Poetry, drama, film, art—it just feels bigger and more powerful, and tons more rattles around in it. Fireworks go off in all that space, everything bounces off everything else. Liberal thinking has its roots in the arts, in feeling, in the idea of poetic inexactness, an expansive anything-is-possible-and-should-be-ness. It jumps tracks without consequence; it’s arguments go in big lazy worm Ouroboros circles and protagonists battle to the death with men of straw. It laughs at anything so small and constrained as a carefully constructed argument.
It’s the difference between giving the molecular structure of water, and writing a haiku about it. Because the haiku is poetic it feels more profound; all that allegorical space gives you room to fill in the blanks and conclude it’s the most truthful crazy genius stuff you’ve ever heard.
Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night
15 years ago
