You are what you eat. Not a novel assertion, but this book was enjoyable because of the many ways that Versfeld explored this concept.
He advocates for a simple and earthy enjoyment of food via a refined book liberally seasoned with references and allusions from all throughout literate history. My intimate understanding of the Bible, a working familiarity with Greek and Roman mythology, generic feel for the contours of Western philosophy, and recent forays into ancient Chinese thought, all turned out to be surprisingly useful for enjoying this book.
As I grow older (and disillusioned with the gift of the internet) I find myself becoming more curmudgeonly concerning my information consumption. I have always been skeptical about fads that valorize a classical “great-books” education, but I have to admit that such a rarified syllabus is obviously better fare than a constant barrage of opinion pieces (such as this post) that are indiscriminately published on the web.
In these days of easy edutainment, it is difficult to slow down and read a book. A book is a journey that takes time and mental effort to inhabit. It is much harder to develop understanding than to collect trophies. Unfortunately, social media is all about collecting trophies to satisfy our basest emotional instincts. The quick hit of a hot take is a fleeting pleasure that have been weaponized by our favorite tech companies. The only way I’ve been able to sidestep this dilemma has to cut social media out my life.
I’ve uninstalled all the apps and am logged out on my browsers. I haven’t deleted my accounts, because I will occasionally reference old posts and keep contacts alive in private messages. I’m not perfect, so I’ll sometimes slip into surfing these feeds, but the more I stay away from the addiction, the easier it’s been to avoid mindlessly returning to these infinite pages.
In reading about habits, you will come across the trope of “never skip two days”. It’s bad enough to miss one day, but you’re in real danger if you miss two in a row. My advice for cutting out social media is the inverse. The hardest step in avoiding a site is the second day. Once you get past that point, it is relatively easy to avoid such sites for multiple weeks.
Breaking the social media habit was most among my greatest accomplishments over the past year, along with losing weight, and getting myself back on a regular schedule of posting self-righteous puffery on this little platform of my own.
In all, I quite enjoyed the book. I don’t think it will be in the regular rotation, but I think this will be a book that I will happily rediscover on my shelves every few years. Kind of like finding an old friend on Facebook.