He saw things no one else did and asked questions no one else would. This little known anecdote illuminates the brilliance of a man who approached everything in his own unique Freudian way.
I can certainly see it from your point of view. Knowing his voice from private letters and scholarly work, I find it so familiar - the way nothing really escapes his fine- grained perspicacity. Were it different, performative due to it being a public response, I’d agree, but it’s much in line with how he writes generally. Of course this doesn’t rescue him from being pretentious in general - but I read it more as pedantic - which he certainly was.
I appreciate his philosophical approach but I find his response awkwardly pretentious.
I can certainly see it from your point of view. Knowing his voice from private letters and scholarly work, I find it so familiar - the way nothing really escapes his fine- grained perspicacity. Were it different, performative due to it being a public response, I’d agree, but it’s much in line with how he writes generally. Of course this doesn’t rescue him from being pretentious in general - but I read it more as pedantic - which he certainly was.