Thursday 30 January 2014

A seminal 12,000 word essay on the modern condition from John C Wright

*

http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/01/the-restless-heart-of-darkness-part-one/

http://www.scifiwright.com/2014/01/restless-heart-of-darkness-part-two/

How good is this essay?

To say it is brilliant is to understate: this is High Journalism of permanent value. This is simultaneously enjoyable, accessible and profound. Think GK Chesterton, think George Orwell.

I could not exaggerate how good this essay is, because it is as-good as topical essays can be - it could be matched but not surpassed: it is work at the summit of its genre.

*

5 comments:

Adam Greenwood said...

I don't know if you're a longtime reader of Wright or not, but as someone who has read you both for awhile, you guys strike me as kindred spirits.

josh said...

Wowzers, that was good. I need to let that marinate.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Adam - Yes, he said some nice things when Thought Prison came out, and I have been following him since. He has a fluent, eloquent productivity of prose that I can only gasp at - he writes a 12K word polemical essay in a couple of days while I have the effrontery to publish 25K words as a "book"!

Arakawa said...

Wright does have that Chestertonian magnanimity of respecting any viewpoint enough to love debating it intelligently. And so, to him, the chiefest "tell" that PC is evil is how consistently its proponents avoid or are unable to engage in any semblance of intelligent debate.

So, in that sense, political correctness is something it is impossible to be tolerant or magnanimous towards (as in the gentlemanly meeting of opposing ideas). You either resist, shun and isolate, or get swallowed.

Bruce Charlton said...

@A - Yes, I can't go all the way with JCW on that issue - not least because, in a finite life with finite energy, debating rationally with a sea of Leftists seems to represent an imprudent allocation of effort, and a psychological stress that is beyond me (I would either get too angry or despair, I fear). But I don't disagree in principle, only as a matter of expediency.