This without a doubt belongs in the hall of fame. I don't think I can add anything to it with my comments, but I'll attempt it anyway.
A sense of dread rose in me as I read. Is the poison pill long gone, down our gullet and into the bloodstream? I certainly feel that way when I think about whether there is a way out of our predicament using our own faculties. We are along for the ride down without agency and we are the only ones with our eyes open. Knowing often feels like an additional burden and nothing more. It only helps if one gets the urge to grasp onto simple, humble faith in the God who invites us to die in faith and be reborn, physically and spiritually.
I certainly think that there are things that break something within us if we knew about them. That's how I feel when I get a glimpse of the Grooming Scandal in my feed, or descriptions of the most heinous shit in the dark web. They repel one away with a gut-wrenching sensation, but there is still a sick curiosity that coaxes one to look in. Porn can break something within a young mind so fundamentally that a person might struggle with real intimacy for the rest of their lives. In hindsight I wish I would have had someone to warn and protect me in my youth from the internet specifically. There is a portal to hell in every pocket.
There is a right way to learn about the evils of the world that inoculates one to its influence, and a wrong way that plunges one in entirely. Evil, after all, thrives in ignorance, and can rob a good person of hope if one is overexposed.
These thoughts are the ones I could put into somewhat coherent words. I had many more that refused to coalesce, and that's the mark of a great piece of writing!
I agree, this was a great read and I am just now getting around to it. Your comments about pornography remind me of something I have been writing on recently. It is a type of "forbidden knowledge" much like the occult.
I've written on this topic recently (shameless shill: https://mordestack.substack.com/p/learning-from-pagans), but a key question I have been wanting to answer is how Christians specifically can learn from pagans, what defines the limits to that knowledge, and why Christians would want to.
In my context, Christians are highly skeptical of all non Christian thought and it promotes an insular biblicism that has its own hazards.
From Book Tok to the Tower of Babel. What a journey! And there’s more! Bring it!
I definitely can relate with having professors who seemed to shun certain material and pushed what amounted to pretentious bloviation. The overall effect, beyond making us “critical thinkers” or whatever, was to make reading boring by dehumanizing and emptying the content.
I think that might be why the mega bookstore never really got to you. It served a lifestyle and was mainly impersonal in its function. Reading was secondary. More important was being part of the book scene with your fellow hipsters.
I guess I could think of worse things in this world. But this seems to be the opposite cultural result of what the bookstore people were probably hoping for.
The bit where you quote spengler mentioning walking away from the fruits of a civilization struck home for me.
Walking away from knowledge seems strange to us because we see ourselves as interacting with reality only through our intellect and mind. Our existence in material reality puts a cloak over our spiritual senses, and since the amount of understanding we can absorb through the mind is finite we overwhelm ourselves.
As a second thought, no matter how much information we get, there is an infinite gap between information and reality. When one falls in love, you can now for a certainty 'know' what it means, whereas no amount of information will allow you to have the same 'knowing'
In this very way no matter how much we learn and how close to reality we get we are always an infinite distance from it, leaving us dissatisfied with what we have achieved.
The closest we can get to this direct knowledge is working with our hands, and observing nature. As we do this we simply focus on our inner sensation brought about by direct contact with the physical world around us. There is where we can find peace, away from the infinity of thoughts and information that seeks to drown us.
This is certainly a thought provoking post, among many, but I suppose it hits harder than most for me. I’ve long considered used book stores in the same way you have, as if it were a place that the universe would send you the message you needed to have, by shear accident of catalogue or placement. However, that randomness needs to be a feature of the place, not a bug.
This occurred for me in our local used bookstore several years ago, when I was searching for something but the clerk had left The Widow’s Son by Robert Anton Wilson in a box of new arrivals awaiting placement on a shelf in the aisle where I was searching. Since I was looking for Masonic lore this was a fantastic find and while I consider Freemasonry to be the devil’s handiwork - if you are looking for clues on the devil’s plans you can’t get much better.
My local used book store has a “free box”, which contains all the books of recently deceased that were dropped off at the store, and that were considered unworthy. I have many treasures from that box, including The Creature from Jekyll Island and The Empire of the City.
When I read your works, I am always telling myself that I should not be in critiquing mode, but just take in what comes and trust in you, and assume you will take care of me and I can trust to not be wilfully misled.
