“I wrote that the man’s expression “simply cannot be defined” but it contained “relief, and bafflement, and newfound innocence, and the first hesitant vulnerable expression of hope”. My main crime here was that this section was overwritten. My lesser crime was that it’s now demonstrably bullshit. Then, because I am a parody of myself, I wrote that his face reflected “the aspirations of centuries of liberal struggle”. It is therefore a shame that he seems to be an Assad loyalist putting on an act.
I can learn several things from this. First, I must never, ever, under any circumstances become a police detective. And second, we really do see what we want to see. We can project, especially in dramatic but changeable circumstances, the things we want to believe, the story of a world we wish to be true. We all have it within us to look a right mug and I have accomplished that here”
https://iandunt.substack.com/p/merry-christmas-you-cold-hearted