The 11 Books I Finished in August
World Beyond Your Head, 4 Thousand Weeks, Generations, When Violence Is the Answer, Ship of Fools, Traction, One More Thing, Animal Farm, Slaughter-House 5, Children of the Mind, Chariots of the Gods
It was my hope that August would mark the end of the craziness. I was taking one final trip, but it was to GenCon, the giant gaming convention, so I expected it to be somewhat relaxing. Also, I’d be back in the saddle by the 8th with the rest of the month spread in front of me.
It was the end of one kind of craziness, but simultaneously the beginning of a new kind. I was left pretty wrung out by the summer: trying to get off to the right foot on Patheos, while also maintaining the Substack newsletter, on top of all the travel, ended up breaking something. By the time the smoke cleared in Mid-August I had very little writing mojo in the tank. On top of that I read the book Four Thousand Weeks which made me further question the hectic pace I’d been setting, not just during the summer, but essentially all year. I’ll get into that more in my review below. I suspect the timing was fortuitous but it did exacerbate the craziness and trigger some existential introspection. Nothing too heavy, but it’d be nice if I could write things that matter, have a successful business, and play the occasional pointless video game without feeling guilty…
I- Eschatological Review
The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction
Published: 2015
320 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
The external world—other people, inherited culture, and even physical reality—is frequently viewed as an encumbrance and an impediment to becoming our most authentic selves. In this book Crawford argues that it’s the exact opposite: all of these things are necessary “framing conditions for any worthwhile human performance”. But in order to do this we need to pay attention to the right things in the right way, and technology is all about commandeering and perverting that attention.
What's the author's angle?
Crawford is a little bit hard to pin down. I think that he’s genuinely worried about the dysfunctions of the modern world, but I also fancy that I’m genuinely worried about those dysfunctions, so I might be biased.
Who should read this book?
The book is pretty dense and meandering but if you’re looking for a broad ranging defense of engagement with the exterior world, that combines long discussions of motorcycles and organ building, with references to Kierkegaard and Decartes, then I think you’ll enjoy this book. I really liked it.
General Thoughts
For me this book was a weird and wonderful hybrid. I’ve certainly read lots of non-fiction books identifying one or more problems with the modern world. There are also books (though here I don’t have quite as much experience) that speak to the details and effort that go into a specific endeavor. For example the endeavor of winning Le Mans as depicted in Ford vs. Ferrari. Yes, I’m well aware that’s a movie not a book, but it very much reminds me of some of the sections of this book. As far as books, I think stuff by Michael Lewis fits the bill. In any event it’s rare to see something that combines the two genres. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is one that comes to mind, though stylistically they’re quite different.
At its core this is a book about attention, as such it dovetailed nicely with the next review, Four Thousand Weeks. That book makes the point that time and attention is life, that there is no life outside of it. With that in mind every time Crawford talks about attention, it can be read as advice on how to construct one’s life. And the central message is that we spend too much time focusing on internal construction and not enough time on external construction—on the world beyond your head. Here’s a long quote from the intro. I tried to make it shorter, but I found it difficult (as I said he meanders, but it’s all great stuff):
To do justice to the phenomenon of attention, we will have to wrestle with that notion of freedom…be on the lookout for a somewhat paradoxical thread that runs through these pages. The paradox is that the ideal of autonomy seems to work against the development and flourishing of any rich ecology of attention—the sort in which minds may become powerful and achieve genuine independence.
In the chapters that follow we will consider the ways our environment constitutes the self, rather than compromises it. Attention is at the core of this constitutive or formative process. When we become competent in some particular field of practice, our perception is disciplined by that practice; we become attuned to pertinent features of a situation that would be invisible to a bystander. Through the exercise of a skill, the self that acts in the world takes on a definite shape. It comes to be in a relation of fit to a world it has grasped.
To emphasize this is to put oneself at odds with some pervasive cultural reflexes. Any quick perusal of the self-help section of a bookstore teaches that the central character in our contemporary drama is a being who must choose what he is to be, and bring about his transformation through an effort of the will. It is a heroic project of open-ended, ultimately groundless self-making. If the attentive self is in a relation of fit to a world it has apprehended, the autonomous self is in a relation of creative mastery to a world it has projected.