I love these, i had the same reflections when thinking about book trends, mainly when i discovered that most of the books that are being sold are fiction ones. I kinda fit in the "corruption knowledge" progressive trend you identify in this case, where i prioritize more true data rather than useless data, which is modern fiction. But even myself (i wouldn't call myself an atheist) started to see the corruption that "data" driven life leads to, in relationships, art, etc.
Your idea of the "Sphinx" is not new nonetheless. It´s like that old say that "smart people are not happy", but of course stereotypes don't come from the nowhere. What i seem to find in leftism is that they praise the Sphinx god, because their knowledge corrupts traditional knowledge or assumptions about gender, race, arts and almost anything. Of course this lead them to a nihilistic worldview which they are too pride to admit it sucks.
However i find a real spiritual value on the Sphinx, i think both Christians and leftists have misunderstood it. While the Christians may see a Sphinx in all the dynamics you mentioned, leftism sees it in dark academia, or the books that will turn to you into "a natzhee". Both of these religions aims to censor some type of knowledge or information because they think it will turn people into something bad that they will never come back from. If this is true, the question should be, who's right?
I personally, while i do accept that "real data" it's not the ultimate goal of life, i can't deny the value of Truth, it doesn't matter if corrupts or uplift us. There has to be some set of individuals that can take this, every relationship, band, society and families have individuals that know the ugly truths and takes care of their loved ones. The mistake in "progressive worldview" is that they thought that everyone is an Ubermensch that can learn critical theory, and they all turned out to use these philosophies to justify degeneration and nihilism, which was the thing that Nietzsche was afraid of.
Reflecting on this makes realized the importance of the resurrection. A real miracle in front of us, life conquering death. But we have grown so cynical that no one believes in anything anymore.
Bet its how people in the Roman world felt. The malady was there and the republic collapse along with the state religion. All forms of civil legitimacy and mythos was destroyed until Caesar gave birth to an empire ruled by the will of a man. This of course quickly end once more corrupted man take the helm. Not even Constantine could save it. Rome only lived on with the Church.
This puts me much in mind of both Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash and of Villeneuve's Arrival. But the moral dimension has me thinking about The Picture of Dorian Grey.
What a powerful essay! This was a great one, I must admit to being confused by booktok, and having a passion for used bookstores. I always dreamt that the fantasy books I write might make their way into them. Nowadays they're really a European and Asian thing rather than something you find herein Canada. It's sad as smaller bookstores rock far more than larger ones.
They used to flow with knowledge and wisdom and also beautiful stories, it seems though the Regime wishes to crush that and the spirit of Knowledge and Art. We're flooded everyday with inanity which is why it's so important we sift through the slop and cling only to the diamonds in the rough.
I have to agree and disagree about Powell’s. On the one hand, as you say, the store is terrible for browsing. If you simply want to be surprised by discovery—which is suppose could be the point of a used book store—you are right, smaller is better. Still, it is the only place where I know I will find books by any author I am interested in. When I wanted something new and unknown by Graham Greene, Powell’s gave me Monsignor Quixote. When I started collecting Shusaku Endo, Powell’s was the place I found my copy of Wonderful Fool. This gave the store a purpose, but the purpose only stood in a world where the smaller stores in my area still existed. Where I could walk into a tiny bookstore in Sidney and find some gem that even the internet couldn’t have shown me. As those stores all get taken over by progressive women, or sold, I find the idea of returning to Powells less enticing. It used to be a regular pilgrimage for me and a few friends, but that was some years ago now.
Just finished this and I want to attempt to create an info hazard using the new GPT 4.5 writing AI. Perhaps the poison pill has already lodged itself in me? Fascinating read. Utterly fascinating...
As you said, bookstores used to be organic. They offered a web of knowledge, in which you could follow strands of thought and find meaning by browsing. But now, they've been replaced by a commodification of books, which claims to be better organized, but really only offers specialization and bulk categorization, with a volume and structure inimical to browsing.
Maybe the true death note or corruption is the submersion of knowledge under a deluge of inanity.
Our babel is the splitting of shared reality into distinct hyperrealities. The progressive worldview promising an end of history splitting in twain from end to end. Currently it is just red and blue teams in the western world, but it might fracture into infinite tessellations. Different truths for different groups of people. Universalisms final brutal death at the hands of critical theory.
