...and other interesting things. In the next few days, I will publish a condensed transcript on Mostly Footnotes, my new substack. You can subscribe (it's free of course) to get notifications about new content.

➡️https://rtall.substack.com

Yes! It's the light warning about the next tunnel. But congratulations on this well-deserved end of one tunnel!

I don't know anything anymore about films, but I can't forget the epiphany of watching this when it came out, in a small theater in Rome, in Via delle Quattro Fontane. Lynch was pure, absolute cinema. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTYz...

Then, if the topic permits, you should start with a “funny story.” Or, if the topic is too serious for this, with something sad, new, or terrible. Because, when one has already eaten too much, you refresh their appetite by giving them something bitterish or something sweet.

Fourth, sometimes readers are fatigued even before starting to read, like when you are trying to contribute to an already huge literature. In this case, you “should promise to speak more briefly than you were prepared to speak.”

And how do you show that the issues are important? If they concern all humanity, that particular audience, the interests of the republic, some illustrious people (yes, this applies to academic papers), or the immortal gods (this, unfortunately, doesn’t apply).

Third, there’s only one way to win the reader’s attention: show that the things you are going to say are important, novel, and incredible (magna, nova, incredibilia). Well, they don’t need to be truly “incredible” in our line of business, but they shouldn’t be obvious.

Uncertain cases (anceps genus causae): These are cases on which reasonable people disagree. The introduction should immediately tackle the disputed question.