On Bullshit

Harry G. Frankfurt's On Bullshit is itself one fine example of bullshit. Normally regarding critical reviews of books, I follow the maxims of "don't shit where you eat" and "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." But, I'll make an exception for this.

I'm stunned as to how this book could have rated nearly 40% 5 star reviews on Amazon thus far and be permanently camped in the top 100 (roughly top 50 as I type this). The only explanation for that has to be the "emperor's new clothes" in action. If Frankfurt is indeed a great of moral philosophy, the 5 star reviews must consist of confused but loyal subjects afraid to voice their real opinions.

An optional explanation could be the equivalent of a "lifetime achievement award." If Frankfurt, a professor emeritus at Princeton has written great works in the past that haven't received popular mass acclaim, he's being given his Oscar for lifetime achievement after he's past his prime, for a work that doesn't deserve it.

This last explanation can't explain the reviews (except possibly for a tie in back to emperor's new clothes) but it is my best guess as to why the book is bullshit. Frankfurt is not some past his prime fool with a book contract obligating Princeton University Press to publish this, the book itself is a careful and precise exercise in bullshit. He's reveling in the art of producing something that is an example of all of the examples in the book. It's a self-referential joke. I'm convinced this must be the case because in the beginning of the book, the author explains at some length how little actual research he has done "on bullshit" (see pages 3-4). But then near the end of the book, he concludes that "Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about." It's hard not to conclude from this that the book is a deliberate bullshit joke. And the joke is on the people giving it 5 star reviews.

The only way the joke could have been better executed would be had it been published on April 1.

I'm sure the publisher and editor must have been in on the joke too. How else can they justify the $10 list price for a book consisting of 67 pages smaller than index cards with a layout leaving each page barely 2/3 full? I'd guess the whole book could have been modest size magazine article. It reads faster than many magazine articles. The publisher must be laughing at the sales on this one.

So, with that behind me, I'm adding "Your Call Is Important to Us: The Truth About Bullshit" to my reading stack with high hopes.

Comments

[Wallym]

Nice. I just spent almost 30 minutes in a recent podcast discussion how we got to the ADO.NET V2 book. http://www.aspnetpodcast.com/.

[shel Israel]

Jim,

Stop hedging and tell us how you really feel.

[Scott Reynolds]

Very nice. I thumbed through this at B&N a couple of weeks ago, and thought similar...only in less eloquent, half-formed thoughts!