How I Became Stupid
by Martin Page (translated by Adriana Hunter)
Read October 2007
Copy borrowed from Ramsey County Public Library, White Bear Lake branch
Essay written January 26th, 2008
Just a light little read. Fun, but not terribly meaningful. Then again, it wasn't really meant to be meaningful, it was meant to be funny. I guess I read something in French and I'm expecting it to be all profound.
If there hadn't been so much ridiculous stuff in this book I might be able to recommend it to others. But the friend that glows in the dark and only speaks in sonnets? I'm all for silly, but that's just too arbitrary. And even in a farcical little tale like this, no stockbroker is ever going to make millions of dollars on the stock market simply by spilling a cup of coffee into his computer keyboard. I know the author didn't intend for me to believe that this could ever actually happen, but my intelligence was a little insulted just the same.
Maybe the author was insulting my intelligence on purpose, since the main thesis of the book is that intelligence is nothing but trouble in the first place. Ignorance is bliss, all that. While I agree with the general principle that dumb people are indeed happier than smart ones, I'm doubtful that this author was really clever enough to make an indirect sneaky point like that.
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