Lightness
Almost Solstice Dispatch
Howdy, Pilgrims!
Madness in airworld, rescheduled on redeye, we ended up lapping the country, thoughts lined up like heavy bombers, or maybe another fatally wounded 737, and . . . I have so many important things, really meaningful things, profound stuff to tell you about how you should feel about what’s happening now based on my years indeed decades of work across an unmanageable range of topics. Uh huh.
Basta! as the Italians say. I’ve had a fantastic weekend, and it’s almost the solstice. For the longest day of the year in this hemisphere, I want to talk about lightness.
Well, maybe not talk, maybe more show than tell. What I mean by lightness is difficult to articulate. Something more than simplicity, although almost always at least superficially simple. Think of fresh basil, a hot doughnut, Caspar David Friedrich's “small” landscapes, the arc of a three point bucket, much of Mozart. Kids, don’t try this at home.
Since at least the Romantics, and especially in the arts and the humanities, meaning was often thought to lie underneath. Underneath clothing in particular, more generally, underneath convention. Disrobing, unmasking, even shocking were — still often are — seen as ipso facto good, because, well, it’s unclear. Somehow more true. I get it. But, as widely remarked, this imaginary seems to have run its course. Certainly no longer plausible as politics, tells us very little about art. Defenses of the contemporary along these lines seem some combination of hackneyed, disingenuous, or simply naive. Still dominate legacy and social media, of course.
In that sense, Romanticism seems to have died, or be on its deathbed, its resources exhausted. Friends of mine are urging resuscitation. I feel you, man. New York Existential.
Much to say, but for now, I’ll ask different questions. What about pleasantry, or the ease of good manners? How else is one to be kind to people on the street, in shops, strangers? When I am in Texas, I note how everyone holds the door for the next, regardless of sex, age, race, or class. Human, all too human is more catholic than Romanticism, with its emphasis on the elect (so easily marketable). What about Matisse, especially later, moving from “wild beast” to the importance of ornament?
There is much to be said for prosperity, bourgeois access to beauty, hot coffee at a child’s soccer game on a fresh morning, a fast car streaking across the desert. One of the real oddities of our culture is that this needs saying.
I’m not publishing several images from the last days, family and friends, beautiful houses, people with no wish to be seen on my social media. Nothing risque, but manners presume boundaries, discretion, even a bit of formality. Although I’m really proud of two images, both of which feel sort of 19th century, and I may ask for permission to use, some other time.
It’s not that “the best lack all conviction,” it’s that the best, or some folks anyway, may be seeking a different place, more knowing, more appreciative, and even more grateful.
Flogging Books & Keeping House
Quixote’s Dinner Party is a vaguely Joycean polyphonic metaliterary scholarly work, written by me from conversations with an international group of friends, mostly in the years between the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 Pandemic. It’s an effort to come to grips with the fate of the University I joined over a generation back, to sketch our institutional and political possibility, especially vis-a-vis an alienating yet indispensable bureaucracy, and thoughts on being an intellectual now.
Here are some early reactions:
“The reader will be at once thrilled and puzzled, charmed and stunned, inspired and challenged—and much more. This is a book written by a serious academic like non-other I know of.” — Charles Lemert
“This is Westbrook at his best: sparkling insights, surprising connections, dashes of humor, and thought-provoking reflections.” — Mary Ann Glendon
I have done the copy editing, and am now working on the page proofs. I’ve left it on the field, and happy to be done. Coming soon!
Social Thought From the Ruins: Quixote's Dinner Party “Available for pre-order on July 28, 2025. Item will ship after August 18, 2025.”
In the meantime, you might like this, violence, air travel, and a theory of history. Perfect for the beach! Heavier versions of what I’m saying here, maybe, about finding ourselves at home, in spite of what we read on Substack and elsewhere.
Maguire and Westbrook, Getting Through Security: Counterterrorism, Bureaucracy and a Sense of the Modern.
The Audiobook of Getting Through Security is free.
As always, 1000 thanks to my paying subscribers. If you are in a position to do so, please consider a paid subscription. And whether or not you wish to pay, please share with your friends, or your enemies for that matter.
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Thank you for looking and reading.
Enjoy the solstice, and the summer generally.
Safe travels, Pilgrims.
— David A. Westbrook