Luke Burgis Newsletter

Luke Burgis Newsletter

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Luke Burgis Newsletter
The Reflexivity of Books
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The Reflexivity of Books

And 8 books that gave shape to Wanting

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Luke Burgis
Aug 27, 2021
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The Reflexivity of Books
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Introduction

A reminder that Anti-Mimetic has a growing Discord community. If you haven’t already, please consider dropping by and introducing yourself. Here’s the private link: https://discord.gg/w4XNMB72HM

Today’s topic: the reflexivity of books, plus a few selections from my library.

(Above: that’s not my library. It is the home library of former Johns Hopkins University Humanities professor Richard A. Macksey, once a friend and colleague of René Girard.)

The Reflexivity of Books

Winston Churchill famously said that “we shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.” The remark came during a debate about how to rebuild the Commons Chamber, which had been bombed during a blitz. He advocated keeping an adversarial rectangular structure in place because he believed that two-party debate was essential to British parliamentary democracy—and that the shape of the old chamber had been directly responsible for the form of the debate.

Could we not say the same thing about books? Th…

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