I believe we can see the shape of the way out. As the systems capable of feeding the sphinx break down. Perhaps in the ruins of the long 20th century we will find ourselves more freed than trapped.
I have compared our current scenario as a synthesis of satanism and gnosticism. We are ruled by inverted gnostics trapping us in a false reality. That reality is finally shattering. A reenchantment will hopefully follow, a new mythos for the west, something new.
Its funny you bring up the topic of monks seeking truth. I’ve come to believe that to seek truth you must separate yourself from the worldly, the material world. Too much truth means you can no longer relate to the people actually living in the material world. You aren’t corrupted but you can no longer find your way back, no longer relate to people who don’t get it. This is something many can understand in our neck of the woods.
Having a family, becoming a productive member of society, and forming community bonds erodes a person’s ability to seek truth in the wider world. Thus the monk must separate himself off and then guide the flock. Sacrificing his ability to experience worldly pleasures, both good and bad. Without family, without a continuing community except what new monks join their orders. They must protect and guide the flock without breaking their few precious links back to the world and becoming insane to the eyes of those still inhabiting it.
Me personally, I think I’ve read and seen too much to ever make my way back to that world, but I can protect others from blindly stepping out into the huge cold wilds. I can guide my people as best I can, navigating around rocks they cannot see. That is the monks role in our world, as a spiritual sheppard. Its how I’ve stopped myself from that final plunge into the chasm of nihilism.
This without a doubt belongs in the hall of fame. I don't think I can add anything to it with my comments, but I'll attempt it anyway.
A sense of dread rose in me as I read. Is the poison pill long gone, down our gullet and into the bloodstream? I certainly feel that way when I think about whether there is a way out of our predicament using our own faculties. We are along for the ride down without agency and we are the only ones with our eyes open. Knowing often feels like an additional burden and nothing more. It only helps if one gets the urge to grasp onto simple, humble faith in the God who invites us to die in faith and be reborn, physically and spiritually.
I certainly think that there are things that break something within us if we knew about them. That's how I feel when I get a glimpse of the Grooming Scandal in my feed, or descriptions of the most heinous shit in the dark web. They repel one away with a gut-wrenching sensation, but there is still a sick curiosity that coaxes one to look in. Porn can break something within a young mind so fundamentally that a person might struggle with real intimacy for the rest of their lives. In hindsight I wish I would have had someone to warn and protect me in my youth from the internet specifically. There is a portal to hell in every pocket.
There is a right way to learn about the evils of the world that inoculates one to its influence, and a wrong way that plunges one in entirely. Evil, after all, thrives in ignorance, and can rob a good person of hope if one is overexposed.
These thoughts are the ones I could put into somewhat coherent words. I had many more that refused to coalesce, and that's the mark of a great piece of writing!
That’s very poetic.
I agree, this was a great read and I am just now getting around to it. Your comments about pornography remind me of something I have been writing on recently. It is a type of "forbidden knowledge" much like the occult.
I've written on this topic recently (shameless shill: https://mordestack.substack.com/p/learning-from-pagans), but a key question I have been wanting to answer is how Christians specifically can learn from pagans, what defines the limits to that knowledge, and why Christians would want to.
In my context, Christians are highly skeptical of all non Christian thought and it promotes an insular biblicism that has its own hazards.
From Book Tok to the Tower of Babel. What a journey! And there’s more! Bring it!
I definitely can relate with having professors who seemed to shun certain material and pushed what amounted to pretentious bloviation. The overall effect, beyond making us “critical thinkers” or whatever, was to make reading boring by dehumanizing and emptying the content.
I think that might be why the mega bookstore never really got to you. It served a lifestyle and was mainly impersonal in its function. Reading was secondary. More important was being part of the book scene with your fellow hipsters.
I guess I could think of worse things in this world. But this seems to be the opposite cultural result of what the bookstore people were probably hoping for.
The bit where you quote spengler mentioning walking away from the fruits of a civilization struck home for me.
Walking away from knowledge seems strange to us because we see ourselves as interacting with reality only through our intellect and mind. Our existence in material reality puts a cloak over our spiritual senses, and since the amount of understanding we can absorb through the mind is finite we overwhelm ourselves.
As a second thought, no matter how much information we get, there is an infinite gap between information and reality. When one falls in love, you can now for a certainty 'know' what it means, whereas no amount of information will allow you to have the same 'knowing'
In this very way no matter how much we learn and how close to reality we get we are always an infinite distance from it, leaving us dissatisfied with what we have achieved.