The latter self-understanding is an invitation to narcissism, to be sure. But it also tends to make us more easily manipulated. As atomized individuals called to create meaning for ourselves, we find ourselves the recipients of all manner of solicitude and guidance. We are offered forms of unfreedom that come slyly wrapped in autonomy talk: NO LIMITS!, as the credit card offer says. YOU’RE IN CHARGE. Autonomy talk speaks the consumerist language of preference satisfaction. Discovering your true preferences requires maximizing the number of choices you face: precisely the condition that makes for maximum dissipation of one’s energies. Autonomy talk is a flattering mode of speech. It suggests that freedom is something we are entitled to, and it consists in liberation from constraints imposed by one’s circumstances.
The image of human excellence I would like to offer as a counterweight to freedom thus understood is that of a powerful, independent mind working at full song. Such independence is won through disciplined attention, in the kind of action that joins us to the world. And—this is important—it is precisely those constraining circumstances that provide the discipline.
This claim—about the role of attention in bringing the self into a relation of fit to the external world—is part of a broader anthropological assertion that runs through the book: we find ourselves situated in a world that is not of our making, and this “situatedness” is fundamental to what a human being is.
I will be emphasizing three elements of this situatedness: our embodiment, our deeply social nature, and the fact that we live in a particular historical moment. These correspond to the three major divisions of the book: “Encountering Things,” “Other People,” and “Inheritance.” In these divisions I will reinterpret what are often taken to be encumbrances to the personal will in the modern tradition—sources of unfreedom—and identify them rather as the framing conditions for any worthwhile human performance.
That last phrase “worthwhile human performance” does a pretty good job of encapsulating the whole of Crawford’s argument. Breaking down each word:
“Worthwhile” implies that there is an external standard of worth, something we will be measured against.
“Human” situates us as part of a group, a community, a collective. You can imagine that if we attempted to map the phrase to current ideology that “human” would be replaced by “personal” i.e. instead of “worthwhile human performance” the phrase might be something like maximum personal fulfillment. A subtle change, but a huge difference.
“Performance” really gets to the meat of things. When you perform you are doing something for other people, often using objects. Think of a piano recital. You’re demonstrating your mastery of an instrument, playing music composed by someone else (usually), that you think your audience will enjoy. Meaning and attention all comes at the interface between you and elements in the external world.
Thus far I have mostly talked about his examination of the problem with only brief mentions of his examples. He has several, from the skills required to ride a motorcycle or those required to be a short order cook, through the culture and operation of different kinds of weight rooms. But his most extensive discussion involves the craft of pipe organ construction, which was worth the price of admission all on its own. These examples give one the sense that the book is removed from the culture war, but in another sense it’s right smack dab in the middle of it.
Eschatological Implications
Every so often I come across a book that supports my analysis of the world (i.e. it’s dysfunctional) but from a completely novel direction. This is such a book. A previous example was The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist. McGilchrist explained the dysfunction of the world as an over-prioritization of the left hemisphere, Crawford explains it as prioritizing internal meaning over external meaning. Of course, when you dig a little deeper there’s actually a lot of overlap. The left-hemisphere creates a lot of introspective categorization, while the right is more interested in knitting the external into the whole.
Despite this overlap I’m increasingly of the opinion that there’s not just one switch that needs to be flipped. That fixing things is not merely a matter of switching the brain-focus switch from left to right, or the meaning switch from internal to external. That somehow, like a naughty child, we’ve capriciously flipped all the switches from their default, just to see what would happen. Consequently creating a polycrisis that is deeper and more insidious than even the most pessimistic are imagining.
There is, of course, another possibility. One that deserves serious consideration. It’s certainly possible that our massive supply of thoughtful leisure (Has there ever been a greater supply of public intellectuals?) in combination with the truly colossal amount of information we have access to causes us to over-identify problems? We have more people than ever working to plumb the depths of the human condition. They would naturally be incentivised to take the obscure quirks thus uncovered and label them as dysfunctions even if they’re perfectly normal and harmless. Our demand for interesting problems could be far outstripping our supply.
As I often say, I hope this is the case, and it does sound plausible. But I can’t shake the strong impression that Crawford, and McGilchrist, and all the others are pointing to something real and growing—damaging trends which have not yet reached their peak.
In Crawford’s case I don’t believe he’s describing something that ends in a sudden catastrophe. Rather this is just one more element creating drag on society, pulling us ever closer to stagnation and decadence.
