26 Comments Though most of us are bogged down with midterms and papers, Bwog writer Hannah Goldfield provides some alternative reading.
Ducking your head and barreling through the cloud of cigarette smoke outside Butler might be worth it tonight. Act fast and you can snag a copy of poli-lit-culture journal n+1’s latest pamphlet, distributed, guerrilla-style, throughout the library a few hours ago.
Titled “What We Should Have Known,” the unassuming, slim, blue volume is targeted at college freshmen, meant to help them traverse the intellectual spiderweb in which they’re bound to get caught over the next four years. It consists specifically of transcripts of two panel discussions (which took place this past summer at the n+1 headquarters) about books, mostly: the books you’re assigned to read and the books the panel members, a mix of n+1 editors and contributors, think you should read, on your own, sooner rather than later. If you get lost in the sea of titles, don’t fret–the ones that truly changed their lives are conveniently compiled into lists on the last few pages.
After tonight, “What We Should Have Known” will set you back $10–unless you’re a freshman, in which case you might find a copy slipped under your door tomorrow, or, if not, your student ID will get you one for free. Because saving untainted souls from the Western Canon–or at least guiding them through it–is priceless.
Loading …
26 Comments
@just so you know keith gessen is really good in bed
@i read it it was in butler coffee shop,i read it, it sucked…..none of the lists have books you havet heard of before, the people in it are really pretentious, i dont know why they made such a book, i am just completely confused as to why it was published and why it is news
@Alex Star Keith Gessen is pretentious, second-rate version of me.
@I hate this school Throw the word “guerilla” on something and the hipsters on this campus cream their pants. Counter-culture isn’t counter-culture. Develop your own identities.
@ohh whoa, I’ve been wondering what the deal was with these pamphlets that have been sitting in front of me for the last few hours.
@OMG!!!!! Mark Krotov is so hot.
@krotovlove and he’s so good in bed
@wait-- where do we get one with our id?
@here: collegepamphlet@nplusonemag.com
@what tables were they on? were they just scattered around the library or something?
@oh my god the ny sun columnist was right in prophesying that n+1 probably has cult worshippers at columbia, including the writer of this article. i refused to believe it, but now i’m embarrassed.
@sorry but how does writing a post about ongoings at columbia prove one’s participation in a cult?
@anybody know if these are still in butler?
@they may be you might find some still on the tables; if you don’t, i’m sure many a frosh will not want his or her copy.
@Wowzas You are an idiot.
@hiii i have a crush on the geometer.
@THE GEOMETER SOMETHING STUPID THAT IS SORT OF RELATED TO GEOMETRY. MY EXISTENCE IS MOST DISPLEASING
@someone please post the suggestions
@suggestions you can see them at the bottom of the first page:
http://www.nysun.com/article/64693?page_no=1
@hmph check out the actual suggestions made in the pamphlet. homer? cervantes? salinger? there’s really not much revolutionary in there. even delillo and james wood aren’t, even if they’re a hundred years too recent to grace lit hum syallabi.
they originally planned to distribute this at harvard which would make more sense considering it has no core and its undergraduates learn little outside of whatever narrow interests they whimsically pursue. no wonder the n+1 editors “regret going to college”…
@etc I’m glad that n+1 is “articulating a better reason to read the best books ever written than that they authorize and underwrite a system of brutal economic competition and inequality.”
Good thing we’ve got an alternative to that oft-used, highly persuasive argument for the Core.
@Yup Ditto the last comment. For once, I’m actually interested in hearing what freshmen have to say. Speak, ye minions!
@Anonymous Augustine wasn’t white, and I wish you’d all stop perpetuating the stereotype that he was. In addition, the compilers of the Old and New Testaments also would likely not pass as white in today’s society (as well as Jesus, but that should go without saying). Also, unless you think Dubois is a token black dude or an Uncle Tom, I think you should mention him as an exception to the white male rule.
But I don’t want to start a debate about this stupid shit. I’d rather know what they suggest we read without paying ten bucks?
@Whiteness I think “white” just became the term used to describe a brand of conservative, imperialistic, euro-centric way of thinking perpetuated or supported by various texts, including those you mentioned
@hannah exactly. but i removed the word because i didn’t mean to set off that bomb and plus, it was my term, not n+1’s.
@first they’d probably tell you to go read an econ textbook (ok, adam smith) and realize why they charge money for this. i was just in butler, and it was pretty decent guerilla marketing, as far as this niche goes.