You can tell drivers by the way they walk. They walk shoulder to shoulder down the center blocking all traffic. They stop constantly to look at phones. When you try to move around them they give you a dirty look and say “excuse you!”. They weren’t paying attention to begin with. These people flippantly operate machinery capable of death.
As a fan of the *various Russians* falling asleep, upstate, downtown, dialling it in or deep diving in conversation this has to be the most hilarious format yet….Looking forward to it. I’m not above the titillation of online beefs (perhaps only one way unless Sam Kriss comes down from the mountain of ambivalent coolness to confront his critics) etc but especially appreciate the film/cultural critique framing the politics and also of course the Russian immigrant history.
I’d be interested to hear either or both of your thoughts on The Glass Bead Game by Hesse, if you’ve read it; I’ve only read the very beginning (I’d like to pick it up again soon), but a lot of your discussion about a weird isolated leisure/elite class made me think of the odd intellectual aristocracy that’s it’s about—in a diametrically skewed, highly negative light, of course.
I suppose this is as good a place as any to drop this random thought. I think that the Jugoslavs might be even more from our American future...
You can tell drivers by the way they walk. They walk shoulder to shoulder down the center blocking all traffic. They stop constantly to look at phones. When you try to move around them they give you a dirty look and say “excuse you!”. They weren’t paying attention to begin with. These people flippantly operate machinery capable of death.
As a fan of the *various Russians* falling asleep, upstate, downtown, dialling it in or deep diving in conversation this has to be the most hilarious format yet….Looking forward to it. I’m not above the titillation of online beefs (perhaps only one way unless Sam Kriss comes down from the mountain of ambivalent coolness to confront his critics) etc but especially appreciate the film/cultural critique framing the politics and also of course the Russian immigrant history.
2026 let’s go (not like this Mr.President…)
I’d be interested to hear either or both of your thoughts on The Glass Bead Game by Hesse, if you’ve read it; I’ve only read the very beginning (I’d like to pick it up again soon), but a lot of your discussion about a weird isolated leisure/elite class made me think of the odd intellectual aristocracy that’s it’s about—in a diametrically skewed, highly negative light, of course.