His voice is thrilling. I hope he makes enough money on Substack to keep going. We desperately need more gifted writers fiercely rejecting the incentives of the great and powerful algo.
He's a //remarkable// writer, but the accusations an ex- made about his behaviour were disquieting and not denied by Kriss. He kind of reminds me of the singer Momus/ Nick Curry... merciless at deconstruction, super smart... but the thrill of their work is bound up with a personal squickiness that makes me reluctant to give them any money. Tender perverts, both. EDIT: Want to make it very clear that I'm not calling for Kriss to be censored whatsoever, just giving my feelings on my own hesitant to support his Substack. I don't agree with the 'death of the author' and sometimes those individuals most able to effectively criticise the norms of a society are deviant in one or more ways, but Kriss's previous "cancellation" from mainstream media strikes me as quite different from Freddie's. It was also tied up with a lot of what was happening in Labour at the time so I also wonder if my perspective as a UK reader is going to be a bit different to that of a reader from the US or elsewhere.
I hear you, but I can’t live this way, selecting or rejecting writers and artists based on rumors of their moral standing and past misdeeds. The writers about whom we’ve heard nothing (no crimes, no sleazy behavior) are almost certainly guilty of harming someone too. We all are in one way or another. This is the human condition and I can’t allow myself to be tempted by the illusion of separateness. Grudges becloud the heart; I need mine clear to properly assess and heal my own weaknesses of character.
"This is the human condition and I can’t allow myself to be tempted by the illusion of separateness. Grudges becloud the heart; I need mine clear to properly assess and heal my own weaknesses of character" is a good series of sentences.
“Speaking for myself, I have tried to learn my craft not only from politically irreproachable writers like Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, but also from imperialists like Kipling...” It’s amusing to me when people like Roy try to turn Morrison into some kind of front yard sign liberal (they did it with Didion, too). If one really spends time with Morrison’s books, she’s deeply conservative in a lot of ways.
That song fucked me up. Phosphorescent’s vocals set off a vibe in my body that seeks to convince me that all the misanthropic and nihilistic things I think are true.
>Her genius was in creating a simulacra of what a tech founder looked like; that there was no there there was of little interest to investors.
Now that the dust has settled somewhat and we're far away from those post-GR ZIRP days...I'd like to think everyone's a little wiser, and we'll see less of this going forward? Fewer pure-grift startups, fewer investors extending credulity as much as credit. One wants to believe this exit valve from The System works, that smart people can skip the song and dance of formal ed credentialism and succeed anyway. (Recently read SA's book review of "Paper Belt on Fire", Michael Gibson's hagiography of Saint Peter Thiel, so this has been on my mind.)
Support for the Iraq War is what first rendered the NYT a total shitrag. Other issues since (Russiagate, for example) made it even clearer how pathetic that newspaper is, but it was their absolutely vile handling of the Iraq question that destroyed their credibility entirely.
If anyone missed this, it’s why FDB called him essential reading a few months ago: https://open.substack.com/pub/samkriss/p/wokeness-is-not-a-politics?r=3lvt5&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
His voice is thrilling. I hope he makes enough money on Substack to keep going. We desperately need more gifted writers fiercely rejecting the incentives of the great and powerful algo.
Sam Kriss is usually a better writer than that. I was disappointed - he mostly just rehashed points that Freddie already made long ago.
Are you sure you read it?
Freddie was the first one to point out, long ago, that woke language is basically just etiquette used by social climbers to get ahead of their rivals.
He's a //remarkable// writer, but the accusations an ex- made about his behaviour were disquieting and not denied by Kriss. He kind of reminds me of the singer Momus/ Nick Curry... merciless at deconstruction, super smart... but the thrill of their work is bound up with a personal squickiness that makes me reluctant to give them any money. Tender perverts, both. EDIT: Want to make it very clear that I'm not calling for Kriss to be censored whatsoever, just giving my feelings on my own hesitant to support his Substack. I don't agree with the 'death of the author' and sometimes those individuals most able to effectively criticise the norms of a society are deviant in one or more ways, but Kriss's previous "cancellation" from mainstream media strikes me as quite different from Freddie's. It was also tied up with a lot of what was happening in Labour at the time so I also wonder if my perspective as a UK reader is going to be a bit different to that of a reader from the US or elsewhere.
I hear you, but I can’t live this way, selecting or rejecting writers and artists based on rumors of their moral standing and past misdeeds. The writers about whom we’ve heard nothing (no crimes, no sleazy behavior) are almost certainly guilty of harming someone too. We all are in one way or another. This is the human condition and I can’t allow myself to be tempted by the illusion of separateness. Grudges becloud the heart; I need mine clear to properly assess and heal my own weaknesses of character.
"This is the human condition and I can’t allow myself to be tempted by the illusion of separateness. Grudges becloud the heart; I need mine clear to properly assess and heal my own weaknesses of character" is a good series of sentences.
I thought Bad Blood was a gripping read even though I was completely familiar with the story going into it.
“Speaking for myself, I have tried to learn my craft not only from politically irreproachable writers like Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, but also from imperialists like Kipling...” It’s amusing to me when people like Roy try to turn Morrison into some kind of front yard sign liberal (they did it with Didion, too). If one really spends time with Morrison’s books, she’s deeply conservative in a lot of ways.
Yeah and also Baldwin has some great ironic criticisms of what we now call Wokeism
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/anecdotes-tidbits-random-notes
That song fucked me up. Phosphorescent’s vocals set off a vibe in my body that seeks to convince me that all the misanthropic and nihilistic things I think are true.
>Her genius was in creating a simulacra of what a tech founder looked like; that there was no there there was of little interest to investors.
Now that the dust has settled somewhat and we're far away from those post-GR ZIRP days...I'd like to think everyone's a little wiser, and we'll see less of this going forward? Fewer pure-grift startups, fewer investors extending credulity as much as credit. One wants to believe this exit valve from The System works, that smart people can skip the song and dance of formal ed credentialism and succeed anyway. (Recently read SA's book review of "Paper Belt on Fire", Michael Gibson's hagiography of Saint Peter Thiel, so this has been on my mind.)
Support for the Iraq War is what first rendered the NYT a total shitrag. Other issues since (Russiagate, for example) made it even clearer how pathetic that newspaper is, but it was their absolutely vile handling of the Iraq question that destroyed their credibility entirely.
At least this recently: https://michaelmohr.substack.com/p/the-new-york-times-still-has-guts