Anomalous States by David Lloyd
Published 1993 · 174 pages · 50,000 words · about 4 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Anomalous States to read?
Anomalous States scores 66 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 72 out of 100
- Demanding postcolonial and Marxist theoretical vocabulary requiring prior familiarity with the field.
- Sentence structure: 65 out of 100
- Abstraction: 82 out of 100
- Sustained high-level theoretical argument; primary texts serve as evidence for philosophical claims.
- Information density: 82 out of 100
- Very high argument density; the book covers large theoretical ground in under two hundred pages.
- Narrative indirection: 14 out of 100
- Direct theoretical argument, though the logic requires careful tracking.
- Symbolic density: 15 out of 100
- Discusses symbolic politics of culture analytically rather than symbolically.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Earnest theoretical register throughout; political seriousness forecloses irony.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Each essay argues toward clear theoretical conclusions.
- Structural complexity: 38 out of 100
- Five interconnected essays with cumulative argument that rewards reading in sequence.
How Anomalous States is regarded
Anomalous States holds a literary regard score of 79 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.