I think I first started reading you at the original Gideon's Blog in 2005, which I found via the old (Douthat-Salam-Menashi) American Scene, and I've followed you to each of your subsequent platforms. What I value most about your writing is the feeling that you're thinking things through in real time; there's a sense of a mind actively at work in most of what you write that feels almost electric. I don't have any particular disappointments, but (your busy schedule permitting) I would love to see you write more on literature, just because I really like your arts writing (for some of the same reasons Leah gave) and literature is the type of art I engage with most.
I first read your writing on The American Scene, I think. Not sure how I found it there, but then at some point I largely lost track of you, until Freddie deBoer, to whom I subscribe, mentioned in one of his newsletters that you were writing on Substack, so I came over and subscribed. From my perspective you’re still doing what you do — writing thoughtful, contemplative essays that complicate the standard frames — for which I’m grateful.
I think about a decade ago I found your Shakesblog via an Alan Jacobs reference, and so I may have found some of your more recent writing, and maybe by extension this Substack, while trying to go back and reread the Shakesblog in the summer of 2020, when the Stratford Festival streamed that bunch of its filmed plays. My husband and I had some great discussions about those plays, but I think I also wanted to reread your insights (about the plays in general - not necessarily those exact productions) as well. (But I was probably already at least periodically looking up your post-Shakesblog writing before then, anyway. Time and memory are fuzzy and weird, especially since having kids and then since Covid.)
Like Amy says, I think I appreciate following your thought process, and that your takes aren't simplistic but are still accessible.
I love your arts writing, and you have a real gift for observing the choices that go into a work—how they sum up to the whole. I shared your Macbeth piece with all my Shakespeare friends and it prompted good discussion about staging choices we've seen and ones we might make in the future. You manage to pull a lot of moral discussion out of arts writing without letting your ideas eclipse the work of the artist (I always try to double check that I'm not just using a book or a play as a launching point, but that the people who worked on it could read my piece and not feel used).
I first read you at TAS, but became permanently enamored during your stint as "house liberal" at TAC. I'm honestly not sure where I first heard about your substack.
I’m pretty sure I got here through the Bulwark and JVL’s touting your substack. What keeps me here are the engaging subjects, balanced viewpoint, and, of course, the stellar writing. I can’t remember specifically which article but likely one having to do with politics.
I really appreciate your social commentary, in general. Specifically, I like that you can write in a way that takes into account a breadth of worldviews and their associated feelings. That's probably the main reason I subscribed. I do also enjoy your writing on the arts, though, now that I'm here!
I've been reading your work since ye olden days of Blogspot 20 years ago (when you knew me under a different name), so when I learned that you had a Substack then signing up seemed like the natural thing to do. I don't think anything's surprised me since you're always pretty much yourself, although the fact that you went into the movie business wasn't something I saw coming until it happened.
I think that a lot of the reason I like reading you is just that I like following your thought process, which is true of a lot of my favorite bloggers. I always appreciate someone who can look at some issue or artwork or other phenomenon with a fresh lens, whether or not I agree with it. You're also interested in a lot of the same things that I am, so when your posts arrive in my inbox it's almost always something I want to read. So ... keep doing what you're doing, I guess is what I'm saying.
Can’t remember how I found your Substack, but your political writing and your cultural criticism always feels measured and insightful. Sergeant’s point about moral discussion also rings true.
I think I first started reading you at the original Gideon's Blog in 2005, which I found via the old (Douthat-Salam-Menashi) American Scene, and I've followed you to each of your subsequent platforms. What I value most about your writing is the feeling that you're thinking things through in real time; there's a sense of a mind actively at work in most of what you write that feels almost electric. I don't have any particular disappointments, but (your busy schedule permitting) I would love to see you write more on literature, just because I really like your arts writing (for some of the same reasons Leah gave) and literature is the type of art I engage with most.
I first read your writing on The American Scene, I think. Not sure how I found it there, but then at some point I largely lost track of you, until Freddie deBoer, to whom I subscribe, mentioned in one of his newsletters that you were writing on Substack, so I came over and subscribed. From my perspective you’re still doing what you do — writing thoughtful, contemplative essays that complicate the standard frames — for which I’m grateful.
I think about a decade ago I found your Shakesblog via an Alan Jacobs reference, and so I may have found some of your more recent writing, and maybe by extension this Substack, while trying to go back and reread the Shakesblog in the summer of 2020, when the Stratford Festival streamed that bunch of its filmed plays. My husband and I had some great discussions about those plays, but I think I also wanted to reread your insights (about the plays in general - not necessarily those exact productions) as well. (But I was probably already at least periodically looking up your post-Shakesblog writing before then, anyway. Time and memory are fuzzy and weird, especially since having kids and then since Covid.)
Like Amy says, I think I appreciate following your thought process, and that your takes aren't simplistic but are still accessible.
Shana tova!
I love your arts writing, and you have a real gift for observing the choices that go into a work—how they sum up to the whole. I shared your Macbeth piece with all my Shakespeare friends and it prompted good discussion about staging choices we've seen and ones we might make in the future. You manage to pull a lot of moral discussion out of arts writing without letting your ideas eclipse the work of the artist (I always try to double check that I'm not just using a book or a play as a launching point, but that the people who worked on it could read my piece and not feel used).
I first read you at TAS, but became permanently enamored during your stint as "house liberal" at TAC. I'm honestly not sure where I first heard about your substack.
I’m pretty sure I got here through the Bulwark and JVL’s touting your substack. What keeps me here are the engaging subjects, balanced viewpoint, and, of course, the stellar writing. I can’t remember specifically which article but likely one having to do with politics.
I'm fairly sure I also found you via Alan Jacobs, albeit more recently than K -- probably around the beginning of this year.
I recently shared one of your posts (this one: https://gideons.substack.com/p/religious-freedom-is-still-impossible) on a small subreddit that I frequent, and a friend of mine responded by pulling out this post: https://gideons.substack.com/p/fertility-fear-and-futurity. Which is funny, because that latter post is exactly the post I also landed on, the first time I skimmed through your back catalog! It's really, really good.
I really appreciate your social commentary, in general. Specifically, I like that you can write in a way that takes into account a breadth of worldviews and their associated feelings. That's probably the main reason I subscribed. I do also enjoy your writing on the arts, though, now that I'm here!
I've been reading your work since ye olden days of Blogspot 20 years ago (when you knew me under a different name), so when I learned that you had a Substack then signing up seemed like the natural thing to do. I don't think anything's surprised me since you're always pretty much yourself, although the fact that you went into the movie business wasn't something I saw coming until it happened.
I think that a lot of the reason I like reading you is just that I like following your thought process, which is true of a lot of my favorite bloggers. I always appreciate someone who can look at some issue or artwork or other phenomenon with a fresh lens, whether or not I agree with it. You're also interested in a lot of the same things that I am, so when your posts arrive in my inbox it's almost always something I want to read. So ... keep doing what you're doing, I guess is what I'm saying.
Can’t remember how I found your Substack, but your political writing and your cultural criticism always feels measured and insightful. Sergeant’s point about moral discussion also rings true.