What clicked and made you have a different mindset? How long did it take to start changing and how long was the transformation? Did it last or is it an ongoing back and forth between your old self? I want to know your transformation and success.
Any kind of change, big or small. Anything from weight loss, world view, personality shift, major life change, single change like stopped smoking or drinking soda to starting exercising or going back to school. I want to hear how people’s life were a bit or a lot better through reading and your progress.
TIA 🙏
Babel 17 from Samuel Delany. It introduces me to language sciences, human sciences, and then humanism. It switched my point of view on all sciences, and on people too. But for people it also come from one or two other shorter novels from the same author. It was in the same book though. It somehow came during the holidays between high school and university, so like a coming of age thing. I will always remember it.
Another one is not from a book but a video game. Kotor2. At some point, you are asked by a ghost to take position. If you don’t, you are answered “apathy is death”, and all ghosts, friends and foe, attack you. It was almost traumatic : I learned with this that sometimes you cannot be neutral, you must make a choice that will have consequences, and you will still have to endure the consequences. I will always remember this : apathy is death.
Oh, also, that I almost forgot: le livre du courtisan (El cortegiano) from Baldassar Castiglione. It’s a how to behave book from the XVth century. It’s surprisingly well adapted to our own. It’s surprisingly modern too, even regarding women (that surprised me the most). It’s very positive, and very different from what we would have today, yet you see a bit of everything you could ask for today. It’s been some kind of humanist compass since I’ve read it.