Jk. Altho they are both hyper contemporary and do the whole self-insert thing.

I thought a lot about health, like real health reading this book. Lin ("Li") strikes me as deeply unhealthy in this book, for reasons outside of his control (he's cursed, he says, and it's convincing). He ascribes his health problems to environmental causes and works to mitigate them with the kind of food and geographical science we think of as woo woo, like taking a lot of drugs and going on hikes and participating in chiropracty and getting his parents to remove their Mercury fillings. Etc etc.

But I thought about it and all holistic health, like truly personal health care, is by necessity "fringe," because it's personal and because the outcome is health, which is a self evident need. Any systematized health care is contra to this outcome. Which is what people complain about. Who is that one religious guy who kind of writes in conversation with Lasch and some other iatrogenic theorist?

I am also appreciative of Lin's credence to The Mystery, what he calls non materialist thought. As in- if you don't believe in God, you're plainly missing something. Another thing the sick American public would call woo woo! (Or whatever- maybe woo woo is just my term. You know what I mean.)