zadie smith, the art of the impersonal essay (20250930)

links, etc

the art of the impersonal essay (archive.is)

the article is really about writing and tricking the brain into getting something on paper or in a text editor buffer.

but it had this great little nugget …

Because, in fact, I am usually immediately swayed by whatever intellectual fashion is in the air, and a first draft of any essay is more often than not a cynical and dutiful rehashing of the argument du jour. But, after an hour or so of that, I see what I have said and realize I don’t actually think any of that. I reread. I frown. Delete. I try again, this time allowing myself to think honestly, aloud, a process that will involve the various strands of my thought arguing with one another, as they inevitably tend to do.

that’s a gem of a realization there. it describes the tussle that often goes on in my head as i ingest the various bits that run across my inbox. there’s an ease in just regurgitating the current argument on a topic. it can seduce you into simply agreeing and moving on without examining where it fits into your overall world view and understanding. it’s often hard to reframe and understand what’s interesting to you and where you actually stand on a topic. but if you don’t undertake this additional analysis, you end up with potentially gross intellectual inconsistencies.