• 0 Posts
  • 13 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: July 9th, 2023
  • redhorsejacket@lemmy.worldtoGreentext@sh.itjust.works•talking to my dad about depression
    2·
    2 days ago

    Yes, I also really struggled with his writing style. It felt like he was layering in additional degrees of obfuscation by creating meta-characters and framing his philosophical points in the form of fictionalized conversations from this road trip he took. Like, bud, you’re already talking about abstracted concepts like Platonic Good. Do we REALLY need more abstraction?

    To which Prisig, author of the most (financially) successful book on philosophy in America, would say, “Evidently, yes.”

    At least Thoreau came by his difficult to parse writing style honestly, being a product of the 19th century and all.

  • redhorsejacket@lemmy.worldtoGreentext@sh.itjust.works•talking to my dad about depression
    1·
    2 days ago

    Could very well be. Similarly to Walden, I read it for school, and did not much care for it. One of the few concrete points I remember being discussed was a comparison between a character that rides a rickety old bike, but knows how to keep it running, and the character who rides a new bike, but relies on mechanics when things do inevitably break on it. That sort of rumination on a man who can fix things being happier than a man who can’t is basically the entire premise of Walden.

    Furthermore, in refreshing my memory of what subjects Prisig touched upon, I see/vaguely remember his attempts to reconcile rational empiricism with intuitive understanding, which is also very Thoreau.

    However, as I’ve said, I didn’t particularly enjoy my brush with either text, and it’s been 15+ years since I last looked through either. So, it’s entirely possible that they are actually philosophical polar opposites and my C- in Philosophy 101 was well earned.

  • redhorsejacket@lemmy.worldtoGreentext@sh.itjust.works•talking to my dad about depression
    16·
    3 days ago

    This comes from the introduction to “Walden, or, Life in the Woods”, in which the author gets fed up with modern (1840s) society and fucks off to the woods of Massachusetts for a little over 2 years. During this time he attempted to be fully self-reliant, building his residence from the ground up and eating only what he could hunt or gather. It is emblematic of the American transcendentalism movement, which emphasized connection with nature, self-reliance, and intuitive knowledge of truth. It was, in essence, the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance of its day, if you’re aware of that book.

    I read it in high school and I did not think much of it at that time. I think, perhaps, it would find more fertile ground in my thoughts now, were I to revisit it. Certainly in the decades since first reading it, I’ve become more sympathetic to the idea of pissing off to the woods and minding my own business until I expire.

  • redhorsejacket@lemmy.worldtoCooking @lemmy.world•Burgers, squash.
    3·
    6 days ago

    This post must have caught my brain in mid hiccup, because I was trying to parse if these were supposed to be vegetarian burgers made of squash, or if this was a language difference and you were translating “smash burger”. Took longer than I’d like to admit to reorient myself lol.

    How did you prepare your squash? A neighbor’s zucchini are starting to come in, and they always share some with me, but I’ve never found a cooking method I’m super satisfied with. Grilling works well, but I don’t have that capability currently.