Sunday, May 08, 2005
(11:17 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Hardcore Linkage
The Valve has at least two good posts up:- Jonathan Goodwin discusses the relative aesthetic value of the various endings of Mark, coming down in favor of the early, abrupt version.
- Jonathan Goodwin also quotes an article by Arkady Plotnitsky on Derrida, which leads to a nice cross-section of various academic responses, along with some pretty obnoxious "ignorant and proud" stuff.
We didn't think it was possible, but Belle's sexiness has increased dramatically now that she's teaching Greek. There's just something about a woman who's not afraid to ask how you type aspirated, accented capital Greek letters on a Mac.
Via Political Theory, Cass Sunstein and Randy Barnett debate constitutional doctrine. I've really enjoyed everything I've read by Sunstein, and Randy Barnett, while espousing doctrines that I find deeply unappealling, is clearly an intelligent and reasonable person. This brings me to a topic that I have been meaning to bring up for a while -- is there a good "reasonable conservative" blog out there? Two or three would be nice. I used to rely on Volokh for that kind of thing, but since Jacob Levy left and especially since he ["he" meaning Eugene Volokh, not Jacob Levy -- sorry for the unclarity of the original version] embraced the idea of making torture a regular social practice, I've lost my faith in that particular blog.
I'm prepared to accept it if Ralph Luker is the lone voice of reason on the right. I guess what I'm really after now, though, is someone who considers him/herself a conservative but is deeply ambivalent at best about Bush. One thing I liked about Jacob Levy was the radical libertarianism -- I'd really like to read someone on the right who is neither a Bush-cultist nor even a particularly partisan Republican. I put up with strictly partisan Democratic blogs because (a) they're closer to me ideologically and (b) they have some fun Bush-hating stuff that I like. But I really prefer weird left-wing blogs -- something like Lenin's Tomb. So if there are any weird right-wing blogs, maybe the weirdness would keep me interested. (No, Andrew Sullivan does not count.)
It's Thomas Pynchon's birthday, so wood s lot has some good links (scroll down). Political Theory also has a link to an old Harper's article on the Seven Deadly Sins. I know they're so behind the times in terms of their Internet presense and are therefore missing out on the opportunity to have their articles skimmed and then mischaracterized by bloggers, but I hope Harper's never goes all-online like The New Yorker. I've been subscribing for a good six or seven years (which is kind of a big deal, given that I'm only twenty-four), and already I feel like I would really resent it if some Johnny-come-lately on the Internet could just casually blockquote a half-read article from Harper's when mine hasn't even come in the mail yet. (I'll just note that before long, I'll be a full two weeks behind on The New Yorker -- which is actually pretty liberating, because it removes the pressure of "keeping up." Even though I know I should have felt this way all along, now it makes more sense to me to just linger over the really good articles and let a couple other issues pile up. I still maintain that it is physically possible to keep up with a New Yorker subscription in terms of reading everything, outside of "Goings on About Town" of course.) Individual Harper's articles are certainly great, and it's selfish of me to keep them from getting the ten more readers they would get if bloggers were able to link to them -- but it's more about the ethos of the magazine as a whole.
And in any case, the "Readings" section every month is so much better than any blog could ever be.
[UPDATE: Kevin Drum has a link to an obituary for a calculus guru. I enjoyed it.]
Thus ends my hardcore linkage. Next time, for those of you with weaker stomachs, I shall restrain myself and do softcore linkage.
