Philosophy vs. Pulp

I just finished Anthony Gottlieb’s very good, short biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein. I didn’t expect it to overlap with the reading I’ve been doing on pulp fiction, but near the end I came to this really funny bit:

“One thing that reliably lifted Wittgenstein’s spirits in Ireland was American pulp-fiction magazines, which Malcolm mailed to him. Wittgenstein favorably contrasted these with the philosophical journal Mind: ‘If philosophy has anything to do with wisdom there’s certainly not a grain of that in Mind, and quite often a grain in the detective stories.'” (p. 150)

I don’t know that I’ve ever read a biography all the way through before, but this one was very enjoyable, even for someone who has only the most basic familiarity of Wittgenstein. It’s full of all sorts of interesting details, like the fact that his brother was a famous one-armed pianist, and that Wittgenstein himself was very proficient at whistling classical music. It also goes a long way in demystifying Wittgenstein, which is no small feat.