Your excesses and hyperbole are exactly what make your writing so appealing. To skewer the idiots with their own language is a pleasure you offer the reader and most appreciated by this one. In the Middle East and the wilful Western misunderstanding of it we have so much prevarication, dream palaces galore, and outright Jew hatred, not to mention condescension to the Arab Muslim world, that a heavy dose of truth is needed, though it alone is insufficient to make a difference that makes a difference, as my beloved now dead mentor Luhmann liked to say in other contexts. Poison and arms are needed, and in the levelled landscape that ensures people can behold the consequences of their wilful folly. Keep on writing. No apologies necessary.
Hussein, how close do you live to Berkeley? I have more (arbitrarily priced but nevertheless sometimes good) wine than I'll ever drink. When I work for nice wineries, they give it to me. Let me give you something you'll enjoy. I'm wine rich and cash poor.
Oh God Hussein thank you for the heads up! I’ll dial down my unrestrained adulation when speaking of you to anyone who will listen and dial up my critical antennae from now on!!
Defending rhetorical excess as a form of reader protection is the most sophisticated justification for maximalism I've encountered, and I'm genuinely unsure whether that makes it more convincing or less.
> That I cannot make a simple point without turning it into a baroque exercise in excess, dripping with gargoyles and flying buttresses.
It's true. And I bemoaned this somewhat when I first found you and was trying to catch up on your past essays. But these days I appreciate it. The predominant writing style of the day is factual and minimally descriptive; like walking into a room of IKEA furnishings. Functional but unlovely. Probably a holdover from the days when newspaper journalists were limited by the size of the page, and book authors by the expense of printing and binding. (Alas, just as this physical constraint was lifted we commenced frying our attention spans and sliding towards general illiteracy.) Your writing is as much aesthetic experience as message, and the sheer length means an essay can't be skimmed in the ten minutes before one's next Zoom meeting. Time must be set aside for it, and quiet enough to concentrate. Isn't that a rare thing, these days?
This is the most enjoyable post I've read today. If we ever meet, though, let's do so at a restaurant.
Your excesses and hyperbole are exactly what make your writing so appealing. To skewer the idiots with their own language is a pleasure you offer the reader and most appreciated by this one. In the Middle East and the wilful Western misunderstanding of it we have so much prevarication, dream palaces galore, and outright Jew hatred, not to mention condescension to the Arab Muslim world, that a heavy dose of truth is needed, though it alone is insufficient to make a difference that makes a difference, as my beloved now dead mentor Luhmann liked to say in other contexts. Poison and arms are needed, and in the levelled landscape that ensures people can behold the consequences of their wilful folly. Keep on writing. No apologies necessary.
love, love, love everything you write!!❤️
I mean this as the highest possible praise:
The middle section was the most beautifully coherent schitzopost I have ever read, and perfectly captures my revulsion at the word "partner"
Outside a business, legal, or cowhand context, the partner usage is nauseating. This is one cause that needs a jihad or crusade or whatever....
Hussein, how close do you live to Berkeley? I have more (arbitrarily priced but nevertheless sometimes good) wine than I'll ever drink. When I work for nice wineries, they give it to me. Let me give you something you'll enjoy. I'm wine rich and cash poor.
"Rhetorical flourish?" What flourish?
Oh God Hussein thank you for the heads up! I’ll dial down my unrestrained adulation when speaking of you to anyone who will listen and dial up my critical antennae from now on!!
At the risk of sounding too laconic -- dude, same: https://rafaelfrumkin.substack.com/p/one-day-everyone-will-have-been-against
This is mutual trade to mutual benefit. I heartily endorse whatever wine you're drinking.
Apologies if I ever encounter you and unthinkingly use a common platitude or cliché. Please don’t poison me with bad wine.
Defending rhetorical excess as a form of reader protection is the most sophisticated justification for maximalism I've encountered, and I'm genuinely unsure whether that makes it more convincing or less.
It is always lovely to read your posts and yes I do take your writing seriously
Wonderfully enjoyable and authentic👏🫶💙
In addition to everything else, you also digress.
> That I cannot make a simple point without turning it into a baroque exercise in excess, dripping with gargoyles and flying buttresses.
It's true. And I bemoaned this somewhat when I first found you and was trying to catch up on your past essays. But these days I appreciate it. The predominant writing style of the day is factual and minimally descriptive; like walking into a room of IKEA furnishings. Functional but unlovely. Probably a holdover from the days when newspaper journalists were limited by the size of the page, and book authors by the expense of printing and binding. (Alas, just as this physical constraint was lifted we commenced frying our attention spans and sliding towards general illiteracy.) Your writing is as much aesthetic experience as message, and the sheer length means an essay can't be skimmed in the ten minutes before one's next Zoom meeting. Time must be set aside for it, and quiet enough to concentrate. Isn't that a rare thing, these days?
I enjoy your humorous hyperbole or hyperbolic humor. I know exactly the rage at postmodern cant.