When you say that Paul Kingsnorth is "all over the map" I suppose you mean he has some ideas that seem uncomfortably aligned with conservative politics, yet you still find his ways of overthinking everything compelling. So do I. When I cited Kingsnorth in this essay on Re-Localizing the Library (https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/view/94) the editor called me up to ask if I knew Kingsnorth is a fascist. I said that I know that he has been accused of being a fascist because, yes, folklore can be co-oped as nationalism. However, I also think Kingsnorth is fundamentally right about the value of Prayer, People, Past and Place. I am also sympathetic with his cranky disapproval of surgical/medical body modification because my lived experience in a female body has put me in conflict with a medical system that treats my basically healthy, well-functioning body as a pathology. Wendell Berry also held some uncomfortable conservative views -- for example I do not agree with Berry 's anti-abortion essays. Nonetheless, I moved home and stayed home largely because of Berry's admonition to choose a place and try to form a relationship with that place. He is right about that.
When you say that Paul Kingsnorth is "all over the map" I suppose you mean he has some ideas that seem uncomfortably aligned with conservative politics, yet you still find his ways of overthinking everything compelling. So do I. When I cited Kingsnorth in this essay on Re-Localizing the Library (https://journals.litwinbooks.com/index.php/jclis/article/view/94) the editor called me up to ask if I knew Kingsnorth is a fascist. I said that I know that he has been accused of being a fascist because, yes, folklore can be co-oped as nationalism. However, I also think Kingsnorth is fundamentally right about the value of Prayer, People, Past and Place. I am also sympathetic with his cranky disapproval of surgical/medical body modification because my lived experience in a female body has put me in conflict with a medical system that treats my basically healthy, well-functioning body as a pathology. Wendell Berry also held some uncomfortable conservative views -- for example I do not agree with Berry 's anti-abortion essays. Nonetheless, I moved home and stayed home largely because of Berry's admonition to choose a place and try to form a relationship with that place. He is right about that.
Thanks for sharing, Amy.
Always enjoy these dispatches. The Goldfarb piece was excellent.
That guy knows how to write, how to SEE.
Decaf! Bold, brave traveler!