Night Thoughts

by Wallace Shawn

In this stirring rumination, Wallace Shawn 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.

Librarian's note: See alternate cover edition of ISBN 1608468127 here.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Politics, Philosophy, Memoir, American, Poetry

112 pages, Hardcover

First published May 22, 2017

About the author

Wallace Shawn, sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American actor and playwright. Regularly seen on film and television, where he is usually cast as a comic character actor, he has pursued a parallel career as a playwright whose work is often dark, politically charged and controversial. He is widely known for his high-pitched nasal voice and slight lisp.

Reviews

[emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

i stumbled across a recommendation for this book and i thought "ah, i'd like to read that," and it was the first time i felt like i'd really truly wanted to read a book in more than a month, and so without pausing to think or add it i found an ebook and dove in and said to the universe please oh please let my reading slump end!

...and it worked.

this is thoughtful, readable, affirming, and lovely, and exactly what i needed.

bottom line: inconceivable!

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thought-provoking work of one of my favorite minds, Wallace Shawn. However, I regretted paying 9.99 for what is essentially an essay that I read in one sitting (in addition, an article I had just read about it--which prompted my purchase--contained most of the important information covered). Definitely worth reading: Shawn's take on how we, as human beings don't know and can't trust ourselves. Also, how if we're going to survive, we're going to have to change. Not groundbreaking but eloquently presented.

Just too short.

[AK · Rating 3 out of 5]

At some point in my cultural education I learned that Wallace Shawn, in addition to being the 'inconceivable' actor, was also a writer and the son of long-time New Yorker editor William Shawn. But it wasn't until I read several interviews he did to coincide with the publication of this essay that I learned that he was a bit more leftwing than the political orientation we might describe as "moneyed liberal who reads the New Yorker." In fact, he's apparently so leftwing that he was interviewed in Jacobin, and I purchased this ebook (for a dollar!) from the radical publisher Haymarket Books.

As other reviews have mentioned, this is a slim volume composed of one(?) meandering, but focused in its way, essay. It seems to be about disparity, in terms of both the distribution of economic resources within the US, and also the disparities brought about by imperialism, particularly but not only American imperialism. As mentioned in the Jacobin interview linked above, Shawn is very careful in his writing not use words like "capitalism," "socialism,""imperialism" or in the case of this essay, the buzzword "privilege." Instead, he discusses people as either being either lucky or unlucky. I suppose he selected these words as a kind of rejection of the bootstraps myths and prosperity doctrine myths that permeate American consciousness- people are rich because they are better than everyone else and they deserve their riches and that's just the way it is. He's also careful to discuss how we cannot hate or seek revenge against the lucky, even those who use their luckiness to exploit or otherwise harm the less lucky, because who are we say that we wouldn't act as they did, if we were born into their circumstances?

The distinction of 'lucky' and 'unlucky' is a productive thought experiment in its way, but this essay shows little curiosity about why the chips fall as they do. Perhaps in his desire to avoid spooking moneyed liberals who read the New Yorker, Shawn doesn't want to engage deeply with the idea that luckiness and unluckiness are not just happenstance, there are systems, many systems, in place that foster inequality. He seems more interested softening up upperclass Manhattanites to the idea that at some point, they may be asked to relinquish their air conditioners, and they should do happily. Shawn himself is clearly very intelligent and curious, I have no doubt that if asked he could and would speak eloquently and in-depth about structural inequality. I also have a sense that this essay isn't really for someone with politics (my politics being 'ready for the rev, man') and Shawn is trying to engage people more of his own milieu.

