Hardihood Books Roundup - May 2025
Happy Memorial Day
Hi,
Welcome to the Hardihood Books May Roundup. I hope those of you in the U.S. had a happy Memorial Day, and those of you outside of the U.S. are enjoying your final weeks of spring.
In Case You Missed It:
I let this past month slip by without posting anything between May 3rd and May 18th, so the rest of my posts came in somewhat rapid succession in the final days of May.
First, I published, “Overthinking Nutrition,” an essay about the importance of going back to basics and ignoring fad theories about healthy eating. This is a topic I deal with directly in my day job. Too often, I meet people who are so worried about eating perfectly that they struggle to take steps to eat better. The basics (don’t eat too much, eat plenty of protein and vegetables, prefer minimally-processed foods to highly-processed ones, stay physically active in some form every single day) will take most people most of the way to their goals most of the time, and most of us already have an idea of what to do (although many people will still struggle without guidance).
After that, I published the last free installment in War in the Galaxy. I put the second installment behind the paywall.
My second essay this month, “The Limits and Excesses of Individualism,” (free to everyone to read) was a bit of a tome, at almost 4800 words. I went much longer than I wanted to, but even then I had to leave out plenty that I could have added. Some readers prefer my fiction, but I find that the market on Substack prefers compendious essays on philosophical or political topics, especially essays with digressions and footnotes. This essay was sparked by a recent conversation I had, in which a friend asked me my thoughts on the flaws or limitations of individualism. I think my answer will surprise some people, but not others. Perhaps I will write a separate essay sometime on why I don’t believe that the atomization of modern American life is the fault of our individualistic culture.
Both of the short stories I wanted to publish were long enough that I decided to publish each in two parts, the first part this month (for free) and the second next month (at least one of which will go behind the paywall). “Their Private Happiness” is about young newlyweds unfairly outcast by their community, who are forced to rely upon each other and a handful of close friends when their reputations are attacked.
“You Don’t Exist” is a dystopian story about a futuristic society which has achieved many of the ideals of selflessness so many imagine would solve our present woes. A citizen of that society is selected to be punished for a crime he didn’t commit. He has no recourse to any legal protections, and he has no basis in his moral vocabulary to protest the injustice of his treatment. But something deep inside him, something he was born with, tells him that he is being wronged. But he is faced with some provocative questions: if each of us is nothing more nor less than the sum of the roles we perform in our interactions with others in our communities, what happens when our communities decide we can be replaced in those roles? And if we can be replaced, and the community is no worse off, and perhaps better off, for our removal, what exactly is lost by our removal? And finally, if something is lost, what does that mean for the assumptions inherent in his society?
From the Archive:
“Out of the Wilderness” remains dear to me, as do its sequel and prequels. “AD 2101” is less a story than a letter, but for those who want optimism, I find it a more likely scenario for the future of the twenty-first century than any of the pessimistic takes popular today.
In Closing:
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Thank you for reading and subscribing.
Cheers,
Ben Connelly