The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
cryo_guy's review against another edition
2.0
2.5 stars. Nothing more than a diversion really. It does finally get to a point, but its a rather bland marxist call to arms if ever I heard one. I'm not sure what I wanted out of this though, because its a very casual project-a collection of thoughts-on the subject.
komet2020's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Before coming to Night Thoughts, I had known of its author, Wallace Shawn, as a character actor I had seen in a number of movies and TV shows through the years without being able to place a name on him. He was to me one of those character actors who is at once familiar from having seen him in movies and TV shows, and yet is unfamiliar at the same time because he remained largely anonymous in my awareness of him.
In this book, Shawn takes the reader on a philosophical journey in which he looks upon today's world with a critical eye while reflecting upon how civilization developed over time a world in which there are, essentially 2 classes of people, the 'lucky' and the 'unlucky.' The 'lucky' is a class of people who make up the corporate, political, military, scientific, and cultural elites who, by virtue of their power, wealth, and influence, lead privileged lives and enjoy a greater freedom in living than those people who are of the 'unlucky' class, who had to struggle and work hard all their lives to obtain for themselves and their families a sustainable standard of living. Shawn (the son of William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker, a weekly magazine that has occupied a prominent place in U.S. culture since its founding in 1925) freely admits to being among the 'lucky' and his candor about his unease in being in that number is sobering.
What I most enjoyed about reading Night Thoughts was how much of Shawn's musings on life, people, the 'civilized' societies in which we live, reflect much of my own thoughts in these areas. He "considers justice, inequality, blame, revenge, eleventh-century Japanese court poetry, decadence, Beethoven, the relationship between the Islamic world and the West --- and the possibility that a better world could be created." I think Wallace Shawn should be complimented for making a brave attempt to give an honest appraisal of himself, the cultural milieu that has defined him throughout his life, and the world in its rawness, beauty, and brutality.
The following reflection that Shawn makes about 'Night' has a special resonance for me. He says that "Night is a wonderful blessing. It's amazing and I'm so grateful for it. In the darkness, lying in bed, we can stop. To be able to stop --- that's amazing. We can stop. We can think. Of course it's frightening too. We think of what may happen to us. We think about death. Murders and murderers stand around the bed. But night gives us a chance to consider the possibility that we can start again, that when day comes we can begin again in a different way."Â Â I like that.Â
In this book, Shawn takes the reader on a philosophical journey in which he looks upon today's world with a critical eye while reflecting upon how civilization developed over time a world in which there are, essentially 2 classes of people, the 'lucky' and the 'unlucky.' The 'lucky' is a class of people who make up the corporate, political, military, scientific, and cultural elites who, by virtue of their power, wealth, and influence, lead privileged lives and enjoy a greater freedom in living than those people who are of the 'unlucky' class, who had to struggle and work hard all their lives to obtain for themselves and their families a sustainable standard of living. Shawn (the son of William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker, a weekly magazine that has occupied a prominent place in U.S. culture since its founding in 1925) freely admits to being among the 'lucky' and his candor about his unease in being in that number is sobering.
What I most enjoyed about reading Night Thoughts was how much of Shawn's musings on life, people, the 'civilized' societies in which we live, reflect much of my own thoughts in these areas. He "considers justice, inequality, blame, revenge, eleventh-century Japanese court poetry, decadence, Beethoven, the relationship between the Islamic world and the West --- and the possibility that a better world could be created." I think Wallace Shawn should be complimented for making a brave attempt to give an honest appraisal of himself, the cultural milieu that has defined him throughout his life, and the world in its rawness, beauty, and brutality.
The following reflection that Shawn makes about 'Night' has a special resonance for me. He says that "Night is a wonderful blessing. It's amazing and I'm so grateful for it. In the darkness, lying in bed, we can stop. To be able to stop --- that's amazing. We can stop. We can think. Of course it's frightening too. We think of what may happen to us. We think about death. Murders and murderers stand around the bed. But night gives us a chance to consider the possibility that we can start again, that when day comes we can begin again in a different way."Â Â I like that.Â
timhoiland's review
2.0
In this short essay, the author is pompous and leaves us wallowing in a pit of despair – although, if we follow his advice (not to hurt people, etc) we'd never get involved in a land war in Asia, so that's a plus.
turbomandoll's review
4.0
Thoughtful and empathetic musings on life, particularly good on the notion of the lucky and unlucky as well as the West's attitude to Muslims in the wake of 9/11. Made me want to be a better person.
foundeasily's review against another edition
5.0
Reductionist in some useful and clarifying ways. The dichotomy of lucky/unlucky allows for some interesting thoughts. Didn't agree with all the conclusions but a rather large percentage of them and there were moment of legitimate transcendent thoughts that occurred.
audleigh's review against another edition
4.0
I've never read the book form of My Dinner with Andre, but I have seen the film many, many times and Night Thoughts reminds me, in many ways, of that film. This time, instead of two friends, it is a single man puzzling his way through thoughts with no clear or easy answers. He seeks truth and wisdom, unsure if he will find them. He wants to make some sense of this world but it appears to elude him. He reaches no conclusions but, really, was that the point? Could conclusions be definitively reached? The searching, it appears, is it's own purpose.
Night Thoughts is a slender book which can easily be devoured in under an hour but the reader is likely driven to pause and reflect on their own ideas, their own search for understanding in tumultuous times. The reader probably does not find conclusions but a yearning for further searching, for expanding their own concepts of nuance, for a trickle of wisdom that is less knowing an undeniable truth than it is engaging in empathy for those around them. The book is largely concerned with America after the fall of the towers, the war against terror, and the election of Trump. These are times in which a touch of empathy and a dash of nuanced understanding could serve us all well.
