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Disappointing, for all the praise it gets. Some interesting thoughts here or there, but most books
Maybe it’s because I’ve read soooo much religious literature and this thing has all the boring exaggeration examples of a sermon, written as if it’s an ancient parable - with people loving it because they think it sounds wise, when anyone and most religious texts have this pretend sacred style that reeks of self aggrandizement. It’s scripture-style attempted to wrap a poorly written story-sermon in the feel of some translated wisdom from ancient times which we accept because we feel stupid today and these guys claim to have peace. The whole books is (and there are plenty of books like this) the classic if I speak backwards or in questions I sound wise. I’m so bored of this sort of trite pretentious pseudo-wisdom - you can’t gush over this unless you’ve never read this and play the easy game of the emperors new clothes with the writing. The original was in German- I hope in that tongue the writing doesn’t suck as much as it does in English.
Like all sermons, you can think about life and look at how your living - but there are so many better books that are wonderfully written to handle this same material without such an annoying pretend scripture gloss and style. It doesn’t elevate the story, it doesn’t elevate the apparent teachings that almost sound wise unless you wake to the real world. It’s protagonists as fake and opaque as all 2D characters made only as moral tools - like biblical characters who don’t have a vague realistic dimension but meant to tell us not to like money or that we aren’t epic gurus but they exist totally - he really just hits the vibe of “my character is smarter than the Buddha or is the only one who truly get the Buddha!” it‘s transparently not-straight-forward moralizing and teaching is hard to sit through and ties to sell itself at the end for a full circling argument about how “you can’t express this cool amazing shit I know in words, that would um, totally devastate the amazingness of it - better a mystery” - a solid argument ender if it’s you saying it, but everyone else can tell that you’re just a lazy dude who doesn’t know what he claims to know, or happily swinging in the circles of your pretend philosophy with platitudes that reinforce a tight circle that can’t be challenged because it never risks touching real life.
Gave it two stars because it did have a couple of interesting things to think about.
Maybe it’s because I’ve read soooo much religious literature and this thing has all the boring exaggeration examples of a sermon, written as if it’s an ancient parable - with people loving it because they think it sounds wise, when anyone and most religious texts have this pretend sacred style that reeks of self aggrandizement. It’s scripture-style attempted to wrap a poorly written story-sermon in the feel of some translated wisdom from ancient times which we accept because we feel stupid today and these guys claim to have peace. The whole books is (and there are plenty of books like this) the classic if I speak backwards or in questions I sound wise. I’m so bored of this sort of trite pretentious pseudo-wisdom - you can’t gush over this unless you’ve never read this and play the easy game of the emperors new clothes with the writing. The original was in German- I hope in that tongue the writing doesn’t suck as much as it does in English.
Like all sermons, you can think about life and look at how your living - but there are so many better books that are wonderfully written to handle this same material without such an annoying pretend scripture gloss and style. It doesn’t elevate the story, it doesn’t elevate the apparent teachings that almost sound wise unless you wake to the real world. It’s protagonists as fake and opaque as all 2D characters made only as moral tools - like biblical characters who don’t have a vague realistic dimension but meant to tell us not to like money or that we aren’t epic gurus but they exist totally - he really just hits the vibe of “my character is smarter than the Buddha or is the only one who truly get the Buddha!” it‘s transparently not-straight-forward moralizing and teaching is hard to sit through and ties to sell itself at the end for a full circling argument about how “you can’t express this cool amazing shit I know in words, that would um, totally devastate the amazingness of it - better a mystery” - a solid argument ender if it’s you saying it, but everyone else can tell that you’re just a lazy dude who doesn’t know what he claims to know, or happily swinging in the circles of your pretend philosophy with platitudes that reinforce a tight circle that can’t be challenged because it never risks touching real life.
Gave it two stars because it did have a couple of interesting things to think about.