For while Shawn and I might both be 'lucky' in the grand scheme of things, born white in 20th century United States to families that could afford our care and education (which is, truly, quite a lot of luck), it's still hard for me not to read this essay as written by a moralizing rich guy. Throughout the essay Shawn discusses the idea of downward mobility as something he and his friends choose, so that they could be cool bohemian playwrights or other occupations that paid out in cultural capital instead of cash. But for most families, even lucky ones, downward mobility since the post-war boom years is not a choice, but a consequence of our economic systems that have created wage stagnation, hyper-inflation of educational and medical costs, off-shored manufacturing and subsequent loss of jobs, financialization of housing markets, etc. So in the end, I didn't quite understand what political point/s Shawn was trying to make, but I got a lot out of trying to work out my response to it. He is a talented writer, and Night Thoughts is worth the hour or so it will take you to read it.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Wallace Shawn and this book--an essay--kept me company for the last couple of nights (I could have read it in one sitting but I didn't want to).

In this work, Shawn shares his thoughts about the "lucky" and "unlucky" of the world. He was born one of the "lucky"--Upper East Side, very affluent, a family prominent in the world of the arts (his father was William Shawn, the famous editor of the premiere magazine--one which I practically worshipped when I was young and still hold in high esteem). He has been "downwardly mobile"--that is less affluent than his family--but still among the lucky ones. He lives in a city he loves, has an apartment, food, and the ability to live in the world he wants, the one of the arts.

He is aware of his privilege.

He is also aware that it is the result of the power some people (a small number) have over others (by far the many). Living in a country that has exerted power over the entire world, causing tremendous suffering and death to many.

Shawn mulls over this imbalance and its ramifications in the framework of the morality (his word) he was raised in.

He is an interesting and thoughtful writer. I was happy to discover this little book. I am now rewatching My Dinner with Andre), now streaming on Max.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. It is beautifully written, wise, and unexpectedly uplifting.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the time I had lived long enough to seriously understand what had been explained to me about civilization in that small apartment so many years before, by the time I had seen enough examples of the “story of civilization”—the endlessly repeating story of a strong person holding some squirming weak person’s head under the water—seen it enough to really get the message—the vast machinery of civilization itself seemed to be stretching, weakening, and pulling apart . . .

Sitting alone in a hotel room at night, the actor makes a case for a better world sans leftist buzzwords, breaking the world down into the lucky and unlucky.

Feel very lucky to have read this.

Also laughed to myself when I realized this could have easily been titled The Rules of Acquisition.

t was surprising enough when strangely dressed religious leaders took over the government of such a large country as Iran. But now, these bin Ladenists!? The tactics they’ve used are bloodthirsty, sadistic. They shamelessly show their pleasure when their enemies are killed. They touch their victims, they look at their faces. They film the killings! These are all things that we would never do—well, except on very rare occasions, like the time when we killed bin Laden himself. And the reasons they give for their anger seem odd, because their language is religious. A rather large number of people in the West could understand—and many could respect, and quite a few could even deeply admire—the Marxist rebels in Southeast Asia or Latin America who fought so bravely against the ruthless dictators and elites installed in power by the United States. Those who rebel today under the bin Ladenist flag are much, much harder to sympathize with.

But we need to remember that the Western powers, with their enormous fleets of airplanes and ships, have over the decades and centuries forced into a degrading subjugation virtually all the lands where Islam is practiced and immense Islamic empires once ruled. Places whose political, economic, and intellectual influence had once reached across the globe have been forced to submit to the military might of foreign conquerors, and dignified people have been compelled to stand by helplessly as their lands were demeaningly carved into pieces and given new names by alien overlords. And we should accept the fact that, even though Osama bin Laden happened to have been rich, the bin Ladenist movement is a movement of the poor. Almost all of his followers, and the followers of his followers, have been very poor and very unlucky people, just like the followers of the Marxist revolutionaries, and the movement would not exist at all if it didn’t express the desperation of these particular people. Some of the members and supporters of the bin Ladenist movement are middle-class or upper-class individuals, just as there have always been middle-class and upper-class participants in virtually all movements of the poor, because there have always been certain members of the privileged classes who, for whatever reason (in Osama bin Laden’s case, perhaps partly because his family was recently poor), have sympathized with, and identified with, very poor people.

