Good articles on Ivan Illich?

General
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Anyone have good articles on the idea of Ivan Illich? I haven’t ready any of his stuff but many ppl in SoP’s orbit mention the concept of conviviality, which seems to be a major theme in his works.

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L. M. Sacassas newsletter The Convivial Society | L. M. Sacasas | Substack

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There are lots of good articles, but there is really no substitute for hearing from the man himself. I can’t recommend enough David Cayley’s “Part Moon, Part Traveling Salesman” interview series with him.

It’s a good point to raise him here. His approach to conviviality could be really helpful in ditinguising between “dangerous” and generative protocols.

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I would suggest just picking up one of his books. Enjoyed De-Schooling Society and Limits to Medicine. There is also a biography of sorts, The Prophet of Cuernavaca, you may wish to check out: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-prophet-of-cuernavaca-9780190204563?cc=us&lang=en&

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As usual it sounds like there’s no substitute for putting in the work. Thanks @ntnsndr and @George for the recs :raised_hands:

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Dunno about that. Fans of a major author always recommend that. I’ve found that Wikipedia + ChatGPT is almost always a good enough substitute for reading the originals, especially if they are books :smiley: Illich is definitely in that set for me. I started on Tools of Conviviality and then gave up after a chapter or two because it felt too dated, and I found I mostly was already aware of the gist via Sacassas and other fans.

My strategy is to only pick very, very few book authors to take on at the book level. Francis Fukuyama is one of mine for eg. But the specific selection varies. But there is no author who is worth reading in the original for everybody. At best you have a 1:9:90 situation. 1% should read the books, 9% should read wikipedia/ask chatgpt, 90% should be fine not knowing anything about the author. There are no “essential” authors except to the religious.

This is also the reason I focus on essays rather than books myself. I’ve only written 1 proper book and I don’t mind if people don’t bother reading it. I might at most write one more I think.