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TheOtherDave comments on Open Thread April 8 - April 14 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: Tenoke 08 April 2014 11:11AM

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Comment author: JoshuaFox 08 April 2014 03:17:02PM *  1 point [-]

Thanks for those answers; but they don't quite explain

  • why some people are induced to change their life by it (perhaps only because it piques their interest for other material on LessWrong)
  • why some readers get more enthusiastic about it than about some excellent non-fanfic books. (These readers are mostly not part of a group that might put social pressure on them to become fans.)
  • why Eliezer has described his own work as "fictional literature from what looks like an entirely different literary tradition." (That's in the April Fool's post, but he has said similar things elsewhere. And though this bullet point could be explained as arrogance on the part of Eliezer, some comments I've seen suggest that many fans agree with him.)
Comment author: TheOtherDave 08 April 2014 03:38:31PM 7 points [-]

If I had to guess, I'd guess that it targets a particular kind of audience that most fiction isn't targeted at, and consequently appeals to that audience more than excellent other books targeted elsewhere.