Rollins's Review, December 9
Michael Mohr is a writer, editor, and alcoholic. This is, in context, a Very Good Thing; no one knows the ins and outs of accountability like an addict, and Michael has turned his attention to Wokeism. He’s observant and smart and I hope to read more from him.
Almost as a rule, the weirder an analogy is, the more I like it. Mark P Xu Neyer of apxhard has come up with an analogy so fucking weird I cannot top it. He manages to not only draw this weird yet flawless analogy out for three pages, but to stick the dismount. As far as I’m concerned, Mark wins analogies forever. All hail Mark. All read Mark’s ‘stack.
I won Freddie deBoer’s comment of the month (or week, or something) for my reaction to his review of The Babysitter’s Club Super Special #7. That comment was (and I quote) “What the fuck,” which also appears to be the theme of my Review this week. Julien Hazell of Muddy Clothes, ladies and gentlemen. I cannot find any flaw in his logic, which means either he is out of his mind, or I am, or we both are. Regardless of which of us has gone ‘round the twist, it’s a good piece, and you should read it.
The only saving grace of the my apparent decline into batshit insanity (a shift in my consciousness that was absolutely mandatory for this review of comparisons between epistemology and genitalia and pleas for compassion toward edible seagoing spiders) is that people apparently like me much more than I believe they do. Thanks, Alejandro Betancourt of Beyond Two Cents. Every little bit helps.
I enjoyed “Confessions of a mask” by Sam Kriss of Numb at the Lodge in the same way I enjoyed every article this week; explanations (or examples) of other people’s descent into utter nutzoid lunacy make me strangely hopeful for the human race. We’re a bunch of monkeys with credit cards and pretensions toward dignity and gentility, and I for one welcome any attempt to peel the mask of civility back. Not because I don’t like civility, understand, but because the first step towards restoring decorum is radical compassion, and you get there only once society as a whole recognizes that every last human is totally fucking bonkers, and that being nice to one another is the only way to mitigate our collective, species-wide saucer-eyed moonbat nature.
Speaking as we were of those who embrace their saucer-eyed moonbat nature, Zero HP Lovecraft, ladies and gentlemen. This is one of the five best essays I have yet read on Substack.
The defense rests. Be kind to one another.