Why do smart people read stupid books? Once this thought arose, it haunted me when I read the comments under my previous article – obviously successful, educated people enthusiastically talked about how they read literary trash: multi-volume epics of cultivators, boyarka, stories about people who got to the USSR…
It would seem that this shouldn’t be the case – it’s more enjoyable to read good books than bad ones. So how come smart people read obviously bad books? The answer is simple – they just can’t tell them apart from the good ones. Readers think they’re reading the best books there are. But that’s not true. It’s not a matter of taste – the Ashanbike is objectively worse than the Montague Paratrooper. It provides less riding pleasure. The same applies to bad books.
In this article I will try to show that reading good books is objectively more enjoyable than reading bad books. To do this I will explain how to distinguish good books from bad ones and who stands on whom in the great writer’s pyramid. Along the way you will learn what techniques authors of bad books use to ensure sales and how to avoid the traps of satisfying needs.
To simplify somewhat, we can say that writers are divided into three large groups: The top of the pyramid is occupied by:
The highest class – the White writers’ caste
This stratum, in turn, is divided into three layers: At the very top are the GODS – writers whose ideas managed to break out of the ideal world, changing the real world. This is the level of the Koran and the Bible, Capital and Awakened Atlas… books after which the world became different. Even if only a little. The books of Shakespeare and Pushkin are also in this row – they managed to bend the language and morality of countries to their needs.
One floor below are the PEACEMAKERS – writers whose goal is not to change the existing world, but to create their own. If the world of the book develops and lives in isolation from the story being told, then the author has managed to achieve this honorary title. This is the level of Tolkien, Rowling, Homer and the Strugatskys.
The top floor is completed by the STORY TELLERS – writers who create exciting stories. Inventing plots that make you forget sleep in anticipation of the outcome. King, Glukhovsky, Mitchell, Kaverin – thousands of them.
The next three rows are occupied by lesser authors:
Very good writers, but unfortunately they have not reached the top
If the TOP grade is liked by the overwhelming majority of readers, then the books of the second level of our pyramid are selectively striking. They are liked selectively – by separate groups of readers.
The top line of the next layer is occupied by the MASTERS OF EMOTIONS – writers whose stories are not so good, but whose images hit you in the gut, making you laugh and cry, tremble with fear, empathize and resent. Why are these writers so low? Simply because emotions are not a flexible bullet that hits everyone. Emotions selectively hit only people who have experienced them. And emotions wear out from frequent use. Pornography, at least the best part of it, is in this stratum.
These are Bulgakov, Exupery, Poe and Kesey.
At this point, an indignant reader usually appears with the question: “Why is Bulgakov second level? No, I understand that Exupery is second level. But Bulgakov is second level?!” That’s because if you remove Bulgakov’s settling of scores with Soviet bosses, there won’t be much left of the book. Don’t get me wrong – this is a wonderful book, one of my favorites. But for a balanced assessment, it’s useful to know the opinion of people of a different culture. And they, alas, don’t rate history too highly. They can be understood – they don’t hate the housing managers.
Just below are the TEACHERS : authors whose books teach something. Here are the books that explain to the reader how he lives, that tear the covers off the gears that make the sun, the planets, and the thoughts in the neighbor’s head move. These are Jules Verne, Pelevin, Ostrovsky, and Dostoevsky, with Harper Lee.
The stratum ends with the CRAFTSMEN – authors of good, solidly built novels that, without bringing anything new, build stories from ready-made cubes, artificially warming up interest. They insert fights, escapes, conspiracies, humorous dialogues into the books. These books give the reader practically nothing, except the pleasure of reading. But this pleasure is of high quality. DETECTIVES – almost all are in this layer: the reader will not experience catharsis, having learned that the murderer is a gardener. But he will get pleasure from reading.
The writer’s pyramid is completed by the following three layers:
Worthless writers are losers – kings for an hour and stars in the absence of fish
Their books are read not because of any merits that they lack, but simply because they are generally enjoyable to read.
Top layer: NO PLOT . Not bad books, in general. The author just couldn’t get the plot right, didn’t push the images enough, and skimped on pornography. You can read them, or you can not. And you can start from any place and give up halfway through. This is Syromyatnikova, Korostyleva, most of the Soviet prose and almost all cultivators with LIT RPG and time travelers.
The floor below is FAKE_TEACHERS – authors who deceive the reader. It seems to him that he is receiving knowledge and the brain rewards him with positive emotions. (This cunning joke was invented by Evolution, encouraging those monkeys who learned something new). In fact, the reader is fed crap – detailed descriptions of magical rituals, weapons, fictional worlds – he does not need and only takes up space in his memory. But the reader does not notice this, enthusiastically absorbing tons of useless information. These are Rudazov, Zykov, Cruz.
And the writers’ pyramid is completed by the chthonic pair: HOMAGE & RELATIONSHIPS . That is, books whose authors seek attention by stimulating the instincts of communication and consumption.
How does it work? If a book describes someone’s relationship, then instinct makes a woman want to know how it ended. Once upon a time, this was important for survival: it was very useful to know which female rival was being courted by which male, so it was firmly fixed in the genes. In fact, it is not interesting, but a woman, like a vampire who found a pile of scattered pins, cannot help but collect them. She cannot stop reading – she gets emotional reinforcement from following her instinct.
The same thing in the male version looks like stimulation of pleasure from reading by the main character’s discoveries. The author writes how the hero found a machine gun, cartridges, an inflatable woman, a pack of buckwheat… and the reader is pleased – on a subconscious level he believes that he found it and receives emotional encouragement.
