Mo King

What Ghazali can’t have known is that his mental breakdown was one of the hinges of history, a moment where the world could go in two very different directions, and God chooses which. This, at least, is the conclusion of a strain of historiography from Max Weber on, in which Ghazali had essentially doomed the entire Muslim world to backwardness.... See more

Ibn Sina had developed a novel proof of the existence of God, which he called the Proof of the Truthful. There are, he said, two classes of being. There are possible existents, which are equally capable of existing or not existing. A shoe, a tooth, Iran. If a particular possible existent does in fact exist, it must have a cause; it can’t pop into... See more

Shahnameh , the greatest achievement of Iranian literature

But most people can’t do without the devil, even the ones who don’t believe in him. They need a name for the subterranean principle breathing wrongness into the world. When someone uses the words ‘late capitalism,’ you can’t really be sure at first whether they’re an actual historical materialist or whether they’re just using another name for Druj.... See more

There are some people who are capable of looking at this world, flies and earthquakes and all, and saying: it is good. When I was younger I found them terrifying and incomprehensible. To love a world where so many people are suffering feels morally wrong. Now, sometimes, I think I get it. The world exists, we’re here; what more could you possibly... See more

I feel impatient, though, when I encounter yet another essay that pines after the past. Yes, if only we could return to that world — where newspapers raked in ad revenue; where rent was cheap in lower Manhattan; where there were thousands of journalism jobs across the country — then maybe American criticism could be great again. But we can’t revive

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Writing my Asterisk essay led me to conclude that, when it comes to conversations about artistic stagnation and mediocrity, perhaps the most important thing to think about is the money. Who has it? Who’s making money? Who isn’t? Who’s financially backing unprofitable work? What kind of work is valued by the market? What kind of work isn’t?