Peterson takes a couple of lazy swipes at his critics on the left, but his heart isn’t in it. Just about the only sort of book Beyond Order never manages to be is the type the internet promised me – a scandalous one. At its best, when Peterson works in his Oliver Sacks mode, recalling lessons gleaned from treating real people with real problems in his clinical practice, it zips right along. His army of pasty nerd-men is ready to leap to their feet at any moment shouting, “I’m Peterson!’ and “No, I’m Peterson!” Then you get to page 12 and hit this sentence: “The most phylogenetically ancient multicellular organisms … tend to be composed of relatively undifferentiated sensorimotor cells.”īeyond Order is something between a textbook, a self-help book, a memoir, a self-help memoir, “The Golden Bough for Dummies,” a Coles Notes to the King James Bible and Harry Potter fan fiction.Īt its worst, it is a slog and I unashamedly admit to skipping most of the part about Mesopotamian mythology, may the sea goddess Tiamat forgive me. The mention of his name makes publishing assistants tremble and weep. To hear tell of it, Peterson trails controversy like tin cans trail cartoon newlyweds. I began in the hope of being scandalized.
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