II- Non-Fiction Reviews
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
By: Oliver Burkeman
Published: 2021
288 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
The paradoxically unproductive nature of most productivity advice. With a better way of approaching the short time we have.
What's the author's angle?
Burkeman used to be a productivity columnist, a life hacker, so he was once an apostle in the productivity cult he now rails against.
Who should read this book?
I would say that most people would benefit from this book, and it isn’t particularly long. But I think it is of particular benefit to people who are obsessed with getting things done. Which is most of us these days.
General Thoughts
I was precisely the target audience for this book. I’m always looking for the next productivity hack and I’m constantly fiddling with “my system”. For a long time I’ve felt like I was 90% or maybe even 95% of the way there. That if I could just work a little bit more effectively, I could do all the things I wanted to do, that I would be a perfectly productive machine.
This leads to the sense that whatever you’re currently doing is a prelude to your real life, the one where you can do everything you want. The one where you have the leisure to engage in those activities that you really enjoy, but while still doing all the important stuff. But Burkeman points out that what you’re really doing is fleeing your own mortality, your finitude. You think there’s some life out there where you won’t have to make the hard choices between working and spending time with your family. You’ll be able to do as much as you want of both, but first you have to arrive at the one true productivity system. But until that happens you’re a little bit annoyed with the life you actually have. You’re anxious both when you’re working and when you’re spending time with your family because neither has managed to come together perfectly. The work is never entirely done, and the nagging drag of everything else you think you should be doing keeps you from being fully present when spending time with your family.
“Being fully present” is a cliche as well, and in a sense it’s also a trap, it’s another way of demanding that each moment has to be special, and that if it isn’t, someday it will be—once you’re doing things perfectly. This is where distractions come in, because we’re never going to do things perfectly but we only have a limited amount of time to do anything at all, and both of those facts are things we don’t want to confront. Distracting ourselves, by playing some dumb game or watching some insipid clip is a way of avoiding that confrontation.
In my own life I have two modes, anxious productivity and calm slacking. The problem with the latter is that it easily turns from not stressing the small stuff into not stressing about the big stuff, until the big stuff blows up and then I’m automatically cast back into anxious productivity mode. Obviously I’d like to be able to somehow combine the two modes into calm productivity. And this book does seem to offer that possibility. I’m not sure I’ll be able to pull it off, and my initial attempts to do so have been kind of rough (see the intro) but I think it’s worth the effort.
By: Jean M. Twenge
Published: 2023
560 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
The way the various generations—Silents, Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and Polars—have different average behaviors, attitudes and beliefs. And the way in which these differences are mostly driven by changing technology.
What's the author's angle?
Twenge is the major advocate of the idea that social media has negatively impacted the mental health of young people. Here she applies her methodology to technology more broadly.
Who should read this book?
This book had some good stuff, but also a lot of dull stuff. I think she tries to do too much and ends with a lot of underdeveloped elements. As such unless you’re a really big Twenge fan I don’t think I would recommend the book.
General Thoughts
The book is strongest when it tackles the radical changes which have been wrought on Gen Z by technology, particularly social media. I know her previous book, iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood--and What That Means for the Rest of Us (that’s a mouthful) was exclusively about Gen Z, and I would almost recommend reading that instead of this. But as I haven’t read it personally, that’s difficult to do, plus one has to imagine that Generations contains more up to date information. But as I said, the stuff on Gen Z is only a part of the book. The rest of the book reads a little bit like a generational travelogue. “As a boomer you may have spent 1968 protesting the Vietnam War and being stunned by the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. And all of this while listening to ‘Hey Jude’ by the Beatles which was number one for nine straight weeks!”
I’m probably being too hard on Twenge, and listening to it as an audiobook probably didn’t help. The book contains long lists of people belonging to the various generations with their year of birth, and these lists don’t translate well to audio. This exacerbated the feeling that the book was more a dry recitation of generational trivia than deep analysis.
Speaking of lists that probably don’t translate well to audio. I did think this list of technologies, along with years and downstream effects was interesting:
Television
1947–1990
Immediate experience of events; exposure to other regions and cultures; decline of reading; materialism
Home appliances (microwaves, washing machines, refrigerators)
1947–1985
Ability to live alone; women pursuing careers; increase in leisure time
Air-conditioning
1950s–1980s
Population growth in the U.S. South and West; fewer people socializing outside
Birth control
1960–1969
More premarital sex; lower birth rate; women pursuing careers
Computer technology
1964–2005
Increase in skills and education necessary for many jobs; rise in work productivity
Internet news
2000–2010
Instant access to information; decline of newspapers; ability to filter news to preferences
Social media
2006–2015
Ability to reach large social network; decline in face-to-face social interaction; political polarization
Of course the question we’re left with is what technology has had us in its baleful influence since 2015? A negative influence we’ll only recognize retrospectively?
