Posts tagged esoteric

An incomplete taxonomy of esoteric texts: This text is discussing esoteric subject matter This text is being deliberately…

books, esoteric, translation, context

mysteriouslyunlikelycloud:

kinsey3furry300:

prokopetz:

An incomplete taxonomy of esoteric texts:

  1. This text is discussing esoteric subject matter
  2. This text is being deliberately obscure because its author knows they don’t have a coherent thesis and they’re blowing smoke
  3. This text is written in earnest, but its author has very poor communication skills
  4. This text’s translator has misunderstood something that was meant completely literally as a complex metaphor
  5. This text is actually perfectly straightforward in its native language, but every available translation fucking sucks

6. The author is a troll, and is fucking with a very specific target audience, who would have been well aware they are being fucked with.

You are not the target audience, and thus are missing the joke.

7. This text was reasonably accessible in the context it was written in. It has been removed from that context and is now completely impossible to understand.


The book you are advised to read to understand what this book is going on about has not been digitised. There is a reference copy available at a library 800 miles away. An eBay seller based in Russia is selling a copy for £300, there is no picture of the book included in the listing.