What is the opposite of criticism?
On a lead from a friend, I followed a thread from this patent to its author, Brian Dear (another friend), then to his about page, his old blog, his BlueSky tweetings, his bandcamp page, his lettrboxd page, then to his criticism of Megan McArdle and the WaPo, and (not finally) to the work of critic A.S. Hamrah, whom Brian likes.
All of that brought me to a self-admission: while I love and value criticism of many kinds, I am not a critic, because criticism tends to be about current work, people, and goings on. It's not that takes on that stuff are wrong or bad. On the contrary (speaking critically), they can be very good. It's just that I'm a long-term / long-view guy. As i said in My Three Hooks, I have, and subscribe to, purposes that are (or I hope or trust will be) good for the world. I also like unanswerable questions. If there is life after death, were you alive before your current bodily existence—and shouldn't we have a word for that? What came before the Big Bang? What is eternity—and can we unbind it from the concept of time? Is life the exception to death—and can it be, if death is not a state but the absence of one? And…
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