Althouse: "The reason I started blogging about anime is because it is utterly inconsequential, and thus won’t attract the attention of readers who are earnest."

January 5, 2010

"The reason I started blogging about anime is because it is utterly inconsequential, and thus won’t attract the attention of readers who are earnest."

Says Steven Den Beste, commenting in a post about the breaking up of the 4 Horsemen of the Ablogalypse. Den Beste, along with Andrew Sullivan, Charles Johnson, and Glenn Reynolds (who linked to that post), was one of the 4.

Den Beste's aphorism is utterly charming. It reminds me of... what aphorist does it remind me of? I could only think of "The reason I started blogging about anime is because it is utterly inconsequential, and thus won’t attract the attention of readers who are earnest." I could only think of Kenko, but I'm not sure that's the right answer.

17 comments:

Dark Eden said...: But but but... anime isn't inconsequential! (clutches naruto books)

I guess this means I'm not earnest?; 1/5/10, 10:26 AM
Balfegor said...: I guess this means I'm not earnest?

Pah! I am earnest about cartoons!; 1/5/10, 10:29 AM
Anonymous said...: I don't know anything about anime fandom, but if they're really incapable of being earnest about utterly inconsequential things then they're bizarrely different from every other fandom known to me.; 1/5/10, 10:29 AM
Scott M said...: Nobody, but nobody, is more earnest about their obsessions than fanboys. If you attack their obsessions, like anime, you basically call into question that which they have effectively wasted their lives over. It's like cornering an animal.

A fat, splochy, doughy animal.; 1/5/10, 10:41 AM
Der Hahn said...: I used to read USS Clueless regularly, and it seemed to me Den Beste got burned out from replying to the masses of people whose arguments on subjects like energy policy were informed more by their ideological prejudices than factual reasoning.

Yeah, anime fan boys may be nuts but I suspect it’s easier to blow them off than read the same arguments about why solar/wind/geothermal power is going save the planet a hundred times a day. Especially when you see people who should be responsible adults (like Al ‘The temperature of the core of the earth is several million degrees’ Gore) making the same lame arguments.; 1/5/10, 10:47 AM
Henry said...: It has an Oscar Wilde vibe.

For example:

It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.; 1/5/10, 10:58 AM
hombre said...: Den Beste’s USS Clueless one of the best blogs there has ever been is gone replaced by chizumatic. Sullivan’s and Johnson’s decent into Bloggers Alzheimer’s has been well documented

Only Reynolds remains unchanging, as he was death it seems quite appropriate.

Priceless!; 1/5/10, 11:10 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: "…I’m looking all over the web this morning and I don’t see a thing on TV or that is of the least bit interesting. The Number #1 story on memorandum is Sullivan attacking Glenn Reynolds as a racist for daring to blow up (not even photoshop) an image in the White House Flicker basket.

Expect Charles Johnson to follow shortly,..."

Shit, who needs me to make these points when they make themselves? (But, of course, true or not they won't be addressed, which is the point,...) Stay tuned:

The online circle jerk continues,...; 1/5/10, 11:17 AM
Anonymous said...: This was my second instalance but the very first time I've ever been linked by you. Thanks very much!

I don't think I'd put you on the horseman list, there just nothing Ablogaliptic about you in my mind.; 1/5/10, 11:33 AM
Methadras said...: Que the furries in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...; 1/5/10, 12:48 PM
David Boxenhorn said...: This is what I am reminded of:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life

http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden02.html; 1/5/10, 1:00 PM
Robert Burnham said...: My impression matches that of Der Hahn (10:47). I regret SdB's abandonment of the Clueless blog but after all, it's his life and he can do whatever pleases with it.

I just miss the good commonsense — we need it more than ever.; 1/5/10, 1:15 PM
Simon Kenton said...: Wilde is a good call. I see a little of de la Rochefoucauld. He had a lightly trenchant touch sometimes.

Dans les meschances de nos meilleurs amis, il y a quelque-chose qui ne nous deplait pas.; 1/5/10, 2:54 PM
Ralph L said...: Que the furries
According to CSI, furries are people who like to dress up in animal costumes.
Or did you mean "Queue the furies"?; 1/5/10, 3:50 PM
JSU said...: You all do realize, I hope, that there's also a more serious reason for the change.; 1/5/10, 4:29 PM
vanderleun said...: Basho; 1/5/10, 5:18 PM
dick said...: I agree with the others. It is a pity he stopped the USS Clueless. He had a way of really explaining the energy problems of the alternatives and why they were not the full answer to our problems better than anyone else I have ever read - and he did it scientifically. His columns from then should be tattooed on Algore's hide so that we can finally get some common sense about the issues.; 1/5/10, 11:57 PM