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April 30, 2006

Everything Good Is Bad for Rousseau

In Everything Bad Is Good for You, Steven Johnson has a hilarious set piece that denounces books using the same logic followed by those who denounce video games. Jean Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius, a new biography by Leo Damrosch I'm greatly enjoying, provides some grist for that mill, quoting Rousseau on the effect of his discovery of the world of fiction:

This love of imaginary objects, and this facility for occupying myself with them, ended by disgusting me with everything that surrounded me, and determined that taste for solitude that has remained with me ever since. (p. 39)

Yes, reading makes one disgusted with the world and with others. So, stop reading, you kids and go play some video games!

Steven has an appreciation of Jane Jacobs, author of the clearly thought, beautifully written and deeply human Death and Life of Great American Cities. Plus he writes about baseball stats in a way that even I, who cares about neither baseball nor stats, enjoyed. [Tags: reading games rousseau steven_johnson baseball jane_jacobs cities]

Posted by D. Weinberger at April 30, 2006 07:25 AM

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