Six Bullet Saturday #19
“Five Bullet Friday” is a weekly series of what I’m enjoying or pondering inspired by Tim Ferriss. I want to stay consistent with this log, so I decided that for every extra day that I put things off, I will add an extra bullet.
1. What I am reading
Dream of the Red Chamber (《红楼梦》) also known as The Story of the Stone (《石头记》)
This is one of China's 4 Great Classical Novels and probably one of the most read books ever. In fact, people study this book for their whole lives in a field of study called redology. The average Chinese speaker is probably as familiar with Dream of the Red Chamber as the average English speaker is with Shakespeare. Both are timeless classics.
I was originally intending to dedicate this week's "Five Bullet Friday" post purely to redology, but it actually needs to be a different article. I have only read the first 2 chapters out of the 120 chapters of the novel so far, but I have already gotten more out of this than any other novel or philosophical text. Mind = Blown.
2. Article I am reading
Read To Lead: How To Digest Books Above Your “Level” by Ryan Holiday
If you are interested in how to get the most out of what you read, then stop reading my post now and read this article immediately. This article has been very helpful in how I approached reading Dream of the Red Chamber. I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much out of the book had I approached reading it in the same way as I did back in school. This is how we need to reform education.
3. Purchase I am enjoying
Scrivener
This is a software that is very useful for composing writing. You can have all your research documents, brainstorming, and writing all in one window. I have been using this to work on my The Art of the Meme War book this week.
There's a Thanksgiving sale currently and you can get an additional 20% off with coupon: WORDSWITHJAM.
4. Podcast I am listening to
Jocko Podcast 50 w/ Tim Ferriss: Darkness & How to Stay on the Path
This is a great episode that went over how to deal with depression and how to become successful after getting out of depression. This is a side of Tim Ferriss that you don't usually see.
5. Word I learned
Hermeneutics: the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation of literary texts.
Redology is the hermeneutics of Dream of the Red Chamber. I am also doing hermeneutics of Meme Magic in the book I am writing. This is especially relevant, because hermeneutics stems from Hermes, a Greek Trickster god, and memes and trolling fit the Trickster archetype. This is a synchromystical connection worthy of the praise of Kek, Pepe, and Harambe.
6. Quote I am pondering
"Truth becomes fiction when the fiction's true; Real becomes not-real where the unreal's real." - Dream of the Red Chamber, Chapter 1
My hermeneutic interpretation of this quote is that it's saying "Meme Magic is real".
Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful weekend,