MINI BOOK CLUB: July - Intro (Patreon)

Welcome back to bookclub the grind never stops, the hustle never ends, except for when it does, which is once in a while.This month we're going to read two essays! Rather than one large book. We will return with Amusing Ourselves To Death by Neil Postman in August when CJ is finally done their fucking video.---------------------SCHEDULE:July 23rd - "Story of Your Life," by Ted ChiangJuly 30th - "Authority and American Usage," by David Foster Wallace (originally published as "Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage.")---------------------Story of Your Life is a sci-fi novella about linguistics and the perception of time as relates to fundamental reality. Big Hollywood turned it into Arrival directed by Dennis Villeneuve in a rare win for moving pictures. You can find it compiled within Ted Chiang's book of short stories, "Stories of Your Life and Others."Authority and American Usage is an essay that starts as a review of the dictionary and hastily transforms into an analysis of American identity expressed through vocabulary. It has snarky footnotes. It's published in "Consider the Lobster and Other Essays," by David Foster Wallace.Both of these things, allegedly, can be found in pdf form, somewhere, somehow. Or you could buy paper copies of these massively critically acclaimed collections.---------------------Today's last update is that book club has been non (?) hostilely taken over by Ellen. This post has actually been Ellen the whole time and wasn't it good for you too baby?CJ is participating like a normal person in the comment section because they are rightly prioritizing Their New Video. Hostile (?) takeover happened after they made the mistake of showing me the first fourty-five minutes and I went Oh My God, Christ, Finish This Thing Now. For The People. So worth the wait, but make the wait shorter!Story of Your Life is a one-sitting life-changing experience, but Authority and American Usage might take you some time to digest. I'd budget more time for it.We will circle the wagons and meet back on this website approximately two weeks from now, on July 23rd for the Story of Your Life discussion thread.