http://infinitezombies.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/first-impressions-and-the-first-rule/ Part book club, part Fight Club Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:26:03 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 http://infinitezombies.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/first-impressions-and-the-first-rule/#comment-23 Pete Doane Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:40:52 +0000 http://infinitezombies.wordpress.com/?p=93#comment-23 Don't let them fool you. If there's one thing elitist grad students excel at, it's not actually having read major works of fiction about which they have complex and fast-held opinions. After a while, the start crossing lines that cannot be uncrossed. They come to the point where they have spent more time researching the multitude of theories and interpretations than it would have taken to read the work in the first place. Some time later they realize they have read nearly 75% of the book via quoted passages in journal articles, mailing lists, message board postings, and threatening letters from opponents. About this time they reach a point where if they stand to lose more from actually reading the book than from maintaining the illusion that they have. After all, what if they discover they were wrong all along and that the myriad of curses they rained down upon those of the Other View were all for naught? All options now left to them are insufferable. They can choose to embrace their newfound beliefs and betray the confidence of everyone they have been fighting alongside in the trenches only to find that their former-enemies, new-compatriots trust them even less than their former-compatriots, new enemies, and their only option is to wander alone in constant fear from attack from every side. Conversely, they can choose to maintain the status quo and fight wholeheartedly for their now less-than-halfheartedly held beliefs; persecuting those who they are now akin to, thus living in constant fear of being exposed as the self-hating hypocrite they have become. And so they find themselves having to choose one or the other agonizing path knowing that the consequences of total desertion of the battle would be so unthinkable as to be dismissed out of hand. So they choose and end up with the knowledge that ignorance can be a basic necessity of life. Don’t let them fool you. If there’s one thing elitist grad students excel at, it’s not actually having read major works of fiction about which they have complex and fast-held opinions. After a while, the start crossing lines that cannot be uncrossed. They come to the point where they have spent more time researching the multitude of theories and interpretations than it would have taken to read the work in the first place. Some time later they realize they have read nearly 75% of the book via quoted passages in journal articles, mailing lists, message board postings, and threatening letters from opponents. About this time they reach a point where if they stand to lose more from actually reading the book than from maintaining the illusion that they have. After all, what if they discover they were wrong all along and that the myriad of curses they rained down upon those of the Other View were all for naught? All options now left to them are insufferable. They can choose to embrace their newfound beliefs and betray the confidence of everyone they have been fighting alongside in the trenches only to find that their former-enemies, new-compatriots trust them even less than their former-compatriots, new enemies, and their only option is to wander alone in constant fear from attack from every side. Conversely, they can choose to maintain the status quo and fight wholeheartedly for their now less-than-halfheartedly held beliefs; persecuting those who they are now akin to, thus living in constant fear of being exposed as the self-hating hypocrite they have become. And so they find themselves having to choose one or the other agonizing path knowing that the consequences of total desertion of the battle would be so unthinkable as to be dismissed out of hand. So they choose and end up with the knowledge that ignorance can be a basic necessity of life.

]]> http://infinitezombies.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/first-impressions-and-the-first-rule/#comment-19 In Which He Exhales with Relief and Gets a Small Case of the Shivers « Infinite Zombies Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:11:11 +0000 http://infinitezombies.wordpress.com/?p=93#comment-19 [...] then to read things from new readers (and fellow zombie bloggers) like this from Anna: So imagine my surprise, then, when I start reading and it’s not bad. It’s not so [...] [...] then to read things from new readers (and fellow zombie bloggers) like this from Anna: So imagine my surprise, then, when I start reading and it’s not bad. It’s not so [...]

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