Of course, after reading stories about relationships and hoarding, the reader immediately forgets them. They, like saccharine, only imitate the plot. But this, unfortunately, is enough to get into the top. Most of the books that my respondents bragged about reading belong to this stratum.
This writers’ pyramid stands on HUMUS – graphomaniacs so bad that they are not included among writers. They are so uninteresting that they are not worth discussing.
Especially for the meticulous readers from Habr, I will mention two more variables: TIME and INFLATION . I will start with time – even the best books from the top of the pyramid lose their influence, falling behind the locomotive of modernity. Archaic language, long-resolved problems, literary discoveries that have become commonplace. Books are like liver pies – divinely good while hot.
I will explain book INFLATION using the example of Aristotle, Plato or Democritus. As you may have noticed, they are very rarely read now. Not because they are outdated – quite the opposite. This trio laid the foundations of thinking for the entire Western culture. To get acquainted with their ideas, you do not need to read the original source – these ideas are built into the reality around us. The same applies to the Bible and Capital. They have changed the world too much, becoming part of it. Therefore, reading them is not as interesting as it used to be.
Having sorted out the classification of books, let’s move on to the pleasure derived from reading. Reading books from the upper tiers of the pyramid brings more pleasure than reading books from the lower tiers. This is not an obvious idea – it is difficult to convince the reader of cultivation or boyarka that he will get more pleasure if he switches to quality books. He already gets pleasure and does not want to change anything. The situation is like with sex – many people who have never achieved orgasm, in principle, like sex. They are satisfied with everything, they do not want to change anything. “This orgasm of yours, we don’t need it at all!” – they say.
But everything changes when they manage to achieve orgasm. Everything immediately falls into place – orgasm turns out to be important, necessary and irreplaceable. It is the same with books – you glide along the plot of the boyarka, rejoicing at how the hero gets goodies. This is simple, smooth, stable pleasure. You know that nothing bad can happen to the hero. This deprives the book of intrigue – without defeats there are no victories. But you are satisfied with it. Until a certain time – until the moment when you come across a real book. Then everything will change – the book will have a plot. Emotions will become brighter. You will begin to worry about the fate of the heroes. And most importantly – you will begin to receive colossal, incomparable pleasure at the climaxes. It was not for nothing that I cited orgasm as an example – it cannot be compared with anything else.
Let me explain with a personal example. Peter Hamilton, whom I consider one of the most significant modern fantasists, has a saga “Nightfall” – a multi-volume epic about a galactic catastrophe. The twisted plot, vivid images, unexpected turns make it something like “Game of Thrones” in space. For me, Peter’s epic has clear advantages – it is science fiction and it is complete. Now I want to tell you about one episode of it: this is a serious spoiler, so you better find this series.
Jumping up from my chair, I started pacing around the apartment, so captivated was I by the idea. Even now, more than twenty years later, I remember the delight that gripped me. Would I trade it for the smooth pleasure of the hero leveling up? Never. But many readers do – plotless books have filled the top AT.
So how come smart people read stupid books? It’s because the best is the enemy of the good, and reading good books has a high barrier to entry. This is an important idea, so I’ll try to explain it in as much detail as possible: Our modern society has encountered a non-obvious problem: most successful social practices have a high barrier to entry.
For example: you can only enjoy riding a bike if you already know how to ride a bike. You won’t enjoy it the first time – you’ll feel awkward and fall a couple of times. At one of these moments, you’ll feel a strong desire to throw the bike to hell. Some of you will do just that – I’ve met people in my life who never learned to ride a bike.
But the overwhelming majority of our contemporaries still overcome themselves. Gritting their teeth, they get on a bike and continue learning. After a few lessons, they will be rewarded – they will get great entertainment that will bring joy for many years. They were lucky – they managed to overcome the entry threshold. Many factors helped them in this – parental authority, the desire to repeat the success of their peers, the high level of public approval of cycling.
But what happens if we weaken these factors? What happens if the pleasure of cycling is not so obvious? What if a person who has decided to become a cyclist gets a snort in the back and the advice to “give it up”? What if he goes online and finds a lot of forums ridiculing cycling? Some people will still go through this quest – relying on the opinions of their parents and significant others. But many will drop out. And that’s it – they won’t be racing along forest paths with the wind. They won’t be pedaling, jumping off curbs, or giving their classmates a ride.
The situation with smart books is exactly the same – the public consensus seems to claim that reading smart books brings more pleasure, but it does so vaguely. Without much confidence in its own rightness. In addition, people whose job it is to instill a love for smart books make many mistakes. Either they start to give out obviously outdated books, or they slip teenagers books that are obviously not suitable for their age and interests. Whereas bad books bring pleasure right away – albeit small, albeit smooth… but guaranteed. Without emotional outbursts, but without failures. So should we be surprised that bad books are crowding out good ones? This is a natural process.
You just need to remember that along with bad literature, there is always good literature. Books that will make you forget about peace and sleep, gain new knowledge and be able to better understand the people around you. Reading smart books will bring you more pleasure and make you better. Just give them a chance.
Disclaimer : It would be useful to remind you that we are discussing social phenomena that have no clear boundaries. In relation to books, this means that books and authors often do not fit into one stratum. So Andrey Cruz, in addition to using the techniques of hoarding and false teaching, also gets into the major league of peacemakers, since he created a world that captured the imagination of millions of readers.