Evan Puschak delivers a thought-provoking if uneven collection of essays with his debut Escape Into Meaning: Essays on Superman, Public Benches, and Other Obsessions. Puschak, known for his YouTube channel The Nerdwriter, offers a myriad of cultural critiques on subjects running from Lord of the Rings to society’s dependence on technology. Despite the light introduction to many of the essays, Puschak doesn’t shy away from heavier topics, including a takedown of the American education system, an attack on corporate greed, and a debate about the federal minimum wage. Escape Into Meaning struggles with this balance between light and heavy, often skewing toward a more academic style. Fans of The Nerdwriter won’t be intimidated, but someone new to Puschak’s voice might turn away at an opening essay about the eloquence of Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example. Despite this high entry point, Escape Into Meaning has a certain charm, and those able to get into Puschak’s writing will find themselves happy to have done so.

It is an interesting set of essays, some potentially more interesting than others, but overall pretty interesting.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2022! I've been a big fan over the years of Puschak's Youtube channel The NerdWriter for its thoughtful exploration of popular culture, philosophy and art, and I think anybody who enjoys that channel will also like this book, especially if you get the audiobook (Puschak’s narration will be familiar for fans of the videos).

But… I don't think this will be for everybody. The long form of an essay collection allows Puschak to get more philosophical here than in his videos, and I think many of his ideas typically benefit from dual exploration in visual and written formats. I found that while I really enjoyed certain essays, others fell pretty flat - and I think that is partly a function of how much I care about the cultural phenomenons he analyzes. For example, I like Seinfeld and re-watching LOTR, so I really enjoyed the essays that used those topics to explore ideas. I’m not a fan of Tarantino, Yates, Emerson or cyberpunk, so I didn't get as invested in those essays - and Puschak was unsuccessful in convincing me I should care more. I think some of the strongest essays were ones that forgo pop culture and deep dive into cultural observations - "When Experts Disagree", "An Ode to Public Benches", and "On Friendship" were some of the strongest pieces in the whole collection.

So all in all, a bit of a mixed bag. If you like philosophy and pop culture, you might like this - but I'd point you towards The NerdWriter first. While this didn't live up to the (admittedly super high) expectations I had for it, I'm definitely looking forward to more from Puschak in the future - in any media format he chooses to publish.

As with any collection, a reader will prefer some essays over others. I liked all the essays, but loved a few.

I confess I wasn't familiar with The Nerdwriter, but I did enjoy this collection of very well-written essays. They're on a broad range of topics and like any good essay, kind of meander a bit. I'll have to check out The Nerdwriter now. #EscapeintoMeaning #NetGalley

3.5 rounded to 4

The title, in retrospect, seems to be ironic as one of the things Puschak states is that he doesn't believe there is any meaning to anything. Except of course what we might create ourselves.

Title aside, for the most part I found these rambles about popular culture, education, and other things to be engaging, even enthusiastic at times--such as his essay on Lord of the Rings--his having watched the films fifty times. (Which already sets us apart; I've probably read the books fifty times, but the films, no. I saw the first film three times, two of those with my son, and once with the spouse, and once each for the other two.) But what Pushak had to say was interesting as a contrast to my perceptions of the legendarium. And in some ways, we were totally on the same page.

I also enjoyed the first essay, which explores education vs. enthusiasm for learning. The rest of the essays varied, the one on Superman reading to me like a guy's take on Superman, and I didn't finish the one on Seinfeld--I tried twice to watch some of the show, but both times got to where this loud, boring guy mansplained at the top of his lungs to a captive audience and I flipped the channel both times. I tried reading the essay but nothing engaged me in the opening graphs, so I moved on.

Another "man's POV" essay was his look at "The Comforts of Cyberpunk." Bladerunner left me cold for the exact reasons he felt cut free--the total lack of relationships. I never made it all the way through the film back then or the redo, though the spouse loves it. I always fell asleep around the same spot. That said, the quotes were fine ones, and the essay articulated a lot of why the spouse likes it.

Altogether an interesting set of explorations of contemporary culture.

Overall, I enjoyed this book of essays from Evan Puschak of Nerdwriter fame. For the most part, for the reader’s interests will play a significant part in which essays they will enjoy the most. If someone was to pick up my copy of Escape Into Meaning, it would be easy to guess my favorites based on my highlights.

Essays in the Collection Include:
Emerson’s Magic
I think the Internet Wants to Be My Mind
The Comforts of Cyberpunk
When Experts Disagree
Escape Into Meaning
Ode to Public Benches
Thinking in Oeuvres
Superman is Clark Kent
Jerry Seinfeld’s Intangibles
On Friendship
Write a Book

I highlighted significant portions of I Think the Internet Wants to Be My Mind, several passages from Superman is Clark Kent and On Friendship (heavily weighed toward the Virginia Wolfe mentions) and nearly the entirety of Write a Book.

When I dove into Ode to Public Benches, I enjoyed the journey as the author waxed poetic on the communal quality of the simple park bench, but I was thinking, “Talk about hostile design! Talk about hostile design!” Thankfully he did, discussing the impact on society in general and the tendency in the U.S. to punish the homeless rather than address the societal structures designed to drive people into homelessness and make it virtually impossible for them to escape it. The number of unhoused is likely to grow substantially as housing costs climb beyond the reach of the average American.

The essays in Escape into Meaning aren’t required to be read in order. The arrangement flows well, but if you want to leave the book on your bedside to pickup and read whichever one catches your eye, you won’t lessen your enjoyment.

I received this advanced reader copy of Escape into Meaning from NetGalley and Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.

