I Hate Forwards

A reintroduction

Not hate so much as strongly dislike. At least half the time I read a forward, introduction, or prologue, I find self wondering why this couldn’t have been part of the first chapter, or just not have existed at all. The problem is that the rest of the time the forward has an obvious and good reason for existing as a forward.

I don’t whether introductory posts on substack are necessary or good or if they serve any obvious purpose. But I feel the urge to lay my cards in the table anyway.

Probably no one would notice, and almost certainly no one will care, but previously I had another incarnation on this site known as Hillbilly Taoist. That account drifted from my original goals very quickly, but that little dopamine hit from someone paying attention to something I wrote was entertaining enough to keep me going for a while, until I burned out on current thing discourse. In the service of the algorithm and the building of a following burning that account was probably not the best way to start over, but I have always enjoyed a hard reset. There are a few things I wrote under that account that I do think I could come to feel better about it I put more work into them, and significantly adapted them to better conform to my other interests. If there is some poor soul who wanted more Hillbilly Taoist content, I hate to tell you that while what I believe has not changed and my convictions have only intensified, I don’t really plan to talk about the same things or at least not in the same way. And as much as I liked the name, after the first time someone compared me to a hippie in the California hills (everything I despise) and I realized that the Flannary O'Connor reference I had intended was a bit to abstract I soured on it a bit. I guess I don’t have anything else to say about that account.

The purpose of this account is to right about virtue and right wing dissident politics through the lens of literature (especially fiction). Stories ground ideas in a way that innately sticks to the human mind and that can slip pasts otherwise wary watchdogs we set up around our worldviews. Some concepts are not really compelling unless encountered through story, yet remain true. Heroism is a great example: there really are people who are heroic, yet the very concept of a hero is inherently tied to story telling.

Some stories already begin from the right places and in these stories we can let down our guards and explore the opportunities provided by an escape from the usual thought hazards we are constantly subjected to. For other stories we must, like St John drawing the poison from the wine, learn to identify and remove what is harmful so that we might enjoy the good it pollutes. And in some cases, we may examine those works which are better avoided, not to explore them but to see, from the outside, why they are better left alone.

I have several projects along these lines cooking to various stages of completion. For now I’m working towards a very large project regarding the Dune series, which is meant to take ultimate form as a video, but as I draft and research a lot of what I write will be adapted here as notes and posts. Eventually I am looking forward to some projects regarding things like how nobody really understands F451 except me, but I want to get some practice in before I get into the stuff I really care about.

This is a passion project. I don’t see a reason why any of this should be monetized. I really don’t expect to have a lasting impact on anyone but myself. I am not an expert and will try not to present myself as one. I’m not well read in the full classical sense, but I was taught how to really read rather than to be the-kid-who-reads midwit that many “gifted” readers turn out to be, and while my reading has been too eclectic and unfocused to be called a classical education, it seems a waste not to do something with what I do know.

As a final thought, to properly appreciate any art you must love and hate things within that art. You do not truly love music if there is not music you loath on artistic grounds. You do not truly hate, if there is not something you love on truly artistic grounds. Both require you do have some knowledge, and preferably some practice, in the art in question. If you love the mediocre you do not really appreciate art. I am going to talk about things I hate and why I believe that people of taste should hate them. I am going to talk about things I love, but if you hate them on artistic grounds, I can respect that. I’d rather you hate something than be ok with anything. But if you love new country, you’re a fed.