This is, in a sense, Quick Study 2.0, since I ran a blog under the same name here in the late ’00s. It died off from the usual entropy, combined with growing dismay at the evidence that blogging encouraged some people to convert serious personality disorders into a kind of performance art.
That seemed morbidly fascinating, for a while, but malice and malignant narcissism are toxic and prolonged exposure to them cannot be recommended. In due time I decided there were better things to do, and went off and did them. But now, with the encouragement of ArtsJournal founder Doug McLennan, I am relaunching Quick Study on a new basis.
The subhead for Quick Study says “Books, Ideas, and Cultural Politics.” By and large Quick Study will be a digest of material on that range of topics published elsewhere, rather than a venue for my own commentary, as such. (Plenty of that’s available elsewhere.)
QS is launching without a blogroll, but will build one up over time. It’s also starting with the comments feature enabled, which ought not be taken to imply that I am willing to put up with just anything. Any fumigation necessary will be performed quietly and with extreme prejudice. The comments policy at Crooked Timber seems ideal and should be considered in force here.
The revival of Quick Study will begin in earnest during the first week of the new year. It will be an interesting experiment, at least, and I hope something of value comes of it.
Yay. It IS a Happy New Year.