my gut reaction was that the fraudster was A - although partly I think this was because the poll above said that most people thought it was B. I do think you can often tell when someone is regurgitating what they have read or heard (people do it all the time with things they heard on the telly or read on the paper, on subjects as silly as the English football team or whatever). B just has a bit more sense of someone who has actually thought for themselves.
I saw a book in waterstones the other day that was a bluffer's encyclopaedia --- an A-Z that would enable you to hold your own in educated society. What struck me was not so much the existence of the book or that anyone would want to buy it, more by the tacit admission that reading it meant that you felt you weren't part of educated society. Educated people haven't read every book ever written, and there's no shame in not knowing the specifics of Beethoven's career.
People are funny, strange, insecure little things.
I've never wanted to read War & Peace, particularly....
I chose the wrong one, whichever one that was in the end.
That's a good point about not knowing everything. Perhaps it's because we live in the information age so we're all expected to absorb everything instantly. As Harold Bloom might say: information is everywhere, where may we find wisdom?
2 comments:
my gut reaction was that the fraudster was A - although partly I think this was because the poll above said that most people thought it was B. I do think you can often tell when someone is regurgitating what they have read or heard (people do it all the time with things they heard on the telly or read on the paper, on subjects as silly as the English football team or whatever). B just has a bit more sense of someone who has actually thought for themselves.
I saw a book in waterstones the other day that was a bluffer's encyclopaedia --- an A-Z that would enable you to hold your own in educated society. What struck me was not so much the existence of the book or that anyone would want to buy it, more by the tacit admission that reading it meant that you felt you weren't part of educated society. Educated people haven't read every book ever written, and there's no shame in not knowing the specifics of Beethoven's career.
People are funny, strange, insecure little things.
I've never wanted to read War & Peace, particularly....
ST
I chose the wrong one, whichever one that was in the end.
That's a good point about not knowing everything. Perhaps it's because we live in the information age so we're all expected to absorb everything instantly. As Harold Bloom might say: information is everywhere, where may we find wisdom?
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