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Michael Hartford

writer, photographer, programmer, dad

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“The Repugnant Conclusion” by Elif Batuman

Posted on April 19, 2022

College students ruminate on love and sex through the lenses provided by their classes in literature, language, philosophy, and ethics.

Not bad for a New Yorker story about affluent young people – better than the last one, at least, with characters who were slightly more interesting and not just collections of quirks. It reminded me a little of the sorts of things we would write in my own college creative writing classes in the late ’80s, trying to give some depth to our rather mundane (in retrospect – earth-shakingly profound at the time, of course) struggles by wrapping them in thoughts about Joyce or Proust or Milton. Charmingly written, interesting voices, if not deeply moving.

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