I haven’t read it, but I imagine it is somewhat like reading the Bible cover to cover. Every once in a while you see something and are like “Oooh! That’s relevant to the narrative I’m familiar with!” But then 90% of it is talking about goat husbandry or family trees of people you’ve never heard of or taxes on imported shoe polish or something - things that were presumably relevant in a particular time and place, but which aren’t interesting in your time and place.
I think for these sorts of books, annotated versions are very useful for lay readers, since they can make these seemingly extraneous details feel more relevant by providing additional context that a reader would not be aware of unless they were a scholar in the subject matter.
I haven’t read it, but I imagine it is somewhat like reading the Bible cover to cover. Every once in a while you see something and are like “Oooh! That’s relevant to the narrative I’m familiar with!” But then 90% of it is talking about goat husbandry or family trees of people you’ve never heard of or taxes on imported shoe polish or something - things that were presumably relevant in a particular time and place, but which aren’t interesting in your time and place.
I think for these sorts of books, annotated versions are very useful for lay readers, since they can make these seemingly extraneous details feel more relevant by providing additional context that a reader would not be aware of unless they were a scholar in the subject matter.
Let me tell you, a lot of the Kama Sutra is bullshit, then a rare “Oh, that makes sense”.
Then it’s back to “you should never lay with a woman too dark or too light skinned”. STFU Vātsyāyana.
Maybe something was lost in translation? Original in Sanskrit maybe said “you should never fuck a woman that is too freaky or too prude”? 🤷♂️
Those are also on the list… It’s a long list.