A miniature review
Hey, Why Truth Matters has a tiny review in the TLS ‘In Brief’ section (October 20 issue). It’s not online. If anybody has an ol’ copy lying around and just longs to send it to me, don’t be shy. (Kind Nick sent one when the Dictionary was there.)
It’s not that tiny. It’s a pretty good review. In the last paragraph, it says that we don’t alway succeed in explaining why truth matters.
The reviewer had obviously been listening to my Little Atoms performance. :)
Ah, that’s nice. You found a copy then. Perhaps at that Waterstone’s that shelved the Dictionary on the top floor in a distant corner behind a stack of old suitcases.
Little Atoms…Padraig was on the Moral Maze last week. It gave me quite a turn to hear him – felt as if I were about to be asked a question.
Does Padraig know anything about moral things?
(I hope he doesn’t read this!)
I didn’t tell you, but I got asked to go on some BBC Radio 5 show (Simon Mayo, I think) to talk about lying (“Why Truth Matters” – they got the wrong end of the stick).
I said that I wouldn’t because I didn’t know the first thing about lying (except for, you know, being an expert at it). And also that I didn’t tend to make a habit of going on the radio to talk about things I didn’t know the first thing about. But then I remembered the whole Little Atoms, Lysenko incident, and the Little Atoms, animal rights incident, and the Little Atoms, why truth matters incident, and realised that probably I was lying.
This is why I find all this pretending to be an academic-type a bit difficult. I know so little. It’s a cross I have to bear (sorry – religious allusion).
Ah well, Moral Maze gives itself a very broad remit. This one was about the niqab (no, really?!), so Padraig was hauled in to talk about secularism.
Well you weren’t quite lying, because it’s true enough that you don’t make a habit of going on the radio to talk about things you don’t know about. You don’t do it, like, once a month or anything. You do it occasionally.
According to my brother (who is an academic type), all academic types know so little, and know they know so little, and are constantly expecting to be Found Out.
Gladly the Cross-eyed Bear (religious allusion).
As a matter of (possible)interest, when I bought my copy I went to my local indie book store to order it, but the owner leapt to the shelves with an ‘Ah, now this is very good!’ And proceeded to tell me why everyone should read it.
Who needs reviewers with literate booksellers around?
(Cogito in Hexham, by the way.)
The funniest one was when I went onto Radio 1, and talked about sex for an hour. I think I’m probably the only person ever to have used the expression “fuck buddy” on Radio 1.
Mind you, I am an expert on sex, of course. I have Special Powers.
“and are constantly expecting to be Found Out.”
Yeah. I find if one confesses that one hasn’t a clue what one is going on about before one starts, it helps.
Don
If your bookseller has the faintest clue why truth matters, could he let us know before the paperback comes out?
Thanks!
Jerry
Gosh, Don, what a charming lovable delightful and of course literate bookseller that must be. I think I’ll up sticks and move to Hexham.
“only person ever to have used the expression “fuck buddy” on Radio 1.”
Or to have worn an “I fuck sheep” T shirt to LSE seminars. Boast boast boast.
Notice how admirably restrained I’m being about the publicity you cheerily threw away. Sad about the 3999 remaindered copies of WTM though.
Guys, hey guys, just, like, ssssh about the whole not-knowing-anything thing, alright? I mean, really, what are you doing? SSSSHHHH, please!
[whispers] Oops, sorry, Dave.
[loudly] Of course academics know everything! Everybody knows that!
Thanks! [wipes beads of cold sweat from forehead, goes back to idly surfing web…]
[Errr… conducting in-depth background research on cognitive science…]
And technically I’m not an academic, so the fact that I know nothing does not falsify the proposition that all academics know everything.*
*Except for Jonathan Wolff.
(That’s just a gratuitous insult. I apologise.)
Ah, but it depends how one defines ‘academic’. Under some interpretations, anyone rash enough to acquire a PhD is ipso facto an academic even if she then goes to work as a poodle-groomer.
(That’s a lie. Hence I’m an expert on lying. Simon Mayo please note.)
The TLS review has been added to the Why Truth Matters web site.