Status Update

Will is on page 379 of 425

I agree with what I take to be the central point of the Book VI, that violence is always tragic and can never be fully justified. But the image of an innocent slave owner killed by his slaves doesn’t feel like a great way to make this point

That being said the section isn’t totally without merit: the emergence of a revolutionary conscience is cool, ditto the ideas around the pamphlet and its creation of history

— Aug 16, 2025 12:56PM

Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself (New York Review Books Classics)

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Will’s Previous Updates

Will is on page 349 of 425

Book VI didn’t age as well as the rest of the book; in fact, it aged pretty poorly. That being said, I’m not done with it yet, and I have the impression Bird’s going to save it, as it seems Tom is on the cusp of developing a revolutionary conscious.

— Aug 14, 2025 12:17PM

Will is on page 264 of 425

“What is the world around us but a great concert-hall, echoing with the music of birds and beasts, of wind, water, and foliage? what but a great gallery of pictures, painted by the hand of Providence? Nature is a painter—Nature is a musician; and her sons can do nothing better than follow her example.” Book V, Ch 3.

— Aug 02, 2025 08:59PM

Will is on page 228 of 425

“As for the president, we would have him reserved for a nobler purpose; we would have him boiled down to a soap, according to the plan recommended by the French chymists, to be used by his successor in scouring the constitution and the minds of the people.”

— Jul 29, 2025 06:19PM

Will is on page 228 of 425

Book IV, Chapter 7.

— Jul 29, 2025 06:14PM

Will is on page 164 of 425

Outrageous. Absolutely hilarious. Genuinely one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.

Its musings on the soul and the body feel serious without being suffocating, and extremely prescient given the near ubiquity of bodies, orientation, space, etc in modern theoretical writing.

— Jul 23, 2025 08:05AM

Will is on page 31 of 425

— Jul 16, 2025 08:35AM