When Violence Is the Answer: Learning How to Do What It Takes When Your Life Is at Stake
By: Tim Larkin
Published: 2017
304 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
Inflicting debilitating violence when the occasion calls for it. And knowing when those occasions are.
What's the author's angle?
Larkin has a whole business around providing this sort of self-defense training, so he has some incentive to convince you that the world is dangerous and you need to listen to him.
Who should read this book?
If you’re interested in what truly effective self defense entails. Or curious about how those that practice violence as a profession (criminals) go about it.
General Thoughts
I’m going to do an in depth review of this book for the next issue of American Hombre. You should subscribe. The book has some amazing stories and observations, and I’m going to examine all of them.
Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution
By: Tucker Carlson
Published: 2018
256 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
How extreme elite myopia led to the populist uprising that propelled Trump into office.
What's the author's angle?
I think at this point most people already have an opinion on what Tucker Carlson’s angle is.
Who should read this book?
It remains to be seen what will happen with Carlson after being fired by Fox. But for many, many years he was the most watched political commentator in America. Carlson connected with a lot of people and it might be worth understanding why.
General Thoughts
In End Times by Peter Turchin, which I reviewed last month, he says this:
Currently, the most interesting phenomenon, which may or may not turn out to be the crystallization nucleus, is that of Tucker Carlson. Carlson is interesting because he is the most outspoken antiestablishment critic operating within the corporate media. Whereas media such as CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Washington Post are losing credibility among the general population (and especially among the noncredentialed Americans), Carlson is growing ever more popular. He is currently the most listened-to political commentator in America. He is also interesting in that he has a clearly formulated and coherent ideology, which is conveniently laid out in his 2018 book, Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution.
After reading this it seemed clear that if I wanted to really understand what was happening in America I needed to understand Tucker Carlson better, and the fact that his ideology was conveniently laid out in a six and half hour audiobook made that easy to accomplish.
I didn’t come across anything really novel, or even shocking. Nor did I come across anything that was obviously false. His big claims were:
The white working class is getting shafted.
Mass immigration makes that worse, and Democrats support it mostly on electoral grounds. They’re importing in people who will vote for them.
We’re too interventionist internationally.
The Democrats have turned against free speech.
Certainly he put quite a bit of spin on the facts, and it’s equally certain that he left out other facts—cherry picking the ones that best supported his argument. But Turchin himself says that “His critique of the American ruling class in many places parallels our analysis of the social forces driving the United States to the edge.” Nevertheless he calls him a “very dangerous man”. It’s not entirely clear why Turchin finds him to be so dangerous, but it seems to stem from the fact that he’s a rallying point for counter elites. And thus someone who is pushing on an already fragile system. I get that. I’m a big fan of political stability myself. But the fragility was not of Carlson’s making, and, at least in the book, Carlson just seems to be pointing it out. Which is the same thing Turchin is doing.
The book did not seem to be particularly incendiary or mendacious. Certainly I’ve read books from the other side of the spectrum that were just as bad. That said, I have not seen more than 20 minutes total of Carlson’s actual show and that is probably a better representation of his influence on the country. So take the above with a grain of salt.
Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business
By: Gino Wickman
Published: 2012
246 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
A program for evaluating and managing a business that will make it more successful.
What's the author's angle?
Wickman has an entire consulting business built around this program. So on some level this book is promotional material.
Who should read this book?
I’ve read a fair number of business books and I would say this is one of the better ones and unusually dense with actionable suggestions. So if you think you might benefit from a business book, I think this one is worth reading.
General Thoughts
I’m personally going through this book with my business partner and we’re going to implement at least some of his recommendations, maybe even most. I’ll try to remember to report back and let you know how it goes.
