I think I was with this essay until that penultimate paragraph. I assure you there are plenty of blog posts from 15 years ago that have endured! And I assure you that many, many of those bloggers are still around and "saying it on Substack," in part because Substack quite famously paid all those bloggers to migrate over here. What's the meaningful difference between the (excellent!) pieces you call "New Cultural Criticism" and, e.g., Scott Alexander's (equally excellent!) "The Dilbert Afterlife" ? And is "The Dilbert Afterlife" truly all that different in form or content from any given Slate Star Codex post from 2014? Color me skeptical, Ross.
(Not to pooh-pooh all the great culture writing you and your pals are doing; I'm glad there's an ecosystem for that. But there is ample, ample precedent for that ecosystem in the original blogosphere, that you seem to be discounting solely because Roxane Gay isn't your bag and Gay Talese is.)
I think I was with this essay until that penultimate paragraph. I assure you there are plenty of blog posts from 15 years ago that have endured! And I assure you that many, many of those bloggers are still around and "saying it on Substack," in part because Substack quite famously paid all those bloggers to migrate over here. What's the meaningful difference between the (excellent!) pieces you call "New Cultural Criticism" and, e.g., Scott Alexander's (equally excellent!) "The Dilbert Afterlife" ? And is "The Dilbert Afterlife" truly all that different in form or content from any given Slate Star Codex post from 2014? Color me skeptical, Ross.
(Not to pooh-pooh all the great culture writing you and your pals are doing; I'm glad there's an ecosystem for that. But there is ample, ample precedent for that ecosystem in the original blogosphere, that you seem to be discounting solely because Roxane Gay isn't your bag and Gay Talese is.)
In spite of (or because of) all the bad stuff happening, a new intellectual age is dawning all around us.
Love your optimism in the face of all the trends that would attempt to negate it: a warm breeze from the core of the Earth. Thank you for the links.