"The Elephant in the Brain" had an interesting effect on me, which made me think up a typology of ways reading can change the structure of your mind. Read more (10 min, 2500 words).
Six Kinds of Reading
Tag: fiction
Rant on Arrival
Using the movie ”Arrival” as a jumping-off point, I rant about the ubiquity of personal drama in storytelling, defend ”flat” characters and positive emotions over negative, and criticize the ”figure it out yourself” ethos in fiction. Read more (15 min, 3700 words)
Reactions to “Infinite Jest”
Reading David Foster Wallace’s ”Infinite Jest” over a period of six months provoked a lot of thought about what makes a good book and why I didn’t particularly care for this one. Read more (16 min, 3900 words)
The Underdetection of Fiction Logic
Fiction works differently from reality and I think I sometimes forget that when watching movies and reading books. Other people, I suspect, often make the opposite mistake.Read more (900 words)
