About the blog

I appreciate your curiosity.

For the blog's title, I combined the prefix of idio- meaning "one's own" with -spect, meaning "view or outlook."  I did find the term online in an anthropology journal article about a related concept, propriospect. It is defined as "the totality of the private, subjective view of the world and its contents that each human being develops out of personal experience." Idiospect is an alternate term the article's author considers (and rejects due to wide use of propriospect) that captures the distinctive nature of the individual's understanding of the world. By definition, it is limited in what it encompasses.

Lewis Lapham's final Notebook was on his use of the essay "as a form of literary address." I appreciate his conception of the essay, its use and function, and will emulate the spirit in which he writes, "I never know what I think about anything...unless and until I try to set up a thought in a sentence." The essayist's initial thoughts may be inchoate but the opinion of the essayist on a given subject may be stated with certainty as it takes shape in the composition of the essay/blog post. Such hubris from a hobbyist blogger!

If I do write that betrays what you think is a grievous lack of understanding of some issue, let me know in the comments and we can try to figure out what is actually the case together. We may disagree about our interpretations of certain states of affairs in the world but we should not disagree on matters of fact.

NOTE: Do not assume that I have any sense of humor whatsoever.

TITLE IMAGE is detail from an Edward Gorey illustration.