On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt
A little gem of a book
(Review posted 10 May 2005 03:21:45)

This little book caught my eye, sitting all by itself (just one copy) on the impulse-buying table by the coffee bar at some chain bookstore. Physically it's a little gem: no dust cover, an old-fashioned (or old-fashioned looking; I'm no expert) cloth binding, a simple rectangle on the front with author and title, same thing on the spine. Inside, more or less the minimal amount of modest title pages and frontispieces, and then right into the text.

The text is short, to the point, reasonably wise. It's a reprint of an essay that originally appeared in 1986, and has also appeared in a collection of Frankfurt's essays. But this book edition (2005) seems to be what made the splash (the Web suggests that he's been making some of the talkshow circuit with it, anyway).

The basic thesis is brief and simple: that bullshit differs from lies, and bullshitters from lairs, in that while liars are concerned with the truth (in order to avoid or deny it), bullshitters don't care one way or the other about truth; they have some other agenda entirely. Frankfurt spins this thesis out into sixty-seven little tiny pages that are easy and enjoyable to read, with a certain amount of scholarship, a certain amount of dry humor, and the palpable pleasure of holding this excellent artifact in your hands while reading it.