Mr Emerson is a Diogenean cynic, Pyrrhonian skeptic, eclectic generalist humanist, and left populist (Omaha platform) who mostly spends his time reading books by and about dead people much different than himself or you.
Emerson writes: “I am the process of organizing my archives in more usable form — selecting the best pieces, suppressing the worst, finishing the unfinished, and editing those which need editing — with the ultimate goal of possibly publishing some of them in book form. Anyone who wants to be my editor, agent, or publisher get in touch. I’ve tried self-publishing (see below) but I’ve found that the hard part of publishing is publicity, and if you’re too disorganized and dysfunctional to get an agent or a publisher, you’re also too disorganized to self-publish. The odds are that I will be an unpaid internet author for the rest of my natural life.
Publications
(Books on Demand)
Sex Life of the Nineteenth Century: And Autobiographical Approach to the History of Western Civilization
(Includes “Why Did Henry James Kill Daisy Miller?” and
“Could Friedrich Nietzsche have Married Jane Austen?”)
“The Sex Life of the Nineteenth Century: An Autobiographical Approach to the History of Western Civilization” is looking for its audience. In this apparently random assemblage of egregious code-switching, extravagant whimsy, pedantic smut, and tidbits of obscure trivia, an argument of uncertain affiliation and insidious intent reveals the dark side of truth, love, and seriousness. A perfect book for the right person.
About 80 posts, mostly from Haquelebac and Idiocentrism. No political, philosophical, or economic rants, and nothing on Chinese philosophy or inner Eurasian history.
Shen Dao: Text, Translation, and Study
(PDF: Text and Translation
PDF: Study
Shen Dao (fl. ca. 325 BC) is classified sometimes as a Daoist, sometimes as a Legalist, and sometimes as a follower of Huanglao, but these late retrospective classifications are not very helpful. There were no organized Daoist, Legalist, or Huanglao schools comparable to the Mohist and Confucian schools, and in effect, these classifications merely serve to lump tendencies. Insofar as these three labels mean anything, they are probably all applicable to Shen Dao.
Internet Writings By Category
Greatest hits: literature
About fifteen of my most popular literary posts — literary in manner even if the topic is history or philosophy. As mentioned above, these posts have been carefully devised so that they fall at an indeterminate point on the seriousness scale, somewhere between 0% and 100%. Caveat lector.
Greatest hits: not literature
Five selected posts each on philosophy (broadly defined), Laozi and Chinese philosophy, Eurasia and the Mongols, and American politics. All of these posts are intended to be read straight.
Least Hits
“Least Hits” consists of brief posts cobbled together from scavenged tidbits — most of them amusing, some of them entirely trivial, some of them less so.
Posts on Literature
The majority of my posts, and most of the most popular posts, are literary in manner even if the topic is history or philosophy. As mentioned above, these posts have been carefully devised so that they fall at an indeterminate point on the seriousness scale, somewhere between 0% and 100%. Don’t be too sure.
Posts on Shen Dao and the Daodejing
I have had some success with academic publishing in this area, and these posts are intended to be taken straight, as serious contributions to the discipline. Eventually I will publish a book on the Daodjing, which is about 80% finished by now. My short book on Shen Dao can be ordered from the print-on-demand publisher Espresso Book Machine. Search for “Shen Dao”, click the title, and then choose a bookstore if you want it mailed. (U. Washington, McNally Jackson, and Politics and Prose don’t seem to work.) Or go to one of these locations and pick the book up. (Free PDF version, in two parts: Text and translation of Shen Dao; A study of Shen Dao)
Posts on Inner Eurasia and the Rise of Genghis Khan
Only only of these posts has been published in a legit publication, but they are also intended to be taken straight. However, my “field” is more like world political history than Inner Eurasian history in the limited sense.
Posts on Philosophy
I have a generally poor relationship with contemporary philosophy. Many of these posts treat philosophy in a literary or polemical way; they’re mostly really “about” philosophy, rather than being themselves philosophical. My favorite philosophers have always have been authors like Montaigne who have been expelled from philosophy and authors like Nietzsche, William James, and the later Wittgenstein who pointed the way out of philosophy. At the end I tack on links to my many disgruntled polemical pieces.
I have written a lot about economics, though at this point I’m not happy with much it. I hope someday to cannibalize these pieces and use them to write something more satisfying.
My political posts tend to be polemical and time-dependent, but some of them are worth reposting.
ORIGINAL SOURCES:
New pieces still appear here at Haquelebac.
Many longer pieces were first published at Idiocentrism.
Political pieces were published at Trollblog, Open Left, and Seeing the Forest.
emersonj a t g m a i l d o t c o m
Haquelebac 
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