To eat bad food when you know that others eat good food, to not have food, to be responsible for children and not be able to feed them well, to be sick and know that other people can see a doctor, but you and your family have no doctor you can see, to live surrounded by dirt, to live in ugly rooms in ugly buildings, to know that you can easily be robbed of everything you have, to live in fear of being beaten up, to live in fear of being raped, to live in fear that you or your loved ones could be hurt or killed by people whose authority you cannot challenge—well, yes, poverty is a filthy condition. And when desperate people cry out and risk their lives to say that their condition is awful, they’re basically never wrong. They may be wrong about what caused their condition, they may be wrong about what will cure their condition, but people who do terrible things because they’re in a state of desperation about the circumstances they live in are not deluded. The boy at the party in the hotel ballroom thought his problem was that there was another boy who was flirting with his date. That wasn’t his problem. His problem was bad schools, bad health, bad prenatal care, bad childhood nutrition, danger, terror, daily harassment, condescension expressed by authorities who underestimated his intelligence, the fact that in the building he lived in, the garbage was collected on an irregular schedule, the elevator was broken, the light bulbs in the hallways and the stairwells were broken. The boy’s action, the murder, was a form of speech; he was trying to say something.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many people know who Wallace Shawn is without knowing who he is. He's the guy who says "Inconceivable!" from Princess Bride, or "Never get involved in a land war in Asia." That's probably where most people know him from. "My Dinner With Andre"? That rings a few bells. Most people don't know what a brilliant and thoughtful writer Wallace Shawn is.

I was first introduced to his writing with his play, The Designated Mourner. His latest, Night Thoughts, is a great introduction to the writing of this "actor." Mr. Shawn muses about many things in this quick read. Who we are, why we are, our motivations, all the philosophical musings one might ponder in that space when we lay our head on the pillow but our restless mind wanders away from sleep. Give Wallace Shawn an hour or two of your time, and he'll give you a lot to think about.

[Al Siew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know how to rate this one.

On the one hand, I find myself returning and thinking about the ideas here.

But on the other, these ideas aren’t actually ground breaking. It’s not like he is saying anything new. In fact, I am not even sure why he doesn’t just call a spade, a spade. On talking about what is essentially privilege, he uses terms like “lucky” and “unlucky” to illustrate that divide. I don’t disagree with the word choice but felt that there was an attempt at trying to convince the reader that he is in fact different than most “lucky” people, he, Wallace Shawn gets it. And since he is aware of his good fortune, we as the reader ought to give him a pass because he is already trying his best by choosing to live less luxuriously than most rich folks. I sense some guilt and shame on his part but he argues that any person with that much money would probably not choose a “lesser” life. And so until we know what being rich is like, we ought not to pass judgements on them (or him?) too harshly.

While reading the book, there were alarm bells ringing in my head but because I know him to be the INCONCEIVABLE! guy, I pushed it aside. I was charmed by his sharp and clever writing, mistaking his ability for depth and refusing to see it for what it was — just night thoughts.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A smart, very-typically-Wally essay - one that rambles and spins off on seeming tangents, but one that pulls together to a concise and potent focus by the end. We can save our world, if only we try. We reading this right now might be the lucky ones, but that doesn't mean we always will be. And so when thoughts strike you in the night, let them. You never know what they might lead to.

[Jonathan Maas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A small book with one big idea - the world is roughly split into two parts - the lucky and the unlucky.

Shawn himself is in the lucky camp, and you may be as well.

Though he brings modern day events into his writing, his themes are so broad that there is a certain timelessness to his prose.

I recommend this to just about everyone!

[Rob Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharp, direct, unnerving. And, of course, like Wallace Shawn's other work, often pretty funny too. Pair this with Brooke Gladstone's "The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time" for a real bracer. Just what the doctor ordered for 2018.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no clue that I would resonate so with Wallace Shawn’s tangential stream of consciousness prose. This little book of musings is good food for thought, and in our current historical moment where “the lucky” are really winning, it’s nice to think about how power shifts.