Night Thoughts is a slender book which can easily be devoured in under an hour but the reader is likely driven to pause and reflect on their own ideas, their own search for understanding in tumultuous times. The reader probably does not find conclusions but a yearning for further searching, for expanding their own concepts of nuance, for a trickle of wisdom that is less knowing an undeniable truth than it is engaging in empathy for those around them. The book is largely concerned with America after the fall of the towers, the war against terror, and the election of Trump. These are times in which a touch of empathy and a dash of nuanced understanding could serve us all well.
lisaradocchia's review
4.0
This was a thought-provoking essay from Wallace Shawn that I read over a couple days and let the ideas sit with me. I am considerably younger than Shawn, who reflects on a full life from a vantage I haven't yet met. I knew him before this only as an 'incon th eivable' character actor, but came to revere his thoughts on seemingly everything and nothing.
A few passages I highlighted:
"Some of them (his teachers in liberal private schools) devoted their lives to art. None of them devoted their lives to making money, and none of them had any."
"Although it might seem to be clear that what the world needs at the moment is more sensitivity, rather than less, and what French Muslims need is less humiliation, rather than more, the doggedly enthusiastic French proponents of mockery and their various supporters in other Western countries, whenever they're asked what benefit their joking brings to the plant, repeatedly speak of the universal right to freedom of speech and claim that those who dislike their brand of humor want to restrict people's right to say what they like- to which it would certainly in turn be objected that to defend everyone's right to say what they like may be quite appropriate but doesn't remotely require anyone to have any respect or regard or admiration at all for all the vicious, unkind, cruel, horrible, and disgusting things that certain people enjoy saying to hurt other people - and that certain other people enjoy saying to disparage unpopular non-majority groups - denigrating such groups being a delightful, historically popular sport, know to have an important role in the creation of social prejudice, hate, pogroms, lynchings, and genocide."
"The truth is that once unlucky people come to understand how unlucky they are, it's too late for the lucky."
"...a change in how the world is organized, is more possible now than it has been before. The first is that worldwide communication between unlucky people is now possible. The second is that dramatic change of some kind is inevitable anyway..."
"The United States, for example, has been engaged since 1945 in an extraordinarily audacious attempt to use its military and economic power to dominate, control, or manipulate the behavior of basically every country on earth..."
"The people of Great Britain and Europe are still benefiting today from the exploitation of colonized peoples in the nineteenth century, and the people who live in the United States today are still benefiting from the exploitation of nineteenth century enslaved people in the South whose unpaid labor made possible the creation in the North of the American industrial cornucopia - and also from the deaths of the many millions of Native Americans who once walked and slept and cooked and thought on the very spots where US citizens now go to buy espresso machines, or reenact battles, or ski."
"We don't understand ourselves. But we do know for sure that other people and all living things need to be protected from us because we're very dangerous. We may be unknowable, and it would be insane to trust us."
"The honor of being the worst seems to travel strangely between nations, which means that each nation in itself is not intrinsically either demonic or not demonic, though of course the Germans were horrifying in a German style, and the Americans are horrifying in an American style."
A few passages I highlighted:
Spoiler
"...she shocked me by saying that she thought civilization may have been a mistake, a mistake from the beginning.""Some of them (his teachers in liberal private schools) devoted their lives to art. None of them devoted their lives to making money, and none of them had any."
"Although it might seem to be clear that what the world needs at the moment is more sensitivity, rather than less, and what French Muslims need is less humiliation, rather than more, the doggedly enthusiastic French proponents of mockery and their various supporters in other Western countries, whenever they're asked what benefit their joking brings to the plant, repeatedly speak of the universal right to freedom of speech and claim that those who dislike their brand of humor want to restrict people's right to say what they like- to which it would certainly in turn be objected that to defend everyone's right to say what they like may be quite appropriate but doesn't remotely require anyone to have any respect or regard or admiration at all for all the vicious, unkind, cruel, horrible, and disgusting things that certain people enjoy saying to hurt other people - and that certain other people enjoy saying to disparage unpopular non-majority groups - denigrating such groups being a delightful, historically popular sport, know to have an important role in the creation of social prejudice, hate, pogroms, lynchings, and genocide."
"The truth is that once unlucky people come to understand how unlucky they are, it's too late for the lucky."
"...a change in how the world is organized, is more possible now than it has been before. The first is that worldwide communication between unlucky people is now possible. The second is that dramatic change of some kind is inevitable anyway..."
"The United States, for example, has been engaged since 1945 in an extraordinarily audacious attempt to use its military and economic power to dominate, control, or manipulate the behavior of basically every country on earth..."
"The people of Great Britain and Europe are still benefiting today from the exploitation of colonized peoples in the nineteenth century, and the people who live in the United States today are still benefiting from the exploitation of nineteenth century enslaved people in the South whose unpaid labor made possible the creation in the North of the American industrial cornucopia - and also from the deaths of the many millions of Native Americans who once walked and slept and cooked and thought on the very spots where US citizens now go to buy espresso machines, or reenact battles, or ski."
"We don't understand ourselves. But we do know for sure that other people and all living things need to be protected from us because we're very dangerous. We may be unknowable, and it would be insane to trust us."
"The honor of being the worst seems to travel strangely between nations, which means that each nation in itself is not intrinsically either demonic or not demonic, though of course the Germans were horrifying in a German style, and the Americans are horrifying in an American style."