The Anxiety Of Undisturbed Leisure

gately

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
305
I'm currently reading Charlotte's Web for the first time. It's been refreshing to find a children's book that is well written, charming, funny, and surprising. That came out about 70 years ago, though.
E. B. White is great.
 

orewashin

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Messages
327
I'm currently reading Charlotte's Web for the first time. It's been refreshing to find a children's book that is well written, charming, funny, and surprising. That came out about 70 years ago, though.
I didn't mean to say childrens' books can't be stimulating to adults. Imagine the amount of basic knowledge you've never stumbled upon for one reason or another. Adults and children can be complete amateurs in any given subject. However, children will tend to learn them faster than adults.
 
OP
M

metabolizm

Guest
E. B. White is great.

I'm about to embark on a career as a primary teacher, so it's an absolute godsend to find children's books like this that I could actually enjoy teaching.
 

gately

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
305
Greekgoddess or whatever is half right though. Not everyone is going to achieve peace from the same things. The important thing is following your dharma. Someone who finds complete satisfaction plowing fields and being told what to do is not going to be happy as a scientist. And vice versa. If that’s too varna-systemy / Bhagavad Gitay reductionist, sue me. But it has always rang true to me.
 

gately

Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2013
Messages
305
I'm about to embark on a career as a primary teacher, so it's an absolute godsend to find children's books like this that I could actually enjoy teaching.
His Elements of Style is just about the only style guide worth its weight in salt. And if you can find his Paris Review “Writers at Work” interview it’s got some powerful life advice. Him and later, Gordon Lish, had such a profound effect on American literature. Love him to death.

C.S. Lewis also did phenomenal children’s work with the Narnia books, especially the first two. If you revisit those you might feel inspired to teach them as well.
 
OP
M

metabolizm

Guest
His Elements of Style is just about the only style guide worth its weight in salt. And if you can find his Paris Review “Writers at Work” interview it’s got some powerful life advice. Him and later, Gordon Lish, had such a profound effect on American literature. Love him to death.

C.S. Lewis also did phenomenal children’s work with the Narnia books, especially the first two. If you revisit those you might feel inspired to teach them as well.

Thank you!
 

snacks

Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2020
Messages
388
Location
Rostov-on-Don, Russia/Southern United States
His Elements of Style is just about the only style guide worth its weight in salt. And if you can find his Paris Review “Writers at Work” interview it’s got some powerful life advice. Him and later, Gordon Lish, had such a profound effect on American literature. Love him to death.

C.S. Lewis also did phenomenal children’s work with the Narnia books, especially the first two. If you revisit those you might feel inspired to teach them as well.

EDIT: let me find the right link sorry

Atmosphere in Weird Fiction by Clark Ashton Smith

One of his many snippets. He has lots of good writing advice but spaced out into a lot of different writings that I can't find just now
 
T

TheBeard

Guest
When you guys are done reducing every question of meaning to endotoxins and cortisol what are you gonna do with your excel spreadsheet approach to life? Decision paralysis can be due to genuine uncertainty or a realistic understanding of the limitations of time just as easily as anything listed there

I'm not disagreeing with you in principle that this could be an issue, just that it isnt usually/shouldnt be an explanation of first resort

Well, everything starts in the gut.

The rest are just cascaded consequences of an inadequate diet that produced inflammation, clogged the liver, etc...
 

Based Kantian

Member
Joined
Sep 5, 2020
Messages
60
Childrens' books seem dumb too, but they can be stimulating to children and unintelligent adults. Don't underestimate the stupidity of the average person. The lack of "smart" media in the mainstream reflects consumer demand.
They reflect consumer demand, but also the political needs of those in power. Many books are not much different than the "debraining machines" that Ray has described schools as. Besides, I don't think anybody is too stupid to approach classics or introductory material in some scientific/humanities field they find interesting.
 

orewashin

Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2020
Messages
327
They reflect consumer demand, but also the political needs of those in power. Many books are not much different than the "debraining machines" that Ray has described schools as. Besides, I don't think anybody is too stupid to approach classics or introductory material in some scientific/humanities field they find interesting.
I dunno about the theory that they are a deliberate attempt to stupefy the population.

Rote learning is cheaper. It saves money. So does underpaying teachers. So does assigning more students per teacher. These things are all related to poor quality of education, and all save money. I don't think there's any conspiracy.

This pattern is found in modern gaming. Big AAA companies milk the same formula. Instead of expanding intelligence, games encourage a drone-like routine of grinding and leveling up. It's easier to stick the formula than make something new, which may fail.

Modern animes are more likely to cater to the taste of the average joe because seasoned watchers are uncommon and unprofitable. If elements are too complicated, provocative, or unrelateable, then they are removed in favor of cheap fan service and over-the-top fight scenes.

It comes down to the same thing: Money. The only conspiracy is in the little people trying to make an extra buck. Why would the big boys at top bother with media? There's better ways to make wealth multiply.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom