Dude I read the Foot Hazlitt essay this week too! I decided to write something on Hazlitt the other week and ever since then he's been popping up constantly like some sort of fiery victorian guardian spirit of prose. The Tom Paulin book on him which I'm reading rn is really great as well. Hope Greece is grand.
Wtf! I love coincidences like that. Can’t wait for you on Hazlitt! He feels like someone who could be a real sort of life tutor, I hope. I love Greece!
Balm of an essay! been feeling totally frustrated and will now follow your advice by returning to books. When you say "a character who does not trust thought," what comes to mind is the heroine of Tsushima's WOMAN RUNNING IN THE MOUNTAINS: she has thoughts that are more mirages or visions than reflections or conscious thought. Has hit my writing hard. Obsessed. Good luck!!
Thanks for the nudge in the direction of The Spirit of the Age. Wonderful writing as you say, and what a cornucopia of subjects. Best of all the unfamiliar names - starting with John Horne Tooke, radical grammarian and successful defender of a charge of treason!
Ha yes it’s funny how you get excited for the ones you recognise, the Byrons and so on, but sometimes the total randos are even more fun! It is amazing writing, the kind that can really change life i think/hope. Cheers Paul and hope all cheery with you :)
Your character problem reminds me a bit of Naptha from The Magic Mountain, who praises the anonymity medieval artisans, and is skeptical (to put it mildly) of Settembrini’s humanism.
Really sorry to hear about the profiles George. It is especially disheartening when you've spent time on a project and it suddenly fails to come to fruition. I find it a much deeper feeling than when a project is successful. I am sitting here looking at proofs of my first academic book, and it does not fill me with joy or satisfaction, more a quiet regret of all the time sunk into it.
I will share this post as well and see if any of my novelist acquaintances/followers on substack can help you with your issue. Despite being a budding fiction writer myself, I doubt I have the expertise to help you!
There will be others and better, or more apt, though I'm surprised; the profiles of yours that I've read have been considerate and enthralling without whiffs of obsequiousness. I smell change in the Hatton Garden microclimate, perhaps with error.
I also listened to DFW's 'This Is Water' commencement speech, which troubled me a bit. It's troubling because it risks indulging the pop-psychology decoupling, faux-removal, or at least challenging of self so as to speculate upon the umpteen possibilities of nothing being what one thinks it is. In other words, to unwittingly withdraw into a philosophical orientation to the world, not as a methodical discipline for argument but as a rationalisation of illegitimate suffering.
This is the HR-spread sickness that infected big corporates in the '00s and led the lanyard class to career changes, mental breakdowns, and worse. It basically teaches self-distrust under the pretense to humility, leading to censorship, withdrawal, guilt, and unhinged outward-facing compensations. "We need to get comfortable with uncertainty!", etc. (It spawned siblings in "progressive" 'woke' culture that have come to a head.)
The issue is not in learning to think, as DFW preaches, rightly of course, but that its products are rarely tested, selected, and consummated: People who tell themselves various eclectic stories to try on different perceptions of an observed situation don't tend to find out which one is "right" (that is, more right—to them—than the others). They take home and sustain an idea based on no legitimately compelling credence whatsoever. And that's a bad thing, or so I claim, anyway.
To wit, I blame west-coast self-help profiteers and airport book booths.
Talking of which, have you skimmed (or even perused) The Man Who Couldn't Stop Thinking by Timothy Balding? I haven't read it, but, if I've not misunderstood, it might host a similar and not unrelatable character. Plus, he has an excellent hat (author, possibly character) and anyone who carries a hat well should attract admiration, especially a woman, which he isn't.
Dude I read the Foot Hazlitt essay this week too! I decided to write something on Hazlitt the other week and ever since then he's been popping up constantly like some sort of fiery victorian guardian spirit of prose. The Tom Paulin book on him which I'm reading rn is really great as well. Hope Greece is grand.
Wtf! I love coincidences like that. Can’t wait for you on Hazlitt! He feels like someone who could be a real sort of life tutor, I hope. I love Greece!
