Hardihood Books Newsletter 45
January, 2025
Greetings.
Welcome to the January edition of the Hardihood Books Newsletter. Thank you for supporting my work.
Housekeeping:
No news.
Next Month and Beyond:
Full steam ahead.
Why I Repeat Myself:
In my writings, I tend to focus on some of the same themes. In my nonfiction, I tend to say the same thing more than once. Sometimes many times.
Perhaps my style will evolve over time and this will change. Currently, when I need to write concisely, I try to avoid repetition. Some subscribers think that I need to give readers more benefit of the doubt.
However, in my experience, the average reader on the internet has proven himself to be utterly unworthy of the benefit of the doubt. Most subscribers to this newsletter read carefully, but most casual readers online do not. Many skim, skip, or read without attending to the prose, all of which have the effect of causing them to miss important points, misconstrue arguments, and entirely misunderstand the content altogether.
A cursory examination of the history of the twentieth century would demonstrate that the internet did not give birth to this dynamic. The number of important books which were misunderstood or poorly understood by many of the people who encountered them attests to this. The widespread misinterpretations of basic arguments, facts, or plot-points contained in some of the most famous works in the philosophical and literary canons also attest to this.
Moreover, the average American adult today is not particularly well-read. The average high school graduate in America is not particularly gifted at reading comprehension. And the average American does not have a college education. While there are college graduates who are barely literate and working-class Americans who have read Plato and can explain in great detail the content of The Republic, even intelligent, well-read people (of any sort of educational background) make mistakes. Especially intelligent, well-read people who have more to read each week than they reasonably can, and who therefore skim or read quickly at least some of the time.
It turns out that you do, in fact, sometimes have to beat people over the head with your point for your entire career in order to have a fraction of them understand it. I find that when I write too carefully, almost everyone misses at least something in what I have written.
I will try to avoid needless repetition in the future. But I won’t eschew needful repetition.
In Closing:
Thank You and Until Next Month,
Ben Connelly