How did you manage to go through school without even being made to read a book once? What did you learn basic literacy with?
To actually answer the question: something others haven't mentioned is that text is the lowest-cost medium of expression. If you have a good idea, but don't have the time/skills/capital/popularity/marketability to express it in a documentary or a graphical novel or a catchy Youtube video, you will write it down. Thus, reading allows you to reach not only those good ideas who were had by good clip makers, but the rest of good ideas as well.
To illustrate: good books are often written alone, perhaps with an editor or two poring them over as far as I'm aware. In contrast, a good movie today is a crowd of actors, technicians, directors, screenwriters and at least a small boatload of money to pay them all.
As ZorbaTHut mentioned, reading is how you find good shit like Unsong or Pale that's probably not going to hit the screens in the author's lifetime.
This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a
court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.
The weekly Culture War threads host the most
controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are
appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy;
if in doubt, post!
Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts.
You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.
Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
New post guidelines
If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it.
A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts
such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a
submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).
Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or
significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
How did you manage to go through school without even being made to read a book once? What did you learn basic literacy with?
To actually answer the question: something others haven't mentioned is that text is the lowest-cost medium of expression. If you have a good idea, but don't have the time/skills/capital/popularity/marketability to express it in a documentary or a graphical novel or a catchy Youtube video, you will write it down. Thus, reading allows you to reach not only those good ideas who were had by good clip makers, but the rest of good ideas as well.
To illustrate: good books are often written alone, perhaps with an editor or two poring them over as far as I'm aware. In contrast, a good movie today is a crowd of actors, technicians, directors, screenwriters and at least a small boatload of money to pay them all.
As ZorbaTHut mentioned, reading is how you find good shit like Unsong or Pale that's probably not going to hit the screens in the author's lifetime.
Knowing reoccuring ideas and patterns and when to apply them is a part of intelligence in my books.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link