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“Sophomore portal” books: You’re likely to read them 17-21, with median at ~19 — Ayn Rand — GEB — HHG — Alchemist — Pirsig They seem optimized to have a profound effect in that range, be inaccessible if you’re younger (unless you’re precocious) and underwhelming if you’re older
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Just because you grow up and can draw a big box around the beautiful things from your earlier days, it does not make those things (or your younger kind) less beautiful. You just can’t be content to live in that box forever. That’s where e.g. objectivists get stuck.
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so is the alchemist, which i loved as a teenager and still love, because it is a really good folktale retelling. i wonder how many people sneering at it were already familiar with the folktale when they read the novel; i suspect that made a difference.