[KOMET · Rating 4 out of 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 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." I like that.

[Tori · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5/5 stars. A feeble attempt at surface-level, shallow, and deeply problematic metaphors.

The book started out with promise, but then Shawn became highly hypocritical and way too general.

He makes a sweeping generalization about the "lucky" people for lacking originality, boldness, or imagination on page 60, and then on page 61 says the lucky people, if they are awful, become that way through the same process that applies to everybody. He is saying that lucky people are both inherently bad, and then he says they actually become bad like everyone else. Which is it? He likes to blame lucky people for many horrid things, then says that if the "unlucky" people were in their shoes, they would most likely do the same things; however, he doesn't blame the unlucky people who would do this should the positions be reversed, just the lucky people. His blame is very skewed.

Shawn recognizes his privilege throughout the book, yet never outright calls himself a lucky person, even though he clearly is. It seems like he wants to appear more creditable to the reader, so he conveniently leaves that claim out. On page 64, he says that he will not fight people should they demand to take his modern conveniences such as an A/C unit; he is exactly like the lucky people that he claims lack boldness.

He also makes claims that have no clear, factual evidence, such as on page 65, saying, "The children of the most ruthless executives and military commanders very often turn out to be delicate aesthetes who want nothing more than to play with puppets or make long necklaces out of small colored beads." To whom are you referring? Where are your sources?

Another claim that has no clear evidence or detail is on page 68, saying, "Civilization has come up with many precious objects that can cause the human mind to expand, but many of these objects have been hoarded in the locked treasure rooms of a tine number of individuals." What objects? What individuals? We need context, not a surface-level attempt at artistic rhetoric.

And another claim that isn't backed up by any evidence, on page 70, saying, "...Many even of those who are born lucky voluntarily forgoing the opportunity to develop their inner resources." Whom? What opportunities? Where are you getting your information?

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This extended essay should offer up some interesting dinner-table discussion! I will never think about civilization in the same way. If you're reading my review, I suggest that you read Night Thoughts yourself!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I borrowed this 72-page, large-pocket-sized book from the library and read it in two sittings (lyings, really), but you could read it in its entirety standing in the library stacks or while at the few remaining bookstores. If you do this at a bookstore, you should also buy something (I mean a book, NOT a latte) because they are a business dammit and deserve your support.

Sorry off topic. Shawn leads a strange double life as a beloved comic actor and a writer of decidedly uncomic stage plays. The latter Shawn is mostly on display here. Like many people of good heart and will, he is unhappy about the way things are going in the world and would like to see an effort to avoid hurtling into catastrophe. It seems hard to object to this desire.

Still, inside the things that I agreed with, there were other things I didn’t agree with. For example, Shawn rightly criticizes the insistence, in France, that Muslim students do not wear head scarfs, a prohibition, its advocates say, stems from a long prohibition on religious symbols in the classroom -- apparently students aren’t allowed to wear the cross either. I’m with him so far, but then Shawn says that this is the equivalent of asking girls to go to school topless. This is where I get off the bus, this is a false equivalency, in my sight.

I have had some experience with this topic which, while far from conclusive, may have some bearing. I taught in some English language schools in the city where I live. Many of the students were from the Middle East. Given the choice of headscarf or no in this environment, about 30-35% (by my unscientific estimate) of Muslim women chose no headscarf. It was all over the map: some always headscarf, some never headscarf, still others sometimes headscarf. I did not cross-examine the students on this point -- I am a teacher, not a sociologist, and pursuing this topic too vigorously ran this risk of making students feel uncomfortable, which would not help their learning.

The non-headscarf students didn’t seem ashamed or self-conscious (not to mention cold) in the way you might expect a topless woman to be, and the men (Western and non-Western) did not, as far as I could tell, gaze at the scarfless woman lasciviously or direct derogatory or harassing comments her way in or near class. So I think the comparison is inaccurate and provocative, even if I agree with the author’s idea that the French government should not be prohibiting headscarves.

