Alan Jacobs


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I’m at the age at which articles like this profile of Michael Walzer are terrifying. Walzer’s scholarly and writerly career has effectively outlived his reputation. He can still get published, but no one under a certain age is paying attention. I’m about 25 years younger than Walzer, but I already can tell that there are plenty of people who have no interest in what I am saying because, and only because, of my age. I think this concerns me primarily because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.

On the other hand: if you know that your audience is intrinsically and necessarily limited, why not forget about trying to increase its size? Why not just say whatever you think and take the consequences, even if the consequences are confinement to a “fit audience though few”?