In the Seventh Sitting of Tripe, it’s made clear that as soon as the goal of the book’s being an organic growth-in-itself is stated, it dissolves, following the pattern of self-transcendence that the book has set up. If the purpose of an endeavor is to evade all purposes, then to succeed, the book must transcend its own goal of transcendence and actually acquire a clear non-self-transcending purpose, which it eventually does, I promise. Likewise, if the style of the book is meant to be impersonal in its following of the dialectic chain of ideas, then transcending that means making the book personal and bringing in more of the author’s feelings, which you’ll get way more than enough of if you stick with this thing.
Just a short excerpt today, illustrating the above in a manner that could describe the motivation for the “partially” in Partially Examined Life (incidentally, this thing about self-consciousness is actually covered in the Schopenhauer episode that you have not yet heard):
Let me cap off some earlier stuff about self-consciousness, as exemplified as the attempts by this book to comment on itself, getting beyond itself, etc., all of which end in a pathetic vicious regress (I use the word “pathetic” because I like to bitch). There’s always gonna be some part of the butt that’s doin the seeing, and I guarantee it will be the ugliest, most disgusting part. So you’re an ass either way, right?
-Mark Linsenmayer
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