Another example, from page 49: “We need a better world right away, this week”. Yes! Absolutely! Immediately after: “An upheaval is desirable -- perhaps it’s inevitable”. Wrong on both counts. Desirable: during upheaval, the well-meaning -- like me and Wallace Shawn -- are the first victims. Inevitable: simply, the future is not yet written, at least not in that level of detail.

Page 51: “...the possession of wealth or high status in society makes a person’s engine of self-deception race faster, so does the possession of power over others, and so does the use of physical violence”. I believe there is neither a positive or negative correlation between wealth, or power, or violence, and self-deception. The tens of thousands of poor people alive today who are currently militating against their own self-interest (specifically, adequate health care, a clean environment, a prosperous economy) are my evidence.

In the end, Shawn suggests that the unpleasant work of maintaining infrastructure (sewers are mentioned) could be done by those who now insulate themselves from such onerous tasks by virtue of their wealth. I think that people who are well-off might be able to better emphasize with their less-fortunate citizens if they chose to, say, clean their own homes or maintained their own landscapes. But I disagree with him because, if you take this to its illogical conclusion of obligatory action, you end up with Chairman Mao’s million backyard blast furnaces, which was just a disaster on so many levels that it’s hard to figure out which one to lament first.

The problem is: I (and suspect others) would be more than happy to see some hedgefund managers doing “voluntary” labor to maintain infrastructure (OK, I’ll admit that to see hedgefund managers in the sewers would make my black heart sing), but I don’t want to see (for example) doctors, no matter arrogant, well-heeled, and unpleasant, have to do the same thing.

I think that Shawn’s big message to his peers may be: there’s still time to decline with grace. The British Empire declined and today the British Isles are still a place that people risk life and limb to get to. Similarly, for us today, “... yes, you’d have to live in a smaller apartment. Maybe a much, much smaller apartment, but if all went well, you’d still be able to read, cook, and play music, and after a while you might come to feel that it wasn’t really so bad.”

[Scriptor Ignotus · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Night is a wonderful blessing,” says Wallace Shawn. It is a refuge, a sanctuary, a promise of renewal; a place to stop, reflect, and catch one’s breath. It protects us, but it also interrogates us, and at times we’re disturbed by what it extracts. Ensconced in a lonely hotel room, Shawn ruminates on the tragedy of human self-ignorance, the arbitrary distinction between the “lucky” and the “unlucky” whom they exploit, the egotistical fallacy of merit, the essence of morality, the turpitude at the heart of what we call “civilization,” and the possibility of charting a new course for our species.

Most of us have, at times, burned the midnight oil and reflected on the state of the world. I confess to being distraught, despite my inability to do anything about it, that the world is falling into the hands of bloody men; that the United States is committed, even to the detriment of its material self-interest, to an irascible hatred of the weak and vulnerable, of “the least of these”; that language has been bled of its ethical and spiritual content; that there is no longer any such thing as “beliefs”—whether in truth, justice, morality, God—but only the will to power; that lies can outlive people; that brutality is conflated with authenticity, and rage with righteousness; that Americans have been so readily convinced—so eagerly convinced—that the nation’s wealth has been concentrated in the hands of USAID rather than the coffers of people like Donald Trump and Elon Musk; that the only “sin” recognized by the Christian right is the “sin of empathy”; that humanity may, in the end, choose voluntary extinction over compassion. It bothers me that the Thucydidean maxim, “the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must” is taken as a positive value of its own, even by self-styled dissidents and progressives, and that so many people sputter with rage when it is violated. In a word, I’m alarmed at the dearth of morality as Shawn defines it: the rejection of the right of the lucky to use their arbitrary advantages to prey upon the unlucky.