The closest we can get to this direct knowledge is working with our hands, and observing nature. As we do this we simply focus on our inner sensation brought about by direct contact with the physical world around us. There is where we can find peace, away from the infinity of thoughts and information that seeks to drown us.
This is certainly a thought provoking post, among many, but I suppose it hits harder than most for me. I’ve long considered used book stores in the same way you have, as if it were a place that the universe would send you the message you needed to have, by shear accident of catalogue or placement. However, that randomness needs to be a feature of the place, not a bug.
This occurred for me in our local used bookstore several years ago, when I was searching for something but the clerk had left The Widow’s Son by Robert Anton Wilson in a box of new arrivals awaiting placement on a shelf in the aisle where I was searching. Since I was looking for Masonic lore this was a fantastic find and while I consider Freemasonry to be the devil’s handiwork - if you are looking for clues on the devil’s plans you can’t get much better.
My local used book store has a “free box”, which contains all the books of recently deceased that were dropped off at the store, and that were considered unworthy. I have many treasures from that box, including The Creature from Jekyll Island and The Empire of the City.
This is amazing!
When I read your works, I am always telling myself that I should not be in critiquing mode, but just take in what comes and trust in you, and assume you will take care of me and I can trust to not be wilfully misled.
That trust has certainly been justified.
Thanks!
Thanks man
I love these, i had the same reflections when thinking about book trends, mainly when i discovered that most of the books that are being sold are fiction ones. I kinda fit in the "corruption knowledge" progressive trend you identify in this case, where i prioritize more true data rather than useless data, which is modern fiction. But even myself (i wouldn't call myself an atheist) started to see the corruption that "data" driven life leads to, in relationships, art, etc.
Your idea of the "Sphinx" is not new nonetheless. It´s like that old say that "smart people are not happy", but of course stereotypes don't come from the nowhere. What i seem to find in leftism is that they praise the Sphinx god, because their knowledge corrupts traditional knowledge or assumptions about gender, race, arts and almost anything. Of course this lead them to a nihilistic worldview which they are too pride to admit it sucks.
However i find a real spiritual value on the Sphinx, i think both Christians and leftists have misunderstood it. While the Christians may see a Sphinx in all the dynamics you mentioned, leftism sees it in dark academia, or the books that will turn to you into "a natzhee". Both of these religions aims to censor some type of knowledge or information because they think it will turn people into something bad that they will never come back from. If this is true, the question should be, who's right?
I personally, while i do accept that "real data" it's not the ultimate goal of life, i can't deny the value of Truth, it doesn't matter if corrupts or uplift us. There has to be some set of individuals that can take this, every relationship, band, society and families have individuals that know the ugly truths and takes care of their loved ones. The mistake in "progressive worldview" is that they thought that everyone is an Ubermensch that can learn critical theory, and they all turned out to use these philosophies to justify degeneration and nihilism, which was the thing that Nietzsche was afraid of.
Waiting for part 3!
Reflecting on this makes realized the importance of the resurrection. A real miracle in front of us, life conquering death. But we have grown so cynical that no one believes in anything anymore.
Bet its how people in the Roman world felt. The malady was there and the republic collapse along with the state religion. All forms of civil legitimacy and mythos was destroyed until Caesar gave birth to an empire ruled by the will of a man. This of course quickly end once more corrupted man take the helm. Not even Constantine could save it. Rome only lived on with the Church.
This puts me much in mind of both Neal Stephenson's Snowcrash and of Villeneuve's Arrival. But the moral dimension has me thinking about The Picture of Dorian Grey.
Dave have you ever read Norbert Elias - On the Process of Civilization. I mention it here
https://oswald67.substack.com/p/looping-the-tristan-chord-civilization?r=2r3au
... but I think you might enjoy his book on the link between detached reality congruent models of the world ('science') and affective/emotional involvement ...https://www.amazon.ca/Involvement-Detachment-Collected-Works-Norbert/dp/1904558429/ref=sr_1_2?crid=P2NFOGZR6VLH&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.5dMxTGKvz6rWLonCLPJ862LejDuMpLHT7H5lSvv01MwtrYz8ryL84eY4wnVULkms-mKYlDXMU4cVVR7oasIMUeAP6F8yfJGh-XGjBQPyg7g.HrZUStFvoxpVUuHlntllKawRkfQLQuvlYP1BbbZtk2k&dib_tag=se&keywords=involvement+and+detachment&qid=1741970434&sprefix=involvement+and+detachment%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-2
What a powerful essay! This was a great one, I must admit to being confused by booktok, and having a passion for used bookstores. I always dreamt that the fantasy books I write might make their way into them. Nowadays they're really a European and Asian thing rather than something you find herein Canada. It's sad as smaller bookstores rock far more than larger ones.
