Analytic philosophy and BAP.

I can see where you are coming from and, as Orwell once said (about Ezra Pound, as I recall), even poetic license doesn't release one from all obligations towards decency. And of course as you suggested in your response to Pharmakon above, in an era in which war is fought by pushing buttons, where is the room for traditional masculine virtues (or even vices)? Both Orwell and C.S. Lewis warned that evil deeds in our day are far more likely to be carried out by men (and women!) with clean fingernails in quiet offices than by the "blond beasts" of yore. In my teen years, I was surrounded by academic philosophers and would-be philosophers, and I recall the furious disputes between the partisans of the analytic and "continental" schools -- "what they're doing isn't philosophy!" (the former on the latter); "these people have destroyed our discipline!" (the latter on the former.) I had sufficient respect for the analytic champions among my friends that I took a course in college on analytic philosophy -- we were assigned Ayer, Austin, Quine -- I was bored out of my mind and barely managed to eke out a passing grade. But stumbling onto Nietzsche was one of the great intellectual events of my life -- although I was much too young, or rather, I had insufficient preparation. Whatever; that kind of "shock you into thinking about/questioning something" is far more to my taste. I suppose that may help explain my fascination with BAP and the BAP phenomenon -- that his "let's shock them!" intellectual approach is the only one (on our issues, anyway) that has, IMHO, a prayer of working in a world in which minds have cemented over when it comes to the sexuality of boys and the central role of the man/boy bond in the human condition. (You will be aware of the sobriquet "cement headed straight clowns" that TPKA Adam Selene once bestowed on muggles). In a world in which the US Congress votes unanimously to shut down the careful, methodological approach of a Bruce Rind, I fear the only way we will see any intellectual progress is first through dynamiting the cement -- and this I see BAP as doing; thus my enthusiasm despite my distaste for such aspects of his writing as the China-bashing. (Whatever one may say about the Chinese, they have given the world an unending stream of beautiful boys. Cut my sleeve!) SR