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Everything Studies

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Tag: literature

The Importance of Being a Slog

19 November, 202117 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 8 Comments

Why are supposedly serious and profound fiction often difficult and boring to read? Is there a necessary connection between the two? I argue yes, a bit, but it's hard to tell when the connection is illusory and fake. Read more (23 min, 5700 words).

Notes on Notes

24 September, 202017 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 6 Comments

A tale on the nature of footnotes, writing in general, and other things, told almost entirely in footnotes. Read more (18 min, 5500 words).

To Die Happily Ever After

29 July, 202017 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 11 Comments

I'm apprehensive about transhumanism, and have no particular desire to live forever. A big part of the reason is that I believe happiness is precarious, and our chance at achieveing it in radically altered circumstances is not great.
Read more (13 min, 2800 words).

A Meta-Meditation

23 January, 201917 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 11 Comments

I wrote a spontaneous piece on the tensions between cultural/intellectual accessibility and ambition that under later scrutiny wasn't quite up to snuff. Instead of publishing something sub par or discard it I used it as a jumping off point for discussing the nature of creative work, writing and thinking in general. Read more (13 min, 4200 words).

Six Kinds of Reading

12 March, 201817 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 7 Comments

"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).

Rant on Arrival

20 June, 201717 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 17 Comments

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”

6 April, 201717 January, 2022 ~ John Nerst ~ 6 Comments

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)

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