Bonus:
You're welcome, Macgyver
Summary: "I'm an intellectual. I also ate A LOT of opium."
Commentary: Gonna stumble through this as a daily. Not quite sure how the pacing will work. Shout out to Standard eBooks which is more convenient than Gutenberg for a full length book. Also, I'm not technically violating their license (I'm pretty sure I am when I yoink stuff from PG).
I just like the idea of the writer directly addressing the audience. I've talked a little before about the beginning of The Odyssey beginning with TELL ME O MUSE and my love of rambly blogs attached to webcomics and what not. I liked having a parasocial with creators before it was cool.
Probably the most noteworthy thing in the intro is his:
apology for breaking through that delicate and honourable reserve which, for the most part, restrains us from the public exposure of our own errors and infirmities. Nothing, indeed, is more revolting to English feelings than the spectacle of a human being obtruding on our notice his moral ulcers or scars, and tearing away that “decent drapery” which time or indulgence to human frailty may have drawn over them
This stiff-upper-lip-stoicism is definitely a running theme in a lot of the stuff I've read the last two years. On the one hand, people whining about their faults is annoying, but there are some problems society has gotten better at dealing with by discussing (like addiction, wow).
