A year after I submitted the final copy of my manuscript, W. is still polishing his. – 'It's like Gnosticism', he says, 'if your book is full of typos, which it will be, mine has to be pristine'. Pathos is not enough, he says. He wants precision, too; jewelled writing.
It's time to make distinctions, he says, serious ones, W. says with great severity. Lines have to be drawn, demarcations made! This is no time for sloppiness of thought. W. is becoming a jeweller of philosophy, he says, whereas I will only ever be one of those elephants who splashes with a paintbrush.
Lars Iyer's Blog 