Monday morning mini-thread. I rarely re-read books, but there are essays, letters, and speeches I re-read every year or two. Here I'm going to share 11 that have an enduring impact on me. Each is great writing, but also brilliant thinking.
1. The Inner Ring by CS Lewis lewissociety.org/innerring/. I'm not a big CS Lewis fan, but in this speech he condensed so much about how the world really works, and how corruption arises, and how to resist it.
IR gets across how the real movers and shakers aren't always the people with the titles or positions, and it distills a kind of soulful plaintive craft-like dedication to purity and quality that draws influence from religion and philosophy and shows up later in Pirsig's ZAMM.
2. The Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman - jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny…. Part of Feminism's 2nd wave, TTOS lays out why organization really does matter for pursuing change.
As someone with a natural tendency towards anarchism and really despises organizational structure, Jo Freeman's essay really grounded me in how and why it's so necessary and effective. Watching Occupy and CHAZ fizzle out resonates.
It also makes me wonder if successful "leaderless" movements, like the Hong Kong protests, must have significant hidden structure.
3. The Two Cultures by CP Snow - s-f-walker.org.uk/pubsebooks/2cu… . The Two Cultures contrasts the sciences and the arts. Snow had a foot in both worlds, as do I, and found the divide frustrating. It's got deep insight into why the division is a falsity.
I also find it hilarious that Snow seems to think that the highest philosophy is to realize all of life is tragic. He pounds on it twice. I can't tell if he said it sarcastically for effect, or was serious and depressive. I love it either way.
4. Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King - africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/L… . What a powerful letter, it scrapes and claws at the moral outrage of injustice, but the double injustice of its very victims being put upon as the main agents of change.
5. A hanging by George Orwell - orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-fou… . Orwell's visceral description of a hanging is at once chilling and devastating, and pithy and warm. It's a remarkable reminder of the humanity that should bind us all, and how trivially it can be put aside.
6. Roger Federer as Religious Experience by David Foster Wallace - nytimes.com/2006/08/20/spo… I don't even like tennis, but this DFW piece is just such incredible writing. It is a reminder of just how much can be captured in mere words.
7. Mother Earth Mother Board by Neal Stephenson wired.com/1996/12/ffglas… . Written while researching Cryptonomicon, Stephenson describes the physical places and things that actually make up the internet.
It's 23 years old and still a great read. As someone who spent plenty of time looking at trenches, or labelling and cabling, it really gets across the sheer enormity of physical infrastructure it takes for you to read this tweet. I fantasize of writing an AWS equivalent.
8. Goodbye to all that by Joan Didion - docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid… . Didion's bittersweet piece about New York is such a wonderful reminder of what a personal gift experience of any time and place is.
9. What's left of the left by Benjamin Wallace-Wells - nymag.com/news/politics/…. I come back to this essay often because for me it manages to encapsulate and distill the modern political era in America.
It's supposed to be about Krugman, but the best quote is from Ezra Klein. “On the right, there’s something of a cultural underlay to the worldview: We are the real Americans, and they are not. Liberals want to say, We are correct on the evidence, and they are not.”
10. A modest proposal by Jonathan Swift. gutenberg.org/files/1080/108… Swift's satirical piece that really gets across how morally bankrupt so much of political philosophy on the right is and always has been.
11. The Joy of a Musical Session by Robert Sullivan - newyorker.com/culture/cultur… . This one is personal. I've played at every session mentioned in the article, and know most of the people as friends. So great to have it all documented so well, for others to vicariously enjoy.
I read each of these every year or two, some more often. But I'd love to find more, so if you have essays, speeches, or articles that have made an impression on you; please share!