One funny story about this book and another book I read this month, Four Thousand Weeks. Both books talk about a famous object lesson, originally presented by Stephen R. Covey. Here’s Wickman describing it in this book:
Picture a glass cylinder set on a table. Next to the cylinder are rocks, gravel, sand, and a glass of water. Imagine the glass cylinder as all of the time you have in a day. The rocks are your main priorities, the gravel represents your day-to-day responsibilities, the sand represents interruptions, and the water is everything else that you get hit with during your workday. If you, as most people do, pour the water in first, the sand in second, the gravel in third, and the rocks last, what happens? Those big priorities won’t fit inside the glass cylinder. That’s your typical day.
What happens if you do the reverse? Work on the big stuff first: Put the rocks in. Next come the day-to-day responsibilities: Add the gravel. Now dump in the sand, all those interruptions. Finally, pour the water in. Everything fits in the glass cylinder perfectly; everything fits in your day perfectly. The bottom line is that you need to work on the biggest priorities—your Rocks—first. Everything else will fall into place.
You’ve probably come across this analogy. Wickham makes it a big part of his system. In the Traction system rocks end up representing the big priorities a business should be setting on a 90 day cycle—kind of a 90 day sprint.
Traction was the very first book I read in August. Shortly thereafter I read Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks where he also mentions the analogy, though in a different fashion:
Perhaps you’re familiar with the extraordinarily irritating parable of the rocks in the jar, which was first inflicted upon the world in Stephen Covey’s 1994 book, First Things First, and which has been repeated ad nauseam in productivity circles ever since.
Burkeman’s disdain comes from the fact that the demonstration is rigged. The demonstrator brings exactly the right amount of rocks, gravel, sand and water that will fit in the jar. But in reality we have lots of rocks that are never going to get anywhere near that jar. Lots of things that could be big and important and we just don’t have time for them.
I don’t think that Wickham is necessarily unaware of that fact, and it may be slightly easier to do this sort of prioritization with your business than with your personal life, but it was nevertheless funny, and also important to remember.
III- Fiction Reviews
One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
By: B. J. Novak
Published: 2014
288 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
A bunch of humorous (very) short stories from one of the writers/actors of The Office.
Who should read this book?
I found this to be both clever and funny, but also pretty insubstantial. If you recognize the name B. J. Novak, you'll probably enjoy it.
General Thoughts
I’m not sure how this ended up on my list. There’s an entire universe of funny books written by actors. There’s even a whole sub-genre of funny books just written by cast members of The Office, leaving me to wonder whether I should be recommending this book or some other book in the genre. Also it feels like one could get sucked into this genre, in much the same way people get hooked on a TV show. So I thought the book was pretty clever, but I’m also kind of leery of developing a taste for this sort of thing.
If you’re curious about the kind of stories Novak tells here’s a brief selection of descriptions I shamelessly stole from a Goodreads review (definitely not comprehensive):
Julie and the warlord — Hilarious. Julie goes on a blind date with a warlord. She just wants suss out his personality, he just wants to win a few battles.
The Something by John Grisham — John Grisham, incredibly famous author, publishes his newest novel...only to realize that the incompetent intern forgot to wait for the title before sending it to the public. And what's worse? Everyone loves it.
The girl who gave great advice — hilarious and read by Katy Perry. This girl gives the absolute best advice.
Sophia — A sex robot falls in love. Don't worry, it's definitely not going the way you think it will.
The Comedy Central roast of Nelson Mandela — The transcription of the a comedy central roast. Surprisingly interesting - comedians poke fun at Mandela and he fires back a few zingers of his own.
If you’re going to read it I would get the audiobook.
By: George Orwell
Published: 1945
140 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
An extended allegory of the Russian Revolution and the rise of Soviet Communism.
Who should read this book?
Everyone. It’s short and it’s a classic.
General Thoughts
Orwell was exceptionally perceptive, so perceptive that it’s easy to overfit his writing. Given how unclear things currently are one is tempted to lean on Orwell’s exceptional clarity. All of which is to say that certainly some of the things he’s talking about in Animal Farm are also happening right now, but I don’t know how much is directly applicable.
Yes, there have been attempts to rewrite recent history as part of the broader political battle, in the same way that Napoleon gradually overwrites the actions of Snowball. But it’s important not to get carried away, neither Trump nor Biden is Stalin, and I’m willing to bet that neither becomes Stalin. (For one thing they’re too old.)
We are definitely not living through the Russian revolution. We’re living through our own chaos. And Orwell doesn’t have the answer, but I hope that by imbibing his perspicacity that we might be better positioned to develop some of our own.
