are (at least not in a lasting way) or if they are it´s not because of the award. Sorry if I´m hopelessly cliche and unhelpful. I just think that outside recognition -- no matter the trumpets -- doesn´t fill people up.
That's definitely what you tell yourself when you're failing, I find that when things are going well there's no need for such coping mechanisms
I ordered your novel and I'm excited to read. I wouldn't get down by any early reception. Novels are about the slow-burn. Books can take off years after publication and germinate in the culture for a very long time. And attention on Substack and word-of-mouth is worth more than most reviews anyway - in terms of human beings reading about your book and wanting to buy it - as much as reviews are nice.
I also wouldn't give up so soon on the novel self-promotion. You can keep boosting. Always people to sell on it. Next year, I plan to be quite insufferable about my book.
“In reality, unless you already yearn to know what Plato really said, you aren't going to be drawn to the Great Books project. But if you already have that yearning, then you don't really need to read a defense of the GBs.”
You know this is Meno’s paradox right?
But the answer is that even if you already love GBs you still may desire to feel your lifestyle validated by a self help book person. And if someone already has interests that GBs address, for instance they worry about how they can be persuasive, they are in fact already interested in books like Gorgias and Thucydides even they they don’t know it yet. Education is possible!
This came up in my feed and I couldn't stop reading it. The great books ARE worth reading. Maybe I'll be able to explain why on my tombstone; but right now, I'm too busy reading.
Why have you never written a speculative novel?
Are you kidding me!? A book, from you, about the Great Books absolutely deserves attention. I will pre-order it when it comes out.
OK, I am pathetic. I admitted to Mortimer J. Adler at the time.
For what it's worth, I'm very excited to read The Default World.