Recommendations to fresh new thinking

December 7, 2006 7:31 PM

Who are the writers and philosophers of today who are grounded and realistic but think outside the linear, relentless and monotonous data stream consciousness that pervades the internet and society at large?

I want to open up a window in my mind and let some fresh air in.

posted by dropkick to Religion & Philosophy (26 answers total)

Response by poster: I'm not looking for a spiritual awakening, but rather to open up new pathways of thinking to benefit my writing and communication skills.
posted by dropkick at 7:34 PM on December 7, 2006

It might help if you give some examples of "linear, relentless and monotonous data stream consciousness that pervades the internet and society at large". I know lots of philosophers you may want to read, but I'm not sure what that means.
posted by ontic at 7:36 PM on December 7, 2006

Response by poster: The top 500 websites are an example of linear, relentless, monotonous data stream consciousness as are the top 150 best selling books. All different but all the same.

I know it's a terrible generalization to make, but I just feel bored with everything I read lately.
posted by dropkick at 8:08 PM on December 7, 2006

BS Johnson's The Unfortunates isn't linear -- it comes as a collection of pamphlets in a box, and is also quite moving. It isn't at all relentless, nor monotonous.

That's a hellish generalisation you're making, all the same. Explain more about why you're bored, and what you think will relieve that boredom, if you don't want this thread to go tits up.
posted by bonaldi at 8:13 PM on December 7, 2006 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Timothy Levitch in the documentary The Cruise was a breath of fresh air to me. He's a little nuts, and his rants were caustic at times, but he's an original thinker. I'm looking for more passionate, out-of-the-box thinkers.
posted by dropkick at 8:16 PM on December 7, 2006

Despite a little bit of a warning against "spiritual" stuff, I'm going to recommend a few of my favorite books and authors that talk about connectedness, community, and/or geography in a way that's largely focused on person-to-place or person-to-person connections. They're thus more related to the "commune" in communication, rather than technical aspects, and I'm not sure how they'd serve as a corpus to examine for a developing writer, but they definitely get away from the datastream zeitgeist.

Wendell Berry. For essays, pick up a copy of Recollected Essays, or The Hidden Wound. For poetry, see if you can find a copy of A Timbered Choir.

I'm currently reading a book called Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris. It's sortof Annie Dillard for the High Plains, but I feel she's a bit less heady and wandering than Dillard. She also touches how the experience affected her as a writer/communicator.

Parker Palmer's To Know as We Are Known is somewhat focused on education, but it's really a bit of a meditation on community versus some of the isolating and competetive elements of our society.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It's a little out of place in this list, and a lot of people who like reading/writing have already read it, but I certainly find it worthwhile. Philosophy in the form of a quasi-autobiographical half-travel narrative about a former composition/rhetoric instructor who obsessed over epistemological questions until he went crazy. Not everyone I know thinks the book is all sound thinking, but it's good for starting thought and thinking about thinking. And writing.
posted by weston at 8:56 PM on December 7, 2006

Ditto Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

My suggestions: Illusions, The Bridge Across Forever, and One by Richard Bach. This fellow is quite the iconoclast, and has ideas about society, consciousness, science, and philosophy that are excellent.

Also worth reading: Richard Feynman's Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman? and What Do You Care What Other People Think?. Iconoclast, again, and regarding similar topics.
posted by limeonaire at 9:02 PM on December 7, 2006

Feynman
posted by phrontist at 9:11 PM on December 7, 2006

dropkick, I can't second enough weston's recommendation of Wendell Berry (all you need to start is at that site). A farmer/essayist/philosopher/economist/poet who grounds much of his philosophy in human's increasingly tenuous relationship to the land, he's also a very clear and often astonishing writer who addresses a range of important questions from a place very much outside the usual boxes of our oh-so-modern society.

