Hannah

By form and design, the hot take is designed to reduce, where a conversation is meant to expand.

The more ignorant we are, the more likely it is that we will be dazzled by mediocrity. Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul, as Alexander Pope said.1 Good taste is accumulated through wide knowledge.

That evil may spring from the imagination, as from everything except the perfect love of God, cannot be denied. But infinitely worse evils would be the result of its absence. Selfishness, avarice, sensuality, cruelty, would flourish tenfold; and the power of Satan would be well established ere some children had begun to choose. Those who would... See more

Coherence is what the human mind longs for most. When life lacks meaning, it’s often because experiences feel unstrung. Experience, by itself, is inert. It is structureless data. The act of tracing a line through the events of our lives is what makes life feel like a life, as opposed to a series of disjointed impressions.

Americans don't realize how important jazz is," she told the New York Post in 1975. "It's healing for the soul. It should be played everywhere — in churches, nightclubs, everywhere. We have to use every place we can."

Artists are pressured to do whatever possible to be seen and heard, not their best work out of love.