Sunday, July 05, 2009

On What Nature Abhors

Tyler talks about ideas "in an intellectual vacuum" and then "explains:"
Imagine handing Road to Serfdom to a thirteen-year-old.

Um, no, I guess I can't quite imagine it, though I imagine it has been done--my guess is that the donor is a dentist who pilots his own plane. But it does recall a time a few years back when I gave a copy of Animal Farm as a bar mitzvah present. Later I asked papas--did he read the book? Did he like it?

"Yeh," said papa, "he thought it was about pigs."

My mind wanders: the book I read at that age with avidity and who-knows-how-much comprehension was P.C. Wren, Beau Geste. Wiki suggests there are half a dozen film versions and even more parodies--and a bibliography reference under "Children's Literature." Who knows, maybe Hayek's time will come.

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