In pursuit of pseudo-intellectualism

The famous saying by Socrates goes “I know that I know nothing”.

Whenever I’m browsing the internet on the lookout for interesting blogs or book discussions, there is one thing that I notice.

It may be only endemic to my local inter-webs, but it seems that after decades of suppressing the natural evolution of thought, and basically skipping a generation due to repressions in the Soviet times, a new generation has surfaced of people suffering from the snobbish longing to be perceived as intellectuals.

When I compare this to cultures that have not suffered loss amongst their intellectual elites, the progression was never interrupted, and there is significantly more diversity of thought, as well as established ‘authorities’, who at least you can trust to give you a fair critique of the current literary market and recommend a few good books to read.

When I had my first blog, where I’d usually post book reviews and random musings, I too tried to mingle with the local ‘intellectual’ crowd. Very soon, I was told that since I don’t have the proper degree or credentials, my own writing is pretty much useless to them. It doesn’t count. My only solace was that it had pretty good rankings on Google SERP.

At the time, there was another curious incident. I was in the comment section of some Facebook post shared by a prominent local book publisher. She was writing about an author ranting in a blog post about how ‘the youth’ doesn’t read. When I noticed that it’s hard to figure out where to get started if you’ve never read much of the classics, but a list of recommended books would’ve seen immensely helpful, the book publisher huffed and puffed, said that she was not a librarian, and asked me about my contribution. After I shared links to my personal blog and my contributor pages on Librivox and Wikipedia, the Facebook post mysteriously vanished.

After a while, I had to evaluate my barren attempts at mixing in with the local literary crowd and abandon my blog for good. Only now am I returning to blogging on a new platform with a proper domain name and the sole focus on pleasing the algorithm.

I understand now that I am completely on my own and can only rely on my writing and SEO expertise (or lack thereof). I have no power over changing my environment, so I have changed my focus and do something that will bring me tangible, tried and proven results.

Having said that, I don’t intend to cater to pseudo-intellectuals, nor do I consider myself ‘smarter than everyone else’. I write about what I know and trust the reader to have enough self-awareness to understand that this blog is not a one-stop shop for any kind of information, let’s say, on the topic of Ukrainian culture or writing in general. I might even hope to encounter some constructive criticism along the way and a willingness to engage in a mutually beneficial discussion.

So, who is a pseudo-intellectual?

Whom should we be wary of? A good indicator of someone feigning intellect is talking about ‘big’ books without actually reading any of them.

In the local internets, there’s a plethora of book bloggers who are screaming, crying, throwing up, and talking about the one book on “how to read the classics” that is very trendy right now. They read it in the mix with the usual spicy romantasy novel and feeble poetry as a criticism of modern times. I very rarely see these critics read any of the actual classics. But if they ever do, they will come fully prepared to read and understand them in the correct way.

Then you have people who are reading, but you have to stop and ask yourself, what are they really gaining from this endeavour? You read a great book because it’s been recognised as a great book, so of course you’re gonna love it and tell everyone that it’s a literary masterpiece and you are now a better person for having read it. Right? Well…

Personally, I don’t think that books are something that you should put on a pedestal. You may like a book, you may think that it’s life-changing. But at the end of the day, it’s just another book. You’re gonna cherish it right up until your next ‘revelation’, that is, of course, if you continue your literary pursuit and read another book. And I wonder, how many books do you have to obsess over until you understand that it’s not something worth obsessing over? It’s someone else’s thoughts printed on a page. You don’t have to make it your entire identity.

Pseudo-intellectual books for your TBR

Here are some pseudo-intellectual books that I would encourage you to read for the fun of it! As long as you don’t take yourself too seriously.

• Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is the intro to libertarianism that everyone loves to hate.
• Any book by Nietzsche is everyone’s favourite intro to philosophy. Read at your own risk.
• The Art of War
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Personally, I was surprised to see this book while doing my research. I’ve read it entirely too late in my life and felt a tingle of nostalgia because this is something I would’ve probably found life-altering at the age of 16. Maybe that’s the problem… when people well over the age of 16 find it life-changing.
• Capital and The Communist Manifesto. An interesting contrast to Ayn Rand, I have to say.
• On The Road by Jack Kerouac. I’ve read it. I don’t know what all the fuss is about. They go somewhere. They get drunk. Okay.
• The Infinite Jest
• Eat, Pray, Love
• Walden. I was quite taken aback when I read somewhere on the internet that while Thoreau was living his Walden experience, his mother would deliver him food and fresh laundry.
• The Prince by Machiavelli
• Richard Dawkins. When I was a fresh atheist, The God Delusion was like a revelation. When I read it again later in life, I realised that it’s more about politics than anything else. I still haven’t finished the book
• The art of the deal
• Slaughterhouse Five
• Of Mice and Men
• Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. I’ve read it. I didn’t get all the buzz. Isn’t it what they call ‘Instagram poetry’? I’m not sure.
• The Bell Jar
• Umberto Eco
• Salman Rushdie
• Dante’s Inferno
• Ulysses. Say what you want, I think this was a literary experiment that James Joyce wrote just because he could get away with it. Years later, people are still trying to ‘get’ it and overanalyse it.
• All of Kafka, who’s one of my favourite authors. I like occasionally rereading The Metamorphosis, I loved The Trial, and I’ve read a bunch of his short stories. I’ve yet to read The Castle, though.
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• The Great Gatsby by F.S. Fitzgerald
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• In search of lost time by Marcel Proust
• Silmarillion
• The unbearable lightness of being
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Finnegan’s Wake
• Gravity’s Rainbow
• The Stranger by Camus
• The Brothers Karamazov. I once suffered through a series of a popular studytuber reading this book and mispronouncing the surname of the brothers. z should sound like the last sound in buzz. The sound she was making is what we transliterate as ts.
• The sound and the fury
• Any book by a foreign author, if you lack the cultural context

That’s it for now. Please don’t mind the unedited look of the list. I’ll do it later. I just needed to expand the post now because that’s what the people or SERP want. You can get even more books from this fun list on Goodreads that has collected all kinds of Pompous Books to Read in Public.

At the end of the day, it’s not about the book, but about what you do with it. Do you read it, or do you just talk about reading it? Falling for not really all that intellectual books usually is a result of not having read enough. As long as you’re reading, you’ll be fine. Everything’s gonna be fine.