They used to flow with knowledge and wisdom and also beautiful stories, it seems though the Regime wishes to crush that and the spirit of Knowledge and Art. We're flooded everyday with inanity which is why it's so important we sift through the slop and cling only to the diamonds in the rough.
Thanks man. That’s means a lot from you.
You’re much to kind good sir, you’re always welcome and do far more than I for our side. I only wish there was more I could do.
I have to agree and disagree about Powell’s. On the one hand, as you say, the store is terrible for browsing. If you simply want to be surprised by discovery—which is suppose could be the point of a used book store—you are right, smaller is better. Still, it is the only place where I know I will find books by any author I am interested in. When I wanted something new and unknown by Graham Greene, Powell’s gave me Monsignor Quixote. When I started collecting Shusaku Endo, Powell’s was the place I found my copy of Wonderful Fool. This gave the store a purpose, but the purpose only stood in a world where the smaller stores in my area still existed. Where I could walk into a tiny bookstore in Sidney and find some gem that even the internet couldn’t have shown me. As those stores all get taken over by progressive women, or sold, I find the idea of returning to Powells less enticing. It used to be a regular pilgrimage for me and a few friends, but that was some years ago now.
As always, great essay Dave. Thank you.
Dave, Rosary time, any intentions for you and/or your family?
For my father
Just finished this and I want to attempt to create an info hazard using the new GPT 4.5 writing AI. Perhaps the poison pill has already lodged itself in me? Fascinating read. Utterly fascinating...
You are using fact/falsehood to be closer to direct/meandering. Corrupting & facts are still falsehoods, just convincing towards vice (corrupting).
Direct and convincing towards vice = spiritual crippling, weighted down until resolved.
Meandering and convincing towards vice = spiritual prison / labyrinth, confused until resolved.
Ok
As you said, bookstores used to be organic. They offered a web of knowledge, in which you could follow strands of thought and find meaning by browsing. But now, they've been replaced by a commodification of books, which claims to be better organized, but really only offers specialization and bulk categorization, with a volume and structure inimical to browsing.
Maybe the true death note or corruption is the submersion of knowledge under a deluge of inanity.
Our babel is the splitting of shared reality into distinct hyperrealities. The progressive worldview promising an end of history splitting in twain from end to end. Currently it is just red and blue teams in the western world, but it might fracture into infinite tessellations. Different truths for different groups of people. Universalisms final brutal death at the hands of critical theory.
I believe we can see the shape of the way out. As the systems capable of feeding the sphinx break down. Perhaps in the ruins of the long 20th century we will find ourselves more freed than trapped.
I have compared our current scenario as a synthesis of satanism and gnosticism. We are ruled by inverted gnostics trapping us in a false reality. That reality is finally shattering. A reenchantment will hopefully follow, a new mythos for the west, something new.
Its funny you bring up the topic of monks seeking truth. I’ve come to believe that to seek truth you must separate yourself from the worldly, the material world. Too much truth means you can no longer relate to the people actually living in the material world. You aren’t corrupted but you can no longer find your way back, no longer relate to people who don’t get it. This is something many can understand in our neck of the woods.
Having a family, becoming a productive member of society, and forming community bonds erodes a person’s ability to seek truth in the wider world. Thus the monk must separate himself off and then guide the flock. Sacrificing his ability to experience worldly pleasures, both good and bad. Without family, without a continuing community except what new monks join their orders. They must protect and guide the flock without breaking their few precious links back to the world and becoming insane to the eyes of those still inhabiting it.
Me personally, I think I’ve read and seen too much to ever make my way back to that world, but I can protect others from blindly stepping out into the huge cold wilds. I can guide my people as best I can, navigating around rocks they cannot see. That is the monks role in our world, as a spiritual sheppard. Its how I’ve stopped myself from that final plunge into the chasm of nihilism.