Zach Weinersmith9h ago

So, there used to be an NYT column called The Stone, which did essays about philosophy. They ended in 2020, but had 3 compilation books.

One of the interesting things reading these books is how, post-Trump, I would say the essays become much less interesting, because you can (I think?) feel the editors and writers suddenly wanting to grapple with current events. The focus necessarily gets narrow and reactive.

Show threadZach Weinersmith9h ago
I don't see this is a bad thing the editors did. I can see why they wanted to do it, and probably would've done the same. But I suppose it's a casualty of such an era that the Great Conversation, about free will, language, mathematics, etc. gets hard to hear over all the shouting.
Show threadZach Weinersmith9h ago

I think there's an extent to which activism and artistry are opposed, in that the former is trying to achieve some end now and the latter is trying to make things that are permanent and not about the present.

But there are rare exceptions, such as Orwell, or Arthur Koestler or especially Hunter S Thompson. I find Thompson particularly compelling as someone who can take an article on a thing that happened last week and somehow let the whole universe peek around its edges.

dougfort8h ago
Show threadZach Weinersmith
Hannah Arendt is another, though I'm less a fan of her writing style. Dickens is another, and Gaskell maybe my favorite. But there's a real skill in trying to see what's out your window (or on your phone) as part of the sublime movement of history.
11:08amWeb
Show threadAdrian Riskin 5h ago

@ZachWeinersmith

I definitely see your point wrt literature, and I'd add William Morris, Ursula Leguin, Walter Johnson, and Brecht to your list. But I think the line is more fuzzy in other media.

So much great protest music transcends its immediate inspirations; Wobblies like Mac McClintock, Joe Hill, T-Bone Slim, Mimi Fariña's arrangement of Bread and Roses, Woody Guthrie, and any number of examples from the 1960s and on.

And in the visual arts there's Guernica, The Disasters of War, Banksy, Emory Douglas, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Los Four, artists working with Self-Help Graphics and Art, Corita Kent, etc.