unsong.md (2940B)
1 +++ 2 title = "I Am Amazed That This Exists" 3 date = 2024-09-20 4 [extra] 5 book = "UNSONG" 6 author = "Scott Alexander" 7 finished = 2024-09-20 8 rating = "★★★★★" 9 +++ 10 11 The overt meaning of UNSONG is "a book written by pseudonymous 12 rationalist blogger Scott Alexander published as a website in 2017." The 13 kabbalistic meaning of UNSONG is "the nerdiest, most niche work one can 14 consume, whose physical size as a massive tome may make carrying it 15 around in a backpack across several countries more difficult and 16 contribute to zipper failure." This we derive from my personal 17 experience. Both of these are discrete from the acronymic meaning of 18 UNSONG, which is of course "United Nations Subcommittee on Names of 19 God," and thus illustrative of exactly why I enjoyed this book so 20 thoroughly. 21 22 <!-- more --> 23 24 I had initially dismissed UNSONG as outdated. Surely this was an old and 25 abandoned creation of Scott's, less important than his contemporary 26 contributions. I was also not hugely into the concept of website-books. 27 It was thus fortuitous that these two concerns were addressed with [an 28 updated physical edition]. "This was not a coincidence, because nothing 29 is ever a coincidence." 30 31 This book exists at the most wonderful intersection of things that I 32 adore. I have already gifted a copy to a good friend, and intend to lend 33 mine out enthusiastically to anybody who will take it. 34 35 A selection of wonderful quotes: 36 37 > Bizarre surrealist painter Salvador Dalí once said: "I do not do 38 > drugs. I am drugs." He was being silly. He wasn't drugs. He was 39 > Salvador Dalí. 40 41 > "Kissinger, are you sure this was a good idea?" <br/> 42 > "There is never any surety in politics, only probability." <br/> 43 > "But you think it's *probable* this was a good idea?" <br/> 44 > "Yes." <br/> 45 > "What about our [expletive deleted] souls, Kissinger?" <br/> 46 > "I fail to see how they are relevant to geopolitics." <br/> 47 48 > My mother was a Hindu, but Hinduism passes through the paternal line. 49 > My father, perhaps if he teaches me Torah then is Jewish. But Judaism 50 > passes through the maternal line. I am nothing. 51 52 > Somebody has to and no one else will. 53 54 I've also added [King James Programming], referenced occasionally in the 55 epigraphs of UNSONG, to my RSS reader and expect to extract a certain 56 amount of joy from that every day. 57 58 Some of the Hebrew in UNSONG is not fully intelligible. I have decided 59 to accept this as suboptimal transliteration done in good faith, so that 60 I can move on and love the rest of the book. 61 62 With all that said, they released a [Kindle version] shortly after I 63 bought the paperback and would absolutely recommend you get that one 64 instead as it really is quite something to carry around all the time. 65 But do get it. 66 67 [an updated physical edition]: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/unsong-available-in-paperback 68 [King James Programming]: https://kingjamesprogramming.tumblr.com 69 [Kindle version]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D84DLKZW/