Reblogged from Tallis Steelyard:

So it was with Alatan Zore. He decided that as he had opinions, he would not merely place them in front of the public in the form of essays, he would inflict them upon folk in person.

Now the poet might indeed have a message. But a poet tries to entertain. A poet tries to create beauty, to move you to mirth, or tears, or even to love. The essayist merely bludgeons you with their opinions, brooks no argument, and treats you as if you are barely sentient should you have the temerity to put forward some other point of view.

Now obviously I might be in some way biased, but frankly I’d rather work with mime artists. Indeed in all candour I’d rather worth with the usual run of drunken and lecherous musicians than with an essayist. Still, it would never do if we were all the same. Even a poet needs somebody to look down upon.

The problem with Alatan Zore was he had an overwhelming sense of his own genius, matched only by his sense of entitlement. It was not enough that people read his essays; he expected them to change their behaviour because of his firmly propounded opinions. He expected folk to set aside long held beliefs merely because this week he pronounced that the eating of vegetables was unethical, or that humanity had evolved from a particularly unpleasant worm. (When every educated person knows that countless millennia ago Idomeneus led 80 ships across the depths of space to settle our world of Domisa.)

Continue reading at Tallis Steelyard