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Jonathan Epps's avatar

It's the same principle that makes certain accounts on socials more popular than others; and some of the "dumbest" accounts are the most popular. Fundamentally, people hate a challenge or anything that is outside their norms and experience. They judge everything accordingly.

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Jonathan Weil's avatar

>the bad clay of their work forever after glazed with the good fortune of brilliant readings.

This reminds me of the Nabokov line about inflated reputations like “great marble blocks passed down from generation to generation” until some intrepid critic comes along with a sledgehammer to demolish “a Balzac, a Gorky, a Mann.” Odd that he sees marble as eminently smashable, whereas for Flanagan, glazed clay is forever.

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