What Are People For? is a great place to start, as is his post-Sept. 11 In the Presence of Fear, particularly "In Distrust of Movements," one of my favorite political essays ever. Home Economics and Collected Poems: 1957-1982 are also both excellent.
posted by mediareport at 9:17 PM on December 7, 2006

For some reason I think you might like Within the Context of No Context.
posted by escabeche at 9:56 PM on December 7, 2006

Fun philosophers (the first two are inspired by the writings of Gilles Deleuze) include: Brian Massumi and Manuel Delanda. Also try Agamben or Negri.... etc. They all flirt with being grounded, kinda....
posted by rumbles at 11:22 PM on December 7, 2006

David Abram, Spell of the Sensuous? Jim Harrison?
posted by salvia at 12:16 AM on December 8, 2006

Perhaps you should try the very circular, relenting and polytonal Oblique Strategies.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:47 AM on December 8, 2006

If you're sick of linearity, I suggest that you look into self-organization, dynamical systems and mathematical biology. Some non-technical books that explain really interesting concepts in these fields are:

Life's Other Secret (Ian Stewart)
Emergence (Steven Johnson)
Sync (Steven Strogatz)
The Triumph of the Embryo (Lewis Wolpert)
Does God Play Dice? (Ian Stewart)

All of the above contain deep philosophical insight and will add something genuinely, qualitatively new to your thinking. On the web, you could check out Cosma Shalizi's amazing notebooks. Examples: Self-Organization, Dynamical Systems and Chaos, Physical Principles and Biology, Developmental Biology.
posted by teleskiving at 2:04 AM on December 8, 2006 [2 favorites]

I will also recomend Robert Pirsig but not Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It is a rather sad confused book. Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals is a much better.
posted by wildster at 2:19 AM on December 8, 2006

Response by poster: I'm excited about the possibilities here. Thanks to everyone!
posted by dropkick at 4:47 AM on December 8, 2006

You might enjoy Eric Hoffer, a San Francisco longshoreman who wrote several books. Some quotes.
posted by bricoleur at 5:01 AM on December 8, 2006

Another slightly odd suggestion: some novels by William Burroughs. Many of them are highly non-linear, and infused with various odd philosophicals, you could try Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine or Cities of the Red Night. You can also find a lot of interesting writings of his on the net.
posted by MetaMonkey at 6:15 AM on December 8, 2006

Slavoj Zizek. AWESOME but dense.
posted by By The Grace of God at 6:52 AM on December 8, 2006

For a practical and reasonable philosopher, read Stephen Toulmin.
posted by stratastar at 8:23 AM on December 8, 2006

Worldchanging, might meet your criteria, maybe.

The most interesting philosophy book I can recommend would be Nation of Rebels, everyone I know that has read it has either loved it or despised it.
posted by drezdn at 2:28 PM on December 8, 2006

Rappers. Rakim, the Roots, Tribe called Quest, Public Enemy, even some of the more capitalistic rappers like Jay-Z.

Rap is such a linear, relentless and monotonic medium; the best rappers contrast this with a flow of unexpected ideas and concepts that is at once lyrical, absorbing, impressive and at times bordering on the elegiac. If you wanted to hear one album like this I'd suggest the Roots' "Things Fall Apart."
posted by ikkyu2 at 4:31 PM on December 8, 2006

I second the vote for Zizek. Also, I highly recommend Alain Badiou. In my opinion, his thought is really much more grounded than it first appears.
posted by treepour at 5:33 PM on December 8, 2006

I disagree with Zizek, who's begun to expose himself as basically a grouse, but totally recommend the Deleuze, Massumi and Agamben listed above, especiall _A Thousand Plateaus_, by Deleuze and Guattari.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:46 PM on December 8, 2006

I'm not sure if this is appropriate for what you are asking, but I have to suggest House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. It's sometimes criticized for being gimmicky fiction, but I think it explores some really interesting challenges to readers and to the ideas of linearity and story-telling. It's not really philosophical, but it is about writing and, for me, was a definite page turner.
posted by juliplease at 11:37 PM on December 8, 2006

Another Deleuze (+ Guattari) vote, with the observation that if you've read some Robert Anton Wilson you'll be more prepared for their idiosyncratic linguistic (language use/choice is message as well as medium) style.

Also, a vote for RAW, depending on your perception of 'grounded' and 'realistic'.

My introduction to Deleuze was the Nomadology chapter/section of A Thousand Plateaus re-printed as its own little booklet. Nicely self-contained.
posted by Captain Shenanigan at 10:59 AM on December 9, 2006