The book that I would like to analytically introduce and recommend today is one that is most assuredly not for everyone. And I don’t mean that it’s not for everyone because its content is shocking, like American Psycho, nor because its content is controversial, like Lolita, nor because its content is difficult, like Gravity’s Rainbow.
No, Jean-Paul Sartre’s Nausea
Photo by McKay Savage
Perhaps you’ve been looking at one or more articles on The Gemsbok or elsewhere, and you’ve decided that you might want to start a blog of your own to get your writing and your ideas in front of other people.
Well, that’s a great start! Many writers don’t even get that far. Making that decision is the first step toward people reading what you’ve written, so well done. Now I hope that the rest of this article gets you from having that idea in your head to having your blog up and running, fast and easy.
Before anything, I would warn you that there are pitfalls when you start a blog. Managing and developing a successful blog website can be challenging. Sticking to your writing and posting schedule is the most important habit, but can be difficult. And sometimes technical difficulties can temporarily derail your project. But if you think that you’re up to the task, and really want to get your writing out there, there is some good news: the ‘getting started’ part is actually quite easy!
There are two primary things that you will need to start a blog, and getting them set up is quick and easy enough that you could have your first post online less than twenty minutes after reading this page. Those two things are a hosting service and a blogging software. The hosting service is cheap, but not free; the blogging software is free. Now let me explain each of these things:
Books are expensive, but reading can be cheap.
Free books are readily available. By taking advantage of public domain collections, free trial offers, and library catalogues, you can almost definitely get a hold of the next book you want to read without spending a cent on it.
Back near the beginning of November, I wrote an article on the is-ought problem and moral anti-realism. In that article, I concluded that the moral anti-realist is free to continue speaking of moral oughts as long as their conception of an ought is something rather like a phenomenologically considered is. Humans without moral realism, I concluded, would still have means for an ethics that is contractarian in nature.
This contractarian ethical system would result from an understanding of morality which is in part functionally objective and entirely intersubjective. If you’re not sure what I mean by ‘functionally objective’ or ‘intersubjective,’ don’t worry; I’ll cover each of them in turn right now.
You could probably tell from my spirited endorsement of The Marx Brothers’ movies a month ago that I’m hoping to point you all toward areas of the film landscape that you’re missing if you just stick to the past 50 years of Hollywood blockbusters (not that I’m opposed to those either, of course).
Today’s film is in another such area, because it is a Swedish film. If you’re a person who has never watched a movie that was made in a language besides English, then let me take this opportunity to tell you that you are missing out on huge quantities of truly incredible cinema. A case-in-point of what you’re missing out on (and a great place to start, if that unfortunately describes you) is the Swedish horror-drama Let the Right One In
![[Game: Elden Ring, FromSoftware, 2022] Tarnishing: A Thorough Critique Detailing the Few Mechanical Flaws of FromSoft’s Elden Ring](https://i0.wp.com/thegemsbok.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Elden-Ring-screenshot-with-draconic-tree-sentinel.png?fit=722%2C406&ssl=1&resize=200%2C200)
![[Work: The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker, 1973] The Denial of Life: A Critique of Pessimism, Pathologization, and Structuralism in Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death](https://i0.wp.com/thegemsbok.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Ernest-Becker-Sketch-by-M.R.P.-Presentable-1.jpg?fit=254%2C415&ssl=1&resize=200%2C200)
![[Work: The Stranger, Albert Camus, 1942] Smiling While Despised: The Ending of Albert Camus' The Stranger and the Beginning of Authenticity](https://i0.wp.com/thegemsbok.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/The-Stranger-book-cover.png?fit=262%2C400&ssl=1&resize=200%2C200)
![[Game: Mini Motorways, Dinosaur Polo Club, 2019] Mini Metrics: 5 Ways Mini Motorways Improves on the Studio's Earlier Release Mini Metro](https://i0.wp.com/thegemsbok.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Mini-Motorways-screenshot-with-over-5000-trips-completed.png?fit=722%2C406&ssl=1&resize=200%2C200)