Balm of an essay! been feeling totally frustrated and will now follow your advice by returning to books. When you say "a character who does not trust thought," what comes to mind is the heroine of Tsushima's WOMAN RUNNING IN THE MOUNTAINS: she has thoughts that are more mirages or visions than reflections or conscious thought. Has hit my writing hard. Obsessed. Good luck!!
That sounds fantastic - thanks so much for the help!
any time -- curious what you think if you get around to it!
Thanks for the nudge in the direction of The Spirit of the Age. Wonderful writing as you say, and what a cornucopia of subjects. Best of all the unfamiliar names - starting with John Horne Tooke, radical grammarian and successful defender of a charge of treason!
Ha yes it’s funny how you get excited for the ones you recognise, the Byrons and so on, but sometimes the total randos are even more fun! It is amazing writing, the kind that can really change life i think/hope. Cheers Paul and hope all cheery with you :)
Your character problem reminds me a bit of Naptha from The Magic Mountain, who praises the anonymity medieval artisans, and is skeptical (to put it mildly) of Settembrini’s humanism.
Thanks very much Andrew. I thought MM might hold answers for a while, and will move it up my list on your rec!
Really sorry to hear about the profiles George. It is especially disheartening when you've spent time on a project and it suddenly fails to come to fruition. I find it a much deeper feeling than when a project is successful. I am sitting here looking at proofs of my first academic book, and it does not fill me with joy or satisfaction, more a quiet regret of all the time sunk into it.
I will share this post as well and see if any of my novelist acquaintances/followers on substack can help you with your issue. Despite being a budding fiction writer myself, I doubt I have the expertise to help you!
Thanks very much Sam and I’m sure you know plenty! All recs welcome!
Thanks George! I wish you the very best of luck with resolving this issue!
There will be others and better, or more apt, though I'm surprised; the profiles of yours that I've read have been considerate and enthralling without whiffs of obsequiousness. I smell change in the Hatton Garden microclimate, perhaps with error.
I also listened to DFW's 'This Is Water' commencement speech, which troubled me a bit. It's troubling because it risks indulging the pop-psychology decoupling, faux-removal, or at least challenging of self so as to speculate upon the umpteen possibilities of nothing being what one thinks it is. In other words, to unwittingly withdraw into a philosophical orientation to the world, not as a methodical discipline for argument but as a rationalisation of illegitimate suffering.
This is the HR-spread sickness that infected big corporates in the '00s and led the lanyard class to career changes, mental breakdowns, and worse. It basically teaches self-distrust under the pretense to humility, leading to censorship, withdrawal, guilt, and unhinged outward-facing compensations. "We need to get comfortable with uncertainty!", etc. (It spawned siblings in "progressive" 'woke' culture that have come to a head.)
The issue is not in learning to think, as DFW preaches, rightly of course, but that its products are rarely tested, selected, and consummated: People who tell themselves various eclectic stories to try on different perceptions of an observed situation don't tend to find out which one is "right" (that is, more right—to them—than the others). They take home and sustain an idea based on no legitimately compelling credence whatsoever. And that's a bad thing, or so I claim, anyway.
To wit, I blame west-coast self-help profiteers and airport book booths.
Talking of which, have you skimmed (or even perused) The Man Who Couldn't Stop Thinking by Timothy Balding? I haven't read it, but, if I've not misunderstood, it might host a similar and not unrelatable character. Plus, he has an excellent hat (author, possibly character) and anyone who carries a hat well should attract admiration, especially a woman, which he isn't.
Thanks very much for the Badling rec, Nick - I’ll look into it. And for the encouraging words :)
Odd that 'admiration' comes first.
I think it means admiring others rather than being admired!
Even so, why is it first? Admiration is like the knighthood of ‘like’—good to bestow, good to be bestowed upon, but compared to hope and love, pale.
Becca Freeman on Substack is a good reference for novels recs. https://beccafreeman.substack.com/p/33-books-coming-out-in-summer-2026?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4licq5
Ah great, thank you!