Bacon's Essays (1625? Edition) Dedication and 1 (Truth

Bacon's Essays (1625? Edition)

Bonus: 

Somehow, we were assigned A Few Good Men in 7th or 8th grade. Maybe it was just excerpts?

Summary: Truth is good, but lies can be fun (as long as you don't believe them).

Commentary: 

This is going to be kind of like Fruits of Solitude, but with one number for the whole set instead of one per maxim. I think.

This is the oldest (actual prose) I've read so far (dating back to the 1500s, ) in the reading. Some of the Greek stuff is older, but it's translated into (oldish) modern English instead of EME. I'll manage, but it will slow me down a bit.. Also, gratuitous Latin.

One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum daemonum, because it fireth the imagination; and yet, it is but with the shadow of a lie. 

POETRY IS DEMON WINE!

 I like Bacon's distinction here between poetry, fantasy, etc. A lot of the "truthiness" writers wind up ranting about how plays are evil or something, but we can all be adults and realize Jack Nicholson isn't actually a murderous hotel custodian, asylum patient, colonel, etc.

Phaedo Part ̡

Phaedo

Bonus: 

Why don't we get drunk and read shitty philosophy.

Summary: I got drunk and finished Phaedo.

Commentary: 

')

Almost a winky face.

misologists

A person who hates reason and logic.       

 Phaedo done: 0/5. Dialogues are terrible, and this one is extra bullshit.

 

Phaedo Part ё

 Phaedo

Bonus: I have exhausted my meme supply.

Summary: Soul, body, changeable, blah, blah.

Commentary: It's just a repetition of the previous page(s)!

Phaedo Part ٦

 Phaedo

Bonus:

I am currently in a Zoom. We'll see which is more interesting. 

Summary: BUT THE SOUL IS UNSEEN AND THE UNSEEN IS UNCHANGING!

Commentary: That's u+666

I did, in fact, have to pay attention to my Zoom. Read slightly more Phaedo. Still bad.

Phaedo: Part ⍨

Phaedo

Bonus: 

This is now a Robert Rodriguez meme series.

Summary: Some places are big.

Commentary:

Hellas, he replied, is a large place,

"Hell is a large place" is the title of my anime about a Demon Bounty Hunter. It's just Yu Yu Trigun.

 

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson (1948)

"The Lottery"

Bonus: Live fake horse racing!

Summary: Rock flies, somebody dies. 

Commentary: This story sucks, and it has sucked everytime I read it since middle school. It has three issues.

 1. Shirley Jackson's prose is like nails on a chalkboard. "the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green." Get the fuck out of here. That reads like it was written by a middle schooler.

2. It's opaque and contradictory in, I assume, an intentional way, but it's just annoying.

3. Tessie is the least interesting/likable character in the story. I wouldn't go so far as to say I want her to get stoned to death, but she's not much above that. 

The story of how Frankenstein was written is just 1800s Epstein shit.

 Girl with Daddy issues gets groomed by older guy, taken to secluded location, winds up pregnant, he also bangs her step-sister, no one knows who some of the kids' dads are, suspicious adoptions, all while the poors starve from climate change.