Do You Even Lit?

Rich waxes lyrical about the dinner party scene. Do men have impaired theory of mind, or are they just assholes? On the invisible mastery of social reality, and capturing subjective experience in lit…

A fragmented jumble of multiple shifting perspectives, punctuated by abrupt jumps between topics and timelines, infused with the frustration of trying to express intensely-felt experiences within the…

These days the 'multiverse' idea is standard marvel slop. But if we read this story in 1941 it would have blown our tiny little minds.

how tf did Borges sit at the cutting edge of philosophy and phys…

Our critical consensus on John William's sleeper bestseller Stoner:

• There is almost no plot
• The main character doesn't get the girl, or really succeed at anything
• Gigantic violation of 'show don't te…

closing out the last section of the book with death, entropy, and thwarted ambitions:

• Why David Deutsch wouldn't approve of Houellebecg
• True artists impose their vision upon the world
• Sacred values a…

This section is light on plot but we do get a coherent theme: the perversions that emerge from consumer capitalism's relentless optimisation process.

will our hero Jed maintain his artistic integrity…

Some good stuff coming up already in part 1 of The Map and The Territory:

• how our models of the world can change underlying physical reality
• is modern art a psyop?
• why plato would hate 'brand-name' t…