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A supernaturally charming husband.
Even his name, which might seem like a liability, has become a weird advantage, an icebreaker.
Nobody gets out of white male privilege with clean hands.
The most obvious (and saddest) explanation for the choice is that its another blue-chip asset.
Its hard to get into, like Harvard.
Yet if Buttigieg merely wanted to send us a signal, he chose uncharacteristically poorly.
(Almost the entirety of literature is not about that, as it happens.)
The reaction bore that out.
No one is readingUlyssesfor fun.
Hed already learned Norwegian; he could have left it there.
Was it just a matter of Buttigieg misreading the room, then?
ButUlyssesis above anything else just really weird: dark, funny, polyphonic, sexual, incomprehensible.
This gives rise to the strangest, most far-fetched explanation for his choice: that heactually means it.
This theory is bolstered by aninterviewwithNew Yorkin February, in which Buttigieg offered a lengthier defense ofUlysses.
He explained the political valence toEsquire:Youre in this guys head … My response is as follows: God, what if this is real!
Its not a big deal if youre not into it.
I dont dislike Beto.
I desperately wish he were the junior United States senator from Texas.
The reason is that we dontneeda fucking hero right now.
We need an adult.
If the presidency is a stage in Beto ORourkes heros journey, he should not be president.
that he was not the only person who was real, or could experience pain.
Reagan, meanwhile, knew Campbells template from the movies, and acted it out exquisitely and catastrophically.
Is Beto merely a more sophisticated avatar of that heroized brand of politics, compassionate but ultimately self-directed?
I have no idea, but I will say this.
Hilary MantelsWolf Hallis a direct anti-idealization of political valor, indeed an argument that politics is essentially tragic.
As for ourselves, the picture is less flattering.
Why are we fighting about Mayor Petes favorite books?
Usually on the same apps.
Meanwhile not to bum anyone out the ice caps are melting.
Parts of Alabama are flowing with raw sewage.
Children are separated from their families.
I gave her money last week.
But maybe its time to ask what she likes to read.