It seems to me that at the heart of Shawn’s reflections on the perennial division between the haves and the have-nots, its justification through the false doctrine of merit, the dangerous ubiquity of self-deception, and the futility of revenge and punishment, is an unspoken distinction between morality and moralism. Moralism is an effort to separate oneself from the human condition; it is self-righteousness, self-justification, the notion that if one were wearing another person’s skin, one would have done things differently and achieved a different result; it inserts the ego between oneself and others. Morality, on the other hand, entails acknowledging one’s share of the human condition, that its weakness and brokenness are also one’s own. It is fundamentally a practice of solidarity with the human race: a refusal to delude oneself into thinking that one is either more righteous than the lucky or more deserving of a decent life than the unlucky. When one can read news reports about murders, as Shawn does, and know that one is the murderer as well as the victim, then one is on the road to self-awareness. The paradox is that I must accept the humanity of the rapacious gangsters in Washington, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley as my own if I am to break free of their vicious circle; that humanity must reject the idol of its own greatness to perhaps grow into a higher way of life.

[Nick Klagge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up after reading a great interview with Shawn in Jacobin. While, like most people, I know him from the Princess Bride, actually my most extended exposure to him is as Grand Nagus Zek on Deep Space 9! Although I love DS9, Zek is a pretty annoying character (by intent).

https://jacobinmag.com/2017/09/wallac...

"Night Thoughts" is really an essay more than a book, but its style and content match what interested me in his interview. I found his intentional use of plain language interesting, particularly in light of some recent discussions and readings in my revolution study group about the use of quasi-academic terms such as "neoliberal." He says in the interview that he tries to write in the same voice he uses to talk, that he doesn't want to alienate readers with abstruse (whoops) terms, and that he doesn't want to use terms with disputed or ambiguous definitions. Hence his reliance on the simple distinction between "lucky" and "unlucky." At first it seems a little clunky or patronizing, but I got behind it after a while. It's certainly a different style than most writers of a similar viewpoint, and maybe that's what we need. It reminded me of Daniel Quinn's use of "leavers" and "takers" in _Ishmael_.

I also appreciated the way Shawn integrated his experience as an actor and a playwright into his analysis. He emphasizes the way that society encourages us to identify with the roles it places us into, which in turn normalizes that sorting (the successful see their own hard work paying off, the unsuccessful feeling that they are somehow lacking). Perhaps an actor has a stronger ability to recognize this, having done it more explicitly many times; certainly we could all use a little more actor's consciousness of the roles we are being asked to play.

[Merritt K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Shawn's prose is beautiful, but aesthetic pleasure is about all there is to be had in this essay. The book introduces a very simple idea of inequality, then argues that punishment, revenge, and violence against the powerful are wrong because we cannot know if the powerful (the "lucky", in Shawn's terms) could have acted any differently.

I'm sympathetic to the notion that retributive justice is an oxymoron but Shawn doesn't offer any alternative here. Instead, he simply hopes that over time, the powerful will lose the will to fight for their position, having come to understand it as morally indefensible. That's difficult for me to believe, but maybe I'm just not as optimistic as the author.

Worse, though, is the paradox Shawn sets up for himself. He argues that we shouldn't punish the powerful because a vague kind of determinism means it's impossible for them to have acted any differently, so either solely the unlucky have the blessing and burden of agency or else Shawn's arguments are pointless—we're either going to violently punish the powerful or we're not, and regardless we could never have done any differently ourselves.

[Reed · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to really like this book. I came across it on a lark-- a new entry at our local public library. I liked the short size (about 75 pages), recognized the author from My Dinner with Andre, and was intrigued by his additional identities as an essayist.

The author is clearly a swell, caring guy. He means well and is humble. The biggest plus of the book is his perspective of sorting people into lucky vs unlucky buckets. Most of the world is the latter. Wally does not harshly judge anyone from any bucket. Overly reductionist-- or not-- it's hard not to admire his good intentions.

While the book is short, ultimately I still found it rambling and without practical solutions. It is also structured in an odd way-- nominally there are sections, but they really don't help separate out concepts or ideas. In many ways, a successful editor could have reduced the book to a single long magazine read.

