I remember being rather intrigued when I first noticed Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival on the shelved of my local book store. I remember purchasing it during the height of the George W Bush malaise, trying to read it a few times, and then shelving it for a few years. I finally did get around to reading it, but by the time I had the patience and intelligence to do so, we were fully entrenched into the Obama administration and the book had lost a certain appeal. The lesson, which I should have learned years ago, was clear: some books, particularly political ones, have an expiration date. Attack them soon.
Thus when Fire and Fury came out, I jumped on the bandwagon with both feet.
Even if you are living under some kind of regime you have likely heard about Fire and Fury, a book that follows the trump administration through their first two hundred days or so, attempting to document the trials of the administration. The book received a massive amount of press when it was released, perhaps deservedly and perhaps not. The book’s argument is not flattering of the administration, and points a picture of many internal struggle to capitalize the favor and attention of an individual he seems to be president largely by accident. Much intrigue and incidental hilarity ensues.
Which was the strangest part. I swear there were lines of this book that read like something out of Catch-22
If you think this is a book about politics, you may be right. But only just maybe. While there is certainly a massive amount of political intrigue within the book it largely feels to be more of a gossip column with a focus on the Trump clan. The cast of characters is in fact so large that one can’t help but to feel that they are actually reading some secret book of Game of Thrones. Some people I have spoken to about this book have been largely disappointed by it, and I can somewhat understand why. We expect great things from our books, and we forget that even The Twelve Caesar is, at the end of it all, a historical gossip column that he held its place in the cannon far, far too long. But one can argue that there is a use in the gossip column of history regardless of the exactitude of its reportage. After all, even if some of these facts aren’t exactly true, and even if the facts of this book are entirely false, the book certainly illustrates a common sentiment about the public preception and reception
I am glad I read this book now. There certainly would have been no point in reading it a few years down the line. Reading this book now let me associate the events I was reading about with the memories of watching them unfold as an outsider.
Failures in Polymathy 