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klsreads's review
challenging
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.25
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this little essay. It was smart, incisive, and funny. Shawn doesn't pretend to have the answers but does offer a clear analysis of the "lucky" and "unlucky" in current society and why the underclass rises up in defiance. He recognizes that he is part of the "lucky" class. Overall, it's a meditation on the nature of right and wrong and whether humanity can profoundly course-correct to achieve a better world.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Police brutality, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Deportation, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Pedophilia
balkeyeston's review against another edition
4.0
What begins as a series of notes, passing thoughts on itemized existential anxieties very quickly becomes a careful questioning of the meaning of success and civilization. What does it mean to be on the lucky side of history, even up to the days of our self-inflicted demise?
Night Thoughts is a short, intellectual essay that strips social and national disputes of their names in order to force us to rebuild our own thinking of the meaning of civilization without bias, racism, privilege, or prejudice. Without the terms "Islamic State" and "Marxism," which social revolutions and actions are the ones rooted in collective liberation, and which ones are only invested in revenge and punishment of the oppressor? From the very fundamental basics of logic and moral thought, Shawn helps us relearn and resensitize ourselves to the tragedies of humanity alongside our greatest accomplishments.
Ultimately, Shawn presents us with the crisis to end the existence of humanity, and asks us how we can change ourselves when we are confronted with the wounds we inflict on the unlucky, the poor and underprivileged, the colonized and the oppressed. In recalibrating our moral compass, will we be able to steer ourselves away from extinction and towards a common, collective good before it's too late?
Night Thoughts is a short, intellectual essay that strips social and national disputes of their names in order to force us to rebuild our own thinking of the meaning of civilization without bias, racism, privilege, or prejudice. Without the terms "Islamic State" and "Marxism," which social revolutions and actions are the ones rooted in collective liberation, and which ones are only invested in revenge and punishment of the oppressor? From the very fundamental basics of logic and moral thought, Shawn helps us relearn and resensitize ourselves to the tragedies of humanity alongside our greatest accomplishments.
Ultimately, Shawn presents us with the crisis to end the existence of humanity, and asks us how we can change ourselves when we are confronted with the wounds we inflict on the unlucky, the poor and underprivileged, the colonized and the oppressed. In recalibrating our moral compass, will we be able to steer ourselves away from extinction and towards a common, collective good before it's too late?
themorsecode's review
4.0
Thoughtful and empathetic musings on life, particularly good on the notion of the lucky and unlucky as well as the West's attitude to Muslims in the wake of 9/11. Made me want to be a better person.
cryo_guy's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars. Nothing more than a diversion really. It does finally get to a point, but its a rather bland marxist call to arms if ever I heard one. I'm not sure what I wanted out of this though, because its a very casual project-a collection of thoughts-on the subject.
komet2020's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Before coming to Night Thoughts, I had known of its author, Wallace Shawn, as a character actor I had seen in a number of movies and TV shows through the years without being able to place a name on him. He was to me one of those character actors who is at once familiar from having seen him in movies and TV shows, and yet is unfamiliar at the same time because he remained largely anonymous in my awareness of him.
In this book, Shawn takes the reader on a philosophical journey in which he looks upon today's world with a critical eye while reflecting upon how civilization developed over time a world in which there are, essentially 2 classes of people, the 'lucky' and the 'unlucky.' The 'lucky' is a class of people who make up the corporate, political, military, scientific, and cultural elites who, by virtue of their power, wealth, and influence, lead privileged lives and enjoy a greater freedom in living than those people who are of the 'unlucky' class, who had to struggle and work hard all their lives to obtain for themselves and their families a sustainable standard of living. Shawn (the son of William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker, a weekly magazine that has occupied a prominent place in U.S. culture since its founding in 1925) freely admits to being among the 'lucky' and his candor about his unease in being in that number is sobering.
What I most enjoyed about reading Night Thoughts was how much of Shawn's musings on life, people, the 'civilized' societies in which we live, reflect much of my own thoughts in these areas. He "considers justice, inequality, blame, revenge, eleventh-century Japanese court poetry, decadence, Beethoven, the relationship between the Islamic world and the West --- and the possibility that a better world could be created." I think Wallace Shawn should be complimented for making a brave attempt to give an honest appraisal of himself, the cultural milieu that has defined him throughout his life, and the world in its rawness, beauty, and brutality.
The following reflection that Shawn makes about 'Night' has a special resonance for me. He says that "Night is a wonderful blessing. It's amazing and I'm so grateful for it. In the darkness, lying in bed, we can stop. To be able to stop --- that's amazing. We can stop. We can think. Of course it's frightening too. We think of what may happen to us. We think about death. Murders and murderers stand around the bed. But night gives us a chance to consider the possibility that we can start again, that when day comes we can begin again in a different way." I like that.
In this book, Shawn takes the reader on a philosophical journey in which he looks upon today's world with a critical eye while reflecting upon how civilization developed over time a world in which there are, essentially 2 classes of people, the 'lucky' and the 'unlucky.' The 'lucky' is a class of people who make up the corporate, political, military, scientific, and cultural elites who, by virtue of their power, wealth, and influence, lead privileged lives and enjoy a greater freedom in living than those people who are of the 'unlucky' class, who had to struggle and work hard all their lives to obtain for themselves and their families a sustainable standard of living. Shawn (the son of William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker, a weekly magazine that has occupied a prominent place in U.S. culture since its founding in 1925) freely admits to being among the 'lucky' and his candor about his unease in being in that number is sobering.
What I most enjoyed about reading Night Thoughts was how much of Shawn's musings on life, people, the 'civilized' societies in which we live, reflect much of my own thoughts in these areas. He "considers justice, inequality, blame, revenge, eleventh-century Japanese court poetry, decadence, Beethoven, the relationship between the Islamic world and the West --- and the possibility that a better world could be created." I think Wallace Shawn should be complimented for making a brave attempt to give an honest appraisal of himself, the cultural milieu that has defined him throughout his life, and the world in its rawness, beauty, and brutality.
The following reflection that Shawn makes about 'Night' has a special resonance for me. He says that "Night is a wonderful blessing. It's amazing and I'm so grateful for it. In the darkness, lying in bed, we can stop. To be able to stop --- that's amazing. We can stop. We can think. Of course it's frightening too. We think of what may happen to us. We think about death. Murders and murderers stand around the bed. But night gives us a chance to consider the possibility that we can start again, that when day comes we can begin again in a different way." I like that.
timhoiland's review
2.0
In this short essay, the author is pompous and leaves us wallowing in a pit of despair – although, if we follow his advice (not to hurt people, etc) we'd never get involved in a land war in Asia, so that's a plus.
foundeasily's review against another edition
5.0
Reductionist in some useful and clarifying ways. The dichotomy of lucky/unlucky allows for some interesting thoughts. Didn't agree with all the conclusions but a rather large percentage of them and there were moment of legitimate transcendent thoughts that occurred.