Slaughter-House Five (Graphic Novel)
By: Kurt Vonnegut and Ryan North
Published: Original novel published 1969. Graphic novel published 2020
192 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
A semi-autobiographical tale of Vonnegut’s survival of the firebombing of Dresden with some strange sci-fi elements thrown in.
Who should read this book?
If you’re a big fan of the original novel I think this graphic novel version is a great complement.
General Thoughts
When I was in Indianapolis for GenCon I stopped by the Vonnegut Museum. If you’re a Vonnegut fan I would definitely go, though it was a little bit underwhelming. Still I never would have heard about this particular graphic novel if I hadn’t gone, so in that respect I’m glad I did. I would be in favor of a lot more novels getting the “graphic” treatment. And if anything deserved it certainly Slaughterhouse Five did.
If for some inexplicable reason you haven’t read Slaughterhouse Five, it’s a rare mix of deep and affecting tragedy with quite a bit of humor. I highly recommend it.
Children of the Mind (The Ender Saga, 4)
By: Orson Scott Card
Published: 1997
352 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
This is basically Xenocide Part 2. It plays out the consequences of the events of that novel, including the creation of younger versions of Peter and Valentine Wiggins, and stories of the other inhabitants of Lusitania.
Who should read this book?
I’m glad I read it, because the philosophy was interesting, but I would only weakly recommend it to anyone else.
General Thoughts
To be clear, Ender’s Game is one of my favorite books of all time. Children of the Mind is unfortunately an apple that has fallen a long way from that tree. It’s not bad, but like every other book in the series other than the first one, it relies on creating drama through decisions that make no sense.
I imagine that I am more than usually sensitive to this sort of thing. That I am too critical. So take what I say with that caveat in mind. But this is a very flawed book.
IV- Religious Reviews
Published: 1968
267 Pages
Briefly, what is this book about?
A comprehensive overview of claimed evidence of ancient visitation by aliens.
Who should read this book?
As a curiosity it’s pretty interesting, as an actual factual work it has a lot of problems.
General Thoughts
I am sympathetic to von Däniken, his idea is an interesting one, but I think he ends up making several very large mistakes.
For those unfamiliar with von Däniken, his thesis is that ancient structures are too technologically advanced to have been constructed when they were, and must, therefore, have been constructed by technologically advanced aliens or by humans with the assistance of such aliens. As examples he offers up things like the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, the Moai of Easter Island and the Nazca Lines in Peru. He also points out instances of ancient artwork that appear to depict advanced vehicles, astronauts, and other complex technology.
It’s an interesting book, and at the time of its publication it attracted an enormous amount of attention. In fact the blurb on the book claims that “Erich von Däniken is arguably the most widely read and most-copied nonfiction author in the world.” But I think von Däniken misses the mark in three key ways:
He focuses too much on visible technology. He doesn’t completely ignore the ideological angle, and there is some discussion of ancient religions, but he spends almost no time discussing the potential motivation of the aliens. Why would they build something as large and durable as the pyramids, consequently providing a lot of evidence, but not indisputable evidence. Clearly they could have built or left behind something where the evidence was indisputable. Like a skyscraper, or rare exotic materials.
He has both too much imagination and not enough. His imagination is sufficient to allow him to link all sorts of things back to aliens. To see helicopters in the hieroglyphs of Ancient Egypt, and astronauts in the inscriptions of the Mayans. But helicopters and astronauts that need spacesuits are pretty low tech. Or he hypothesizes that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by a nuclear weapon. He spends a lot of time connecting ancient sources to technology we know about, but not enough time imagining truly magical technology.
Where are these aliens now? Why would they help to construct huge obvious monuments in the past, but then spend all their time hiding now? Certainly one could claim that the craft flitting around in the videos taken by naval aviators are the same aliens von Daniken is talking about, but why are they behaving so differently? And why did they stop large scale interference at the same time recorded history begins?
I read this because it touches on the book I’m still, in theory, working on. The above was an abridged selection from that book. I’ll have a lot more to say about it at a future point. (Hopefully!)
I decided to do something different and take a photo of the physical copies of some of the books I reviewed. You’ll have to let me know if you like that better than the previous method where I did a screenshot of virtual covers. If you do like it better consider donating, physical books cost money, and even if you don’t like the different picture still consider it. Audible isn’t free either…