a perfect word

"I have an experience of recognition, not just in response to others’ ideas, but on the order of a single word. It happens, in my own writing, in those moments when you know there’s a perfect word, even though you have not written it yet. You cast about for it, and over time, some obscure word will come to you — your mind knows it’s there. Often, it’s a word with such an extraordinary precision that you wonder how it survived. You think, This must have come down from early modern English or Anglo-Saxon — how did it come to birth? How did it survive? Who was it that needed this word first and coined it? It’s amazing. You wonder how many people have had any use for it over the last 300 years, but there it is."

—Marilynne Robinson 

petty cultural tyrannies

Why is not wanting to see Hamilton treated as a minor form of heresy? I never thought I'd see the day when I felt oppressed by the need to feign interest in a musical. I'm not even trying to be a contrarian (...mostly?) and yet otherwise polite people become visibly annoyed when I don't want to listen to them sing along to the soundtrack. Who wants to listen to anyone sing along to a soundtrack?? (Seriously. Find me that person and I will buy you an expensive cocktail.)

And why is it that these same people who are so peeved by my lack of interest in seeing Hamilton have never read any Hamilton? I mention the Federalist Papers and all I get is a blank stare. Or a look of total disinterest not dissimilar to the face I pull when people extol the virtues of Broadway musicals.

And now that I think about it, that's is a pretty succinct illustration of the gaping intellectual void that undercuts all of modern culture. You're welcome!