Now The Serpent Was More Subtil...

There's truth to the metaphor of politics as professional wrestling. Christopher Hitchens was a heel. He was a bad guy who went out in the public and insulted them and his opponents and he drank too much. He made all us liberals mad, but he was compelling to read because he could put together words wittily.

But there are great dangers to following advice because it is well-written and clever, and ignoring the costly implications. That's one of the lessons of the Book of Genesis. Hitchens used his clever way with words to encourage us to go invade that country, and that invasion opened up floodgates of death and human misery in a land already miserable. Better we had not listened to him.

Joyce

Call me a philistine, but Sarah's post on Joyce reminded me that I've read very little of him. I just don't have the patience or tenacity to work as hard as I would need to in order to get through Ulysses or Finnegan's Wake.

It does remind me though of an argument I used to have with people. If it took one a whole year to get through Joyce and understand it, would it be worth it? Is it worth a year of someone's life to understand any book at all? I generally say no, though I suppose for all the religious, social, and cultural references, the Bible might be an exception. Anything else, I don't know.

And again, feel free to call me a philistine.