Scan barcode
A review by merquree
Waking Up to the Dark: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age by Clark Strand
1.0
👀👀👀👀👀👀
Okay… I agree with the basic principle here, that we are drowning ourselves in light and that it has a negative effect on us and our surroundings, and the book contains some really cool quotes but other than that… this feels like a man’s slow decent into madness.
Which is what kept me from putting it down, I wanted to see where this was going and let me tell you, it WENT.
If this is real, I feel bad because I’m pretty sure this guy is an inch away from a psychological breakdown.
This author rambles on about the same thing over and over again, the same sentences but with different wording basically and it becomes more and more erratic, as it slowly changes from “We should embrace the natural darkness of the night instead of causing all this light pollution that is messing with our heads and circadian rhythm.” To “artificial light is the coming downfall of mankind and we are doomed if we don’t eliminate it.”
And in part 3 he is having some hallucination of a “black Madonna” personified as a 17 year old girl whose mouth has been taped shut with electrical tape and later seems to have some sexual experience with… I honestly think I’ve been reading someones diary where they recall a psychotic episode…
Example paragraph from the book: ⬇️
- Turn off the lights and leave them off and, in short, you remember who you are. Would you like me to provide an argument in favor of all of this in order to convince you? Should I acknowledge the wondrous advances of human reason, the medical milestones, the household conveniences, and the steady march of progress, all of which we will surely lose in the dark? I will not make that argument or concede those points. There is no argument you will listen to that will embolden you to drop this superlit illusion of modern life. You have to come to the decision on your own. There will be those who seek to drag me into the light, make me stand and deliver and defend myself. But this I will not do. There is no reason for it. The stars are my argument. My witness is the moon. Remain plugged in if you wish, but when the darkness comes — your death and the decline of our species — don’t complain that you can’t see by it. Don’t say, “The world has gone dark and now I am as one made blind.” -
The grandiosity here is unrelenting…
Okay… I agree with the basic principle here, that we are drowning ourselves in light and that it has a negative effect on us and our surroundings, and the book contains some really cool quotes but other than that… this feels like a man’s slow decent into madness.
Which is what kept me from putting it down, I wanted to see where this was going and let me tell you, it WENT.
If this is real, I feel bad because I’m pretty sure this guy is an inch away from a psychological breakdown.
This author rambles on about the same thing over and over again, the same sentences but with different wording basically and it becomes more and more erratic, as it slowly changes from “We should embrace the natural darkness of the night instead of causing all this light pollution that is messing with our heads and circadian rhythm.” To “artificial light is the coming downfall of mankind and we are doomed if we don’t eliminate it.”
And in part 3 he is having some hallucination of a “black Madonna” personified as a 17 year old girl whose mouth has been taped shut with electrical tape and later seems to have some sexual experience with… I honestly think I’ve been reading someones diary where they recall a psychotic episode…
Example paragraph from the book: ⬇️
- Turn off the lights and leave them off and, in short, you remember who you are. Would you like me to provide an argument in favor of all of this in order to convince you? Should I acknowledge the wondrous advances of human reason, the medical milestones, the household conveniences, and the steady march of progress, all of which we will surely lose in the dark? I will not make that argument or concede those points. There is no argument you will listen to that will embolden you to drop this superlit illusion of modern life. You have to come to the decision on your own. There will be those who seek to drag me into the light, make me stand and deliver and defend myself. But this I will not do. There is no reason for it. The stars are my argument. My witness is the moon. Remain plugged in if you wish, but when the darkness comes — your death and the decline of our species — don’t complain that you can’t see by it. Don’t say, “The world has gone dark and now I am as one made blind.” -
The grandiosity here is unrelenting…