[Tom Polek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wallace Shawn's Night Thoughts is an introspective look into his own privilege, and his spot in civilization. He puts society into two sections - the lucky, and the unlucky. His clever phrasing and personal experiences growing up in the upper class puts things into a new perspective, and helped me realize some of my own internal struggles with class. I highly recommend this book as it is a short journey into Wallace's mind - and a great way to see what someone else's outlook on the world might be like.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this little essay. It was smart, incisive, and funny. Shawn doesn't pretend to have the answers but does offer a clear analysis of the "lucky" and "unlucky" in current society and why the underclass rises up in defiance. He recognizes that he is part of the "lucky" class. Overall, it's a meditation on the nature of right and wrong and whether humanity can profoundly course-correct to achieve a better world.

[Hoyin leung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aren't we LUCKY that we could be reading (or listening to audio books) during this time of pandemic without worrying too much about income? Wallace Shawn's book sees people as 'lucky' or 'not lucky', expanding his discussion on such uncontrollable factor to larger realms of middle-East politics, art-making, culture, etc. A short book. The arguments could be written in a tighter manner. Yet, it's inspiring enough for me to reflect upon myself .... (again, how luxuriously lucky of me....)

[Doug Dillaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kind of thought this would just be some witty bon mots, as I didn't know anything about Shawn's politics, and it turned out too be a deeply forceful meditation on free will, privilege, social justice, and much more. A slim book that carries great weight.

[Sian Lile-Pastore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enjoyed the more personal elements of this story, but not sure that Wallace Shawn is the guy I want to hear from about Islam, bin Laden and privilege. Also felt like it was from a very US book, which is fine of course, but didn't feel super relevant to me.

[Anders · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wallace Shawn really is the sexiest writer working today. His prose makes me swoon.

[Graham Techler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Go off, king.

[Terry Clague · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shortform rumination on structural despair/luck, told in the style of an internal monologue awaiting sleep. Twenty twenty visions.

[J Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Night Thoughts Wallace Shawn offers his ideas and opinions based on both his studies and his life experience. Those ideas and opinions are about the state of the world: physically, politically, and with regard to the idea of morality.

There is little to truly argue against as far as his observations are concerned. Only the most arrogant would claim that what came before has not affected what is currently, or that what came before wasn't built to a very large extent on the labors of those who were not justly compensated, if they were compensated at all. The real place where people can begin to disagree is with the very part that will determine the world's future: can an extremely large gap between the "lucky" and the "unlucky" be sustainable without destroying the world?

Shawn makes many points that will, and should, make the reader uncomfortable. He excludes no one from observation and then, even when pointing out the worst that the "lucky" have done, makes a case for not fully trying to make them some type of evil. He acknowledges their humanity at the same time that he acknowledges the humanity, often neglected, of the "unlucky."

Some will not reflect beyond the kneejerk reaction of defending their position in the world, usually by trying to diminish Shawn personally rather than refute his ideas. Some will say Shawn didn't take things into account in his assessment but they did not read the book very closely because Shawn does give credit where credit is due. He readily acknowledges what great minds and thinkers have done, but he also acknowledges that by treating some kinds of knowledge as lesser we diminish ourselves. But those with these kinds of responses are the ones not willing to reflect honestly so they claim, incorrectly, that Shawn simply didn't take into account or ignored the "greatness" of those who came before, when Shawn did no such thing. But weak minds make weak arguments, ignore them.

I would recommend this to anyone willing to try to grasp some uncomfortable truths as well as some uncomfortable ideas. The truths are pretty much irrefutable while the ideas certainly follow logically but are not the only ideas that could follow logically, and that is where the beauty of this book really is located. If you have honestly engaged and thought about what you were reading you will still be thinking about what you read long after closing the book. For those who truly believe they are exceptional because of where they happened to be born, or to whom, or any of the many other purely lucky advantages one can be born into, you may not like this book. It requires looking both inward and outward and doing so honestly. A belief in your exceptional status based on your luck pretty much means you will take offense to these truths.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.