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Esoteric Specialist Knowledge
Mar. 25th, 2024 07:05 pmI’m going to say something messy, here goes.
I keep running across popular Tumblr posts celebrating esoteric specialist knowledge, both general posts celebrating the idea of people acquiring this knowledge + posts presenting this knowledge to a wider audience. I love these posts, and I’m always so entertained and impressed by them. And I think, But why don’t I have esoteric specialist knowledge?
The truth is that I do have specialist knowledge, but not in areas that anyone cares about. So let’s say that I really love gothic fiction, which is a popular subject on Tumblr. Unfortunately, I don’t know that much about British gothic fiction. I mean, I’m reasonably familiar, but still.
( Read more... )
What I want to do is share esoteric specialist knowledge about gothic fiction that isn’t British, but what I’m going to need to do is give myself permission to cut out the part of my brain that has succumbed to internet discourse rot. Maybe the best way to think about this is that it’s okay, actually, to alienate intellectually lazy Americans who have reconfigured their ignorance as social justice. All the cool international goth lit nerds can stay.
ETA: I still want to talk about British fiction, though! Especially fiction written by men. I love gothic masculinity.
I keep running across popular Tumblr posts celebrating esoteric specialist knowledge, both general posts celebrating the idea of people acquiring this knowledge + posts presenting this knowledge to a wider audience. I love these posts, and I’m always so entertained and impressed by them. And I think, But why don’t I have esoteric specialist knowledge?
The truth is that I do have specialist knowledge, but not in areas that anyone cares about. So let’s say that I really love gothic fiction, which is a popular subject on Tumblr. Unfortunately, I don’t know that much about British gothic fiction. I mean, I’m reasonably familiar, but still.
( Read more... )
What I want to do is share esoteric specialist knowledge about gothic fiction that isn’t British, but what I’m going to need to do is give myself permission to cut out the part of my brain that has succumbed to internet discourse rot. Maybe the best way to think about this is that it’s okay, actually, to alienate intellectually lazy Americans who have reconfigured their ignorance as social justice. All the cool international goth lit nerds can stay.
ETA: I still want to talk about British fiction, though! Especially fiction written by men. I love gothic masculinity.