I will admit, I am not big on YouTube so I had never heard of Evan Puschak before this book but I did really enjoy his writing and his thoughts on various subjects. I enjoyed some of the essays more than others, I am not huge into Superman and some of the themes the author explores, but I still found myself even enjoying the essays that were not my usual genre because of how well written and engaging they were.

An interesting collection of 11 essays. As is so often the case, some of them are hits (thanks for reminding me of Emerson) and others not so much for me (Superman) but all of them made me think and some of them made me smile (park bench). I was not familiar with Paschak before this so thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A good read.

My thanks to both NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy of this new collection of essays.

One of the largest growing sections in bookstores has to be Essays section. Where once years ago three shelves with maybe one faceout would do with the mainstays being various versions of Walden, copies of Montaigne, Joan Didion and collections featuring best essays of that year. Now three bookcases aren't enough. Essays have become New York Times Bestsellers and cover everything from manners, to politics to entertainment. Maybe it is the time that we find ourselves in. Or as is mentioned in this book the educational system that spends more time boosting standardized testing numbers and less time on how the world effects us and what we can learn from it. Escape into Meaning; Essays on Superman, Public Benches, and Other Obsessions by Evan Puschak, host, writer and producer of the YouTube Channel's The Nerdwriter offers an eclectic mix of essays on popular culture, learning, education, poets and much more.

The book begins with an essay on Emerson, but is also as study of a young man before he became an artist. Puschak describes his education as something that went this way; good grades get a person to a good school, which gets a good job and maybe hopefully a good life. So an education based on feeding a system, which he found was not for him. Soon he was began to educate himself, reading authors and feeding an intellectual need that Puschak didn't know existed but that Puschak found he needed. Essays include overviews of the genre cyberpunk, the ideals of Superman and Clark Kent, the poet Keats and others. There are other essays on politics society and education and finally the perils and mental strain of writing a book.

The collection is set up well with an overarching theme that connects the essays, but they can be read out of order or piecemeal, as I know this is how a lot of people like reading these kinds of works. Some of my favorites were again the study of cyberpunk, Superman and the first essay, which I found quite entertaining. Some don't hit these heights, which is understandable as sometimes the subjects aren't as interesting, or maybe don't play out well on paper as they might on a YouTube screen. There is a lot of research and works cited, which I always love, being a nerd for those kinds of things. I was not familiar with the author, nor his channel, but enjoyed this collection quite a bit.

A nice collection of essays, perfect for a gift for a friend or family member who likes to think about a variety of things, and has an interest in the world. The Superman comment might make people think this is a pop culture study but these essays are a lot more than that.

In ruminations and explorations of various subjects, primarily of those that are or are related to media, Evan Puschak’s Escape into Meaning: Essays on Superman, Public Benches, and Other Obsessions offers essays that go down rabbit holes and offer thoughts on topics, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Internet, cyberpunk, public benches, Superman, and friendship, that might help readers think of them in new ways.

The writing throughout this collection is relatable and fosters further contemplation, with conversational moments that address the reader to acknowledge the corniness of a phrase used or the excess of focus for an apparent tangent and easily conveys the level of obsessive, enthusiastic attention a particular subject garners; media explored within the essays openly embrace nerdiness as they are ones that have a significant stake in the cultural canon and most have a degree of fandom associated with them. Within these essays there are some moments of clarity where Puschak conveys something that strongly resonates and, in fact, calls this out, setting the context for the collection, in first essay “Emerson’s Magic” that relates the “magic of articulation” that can be so gratifying to experience. The essay, “When Experts Disagree” explores a vital point of individuals evaluating sources behind information and critical thinking, though when it began delving in to the world of academic journal publishing and Impact Factors, I groaned – I want to escape my job when reading, not have it bleed in, though most readers probably won’t have this same thought. The essays are well-researched, indicated by the lengthy works cited, taking the essays beyond merely a general level interest in and obsession with the topics and content discussed and digging a bit deeper and applying critical thinking to them to present well-rounded information, even if the scholarly commentary aspect to it became somewhat dry and dense at times. While all the essays are distinct entities, there are also referential comments and ideas that persist threaded between the essays, linking them all together as more of a cohesive whole.

Overall, I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Escape Into Meaning: Essays On Superman, Public Benches and Other Obsessions comes out on August 30, 2022; Atria Books provided me an early galley to review.

I was not at all familiar with the author or his YouTube channel; Puschak's occupation is listed as a video essayist. I saw Superman in the title of the book and felt I might be the target audience for this collection of essays. I did, however, check out his channel to see if I could get a feel for his approach and views. Turns out, the videos cover a lot more topics than I had first anticipated, a number quite scholarly in nature. That really helped me level-set for reading his book.

His approach is very structured and from a position of knowledge of the given subjects. These are indeed well-thought-out commentaries meant to engage the reader into considering their own thoughts on the subjects as well. Granted, not every subject he covered was a major interested to me but most touched upon hobbies and experiences to which I could relate.

His approach is also very personal and honest. After reading this book, I felt like he came across like someone whom I would have been friends with had we both gone to college together. While they essays come from his own interests and experiences, they were presented in a way that was open for a broader understanding.

For those uncertain of whether this is a good read for them, my suggestion of checking out his videos on YouTube first will help you decide. If you get into what he's saying and how he is saying it there, you'll feel right at home with his book as it is much more of the same types of insights.

I enjoy "collection of essays" style books and found this book to be along the lines of The Anthropocene Reviewed, etc. However, the author's writing wasn't engaging enough to maintain my attention.

This is a well written book. It has some fine lines, a few well-conceived set pieces, and a fair share of perceptive and insightful observations. That said, try as I might I found neither the essay subjects nor the author's enthusiasms engaging enough to arouse or hold my curiosity and attention. As a consequence, it doesn't seem fair to write much more of a review, apart from encouraging inquisitive readers to give the book a try.