tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post4890306299659346393..comments2024-03-19T07:48:54.021-06:00Comments on Gus Van Horn: Friday HodgepodgeGus Van Hornhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-84274234255772266202019-09-21T08:46:41.890-06:002019-09-21T08:46:41.890-06:00Every once in a while -- and this is one of those ...Every once in a while -- and this is one of those times -- I hear about a sympathetic-sounding intellectual who had previously completely escaped my attention. <br /><br />Filed away for future reference: Thanks for bringing her up.Gus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-47472441131624010972019-09-21T05:53:21.239-06:002019-09-21T05:53:21.239-06:00I should add that some parts of The Anti-Capitalis...I should add that some parts of <i>The Anti-Capitalist Mentality</i> are pretty good, from what I remember. That particular part, however, was not. And now that I think back about it, I think I checked that book out of my high school library. One of the political science teachers was a member of the Libertarian Party and made sure the better libertarian books were available in the library (I don't think she displayed her sympathies in her teaching). It was good reading for a budding rightist, combined with my reading most of the books recommended at the end of <i>Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal</i>. One result was that for a couple of years I was eager to read anything by Joan Kennedy Taylor--she edited a couple of collections of essays on free market alternatives to statist institutions that was very good for broadening the mind to alternatives to the trends of the century. For that matter, I need to make time to read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Persuaded-Reason-Kennedy-American-Individualism-ebook/dp/B00M72GLL6/" rel="nofollow">this</a>.Snedcatnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-59564612058424557772019-09-21T02:50:44.844-06:002019-09-21T02:50:44.844-06:00Snedcat,
Thanks for the recommendation.
Learning...Snedcat,<br /><br />Thanks for the recommendation.<br /><br />Learning that von Mises held that opinion about mystery novels reminds me of a Twitter I visit sometimes when I want a laugh: <i>Pessimists Archive Podcast</i>. (No, I haven't listened to any of the podcasts so far.) Typically, the Twitter shows news clippings from previous eras, such as <a href="https://twitter.com/PessimistsArc/status/1006907152408117248?es_p=7080345" rel="nofollow">this one</a> blaming "dime novels" for turning boys into murderers. (A while back, there was a succession of such posts, at least one that gave me the impression that widespread access to fiction was causing a moral panic in some quarters.<br /><br />GusGus Van Hornhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05126749051688217781noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839412.post-62445023030769871982019-09-20T22:04:56.518-06:002019-09-20T22:04:56.518-06:00Yo, Gus, I'll share a blog in return. Curtis E...Yo, Gus, I'll share a blog in return. Curtis Evans is a writer on (not of) mysteries from the Golden Age and other times with an entertaining blog on his latest reads and writes under the name The Passing Tramp. (The name is an allusion in part to J. Jefferson Farjeon's Ben the Tramp series, the first of which, <i>No. 17</i>, Hitchcock filmed--see the pic in the upper left corner.) It's good for keeping up on good mystery reads across the decades, if that's what anyone reading here is interested in (I've had many enormously enjoyable reads thanks to him), and he often has little essays of more general interest. Of the many entertaining posts there, I'll just link to this puzzled consideration of <a href="http://thepassingtramp.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-artistic-superstructure-of-epoch-of.html" rel="nofollow">Ludwig von Mises' diatribe</a> in <i>The Anti-Capitalist Mentality</i> against detective novels, which I remember flabbergasted me when I read it around age 17 or 18, since it didn't match any of my experience of mystery novels. My conclusion at the time was that it is the better part of wisdom not to put pen to paper until you actually know what in creation you're talking about. In any case, that post gives a good flavor of his style and his sense of humor (I love his picture captions).Snedcatnoreply@blogger.com