This book emerged at the intersection of professional productivity and essayistic exploration, of enjoyable work and serious play, of reason and imagination. The conversations that fed into it were sometimes with colleagues and sometimes with old friends, sometimes with people who are a combination of both, with some of whom I’ve spent countless hours, and a few of whom I’ve never yet met in person. These include Noga Arikha, D. Graham Burnett, Emanuele Coccia, James Delbourgo, Philippe Descola, Jeff Dolven, Jerry Dworkin, Rodolfo Garau, Jessica Gordon-Roth, Geoffrey Gorham, Catherine Hansen, Philippe Huneman, Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Stephen Menn, Richard Moran, Yascha Mounk, Ohad Nachtomy, Steve Nadler, Sina Najafi, Paolo Pecere, S. Abbas Raza, Anne-Lise Rey, Jessica Riskin, Jerry Rothenberg, Adina Ruiu, Jesse Schaefer, Kieran Setiya, J. B. Shank, Jean-Jacques Szczeciniarz, and Charles T. Wolfe. Some of the conversations and encounters that influenced the final shape of this book happened long ago, notably with Jack Goody; with Daniel Rancour-Laferriere, who first taught me how to read a poem (it was Aleksandr Blok’s “Двенадцать”); with Catherine Wilson, and with Richard Wollheim, both of whom showed me early on how it is possible to do philosophy with one’s whole person. I am grateful to my agent, Andrew Stuart, for convincing me to take this topic on; and to my editor at Princeton, Rob Tempio, whose love of books and knowledge of how to craft them never cease to amaze me.
A significant portion of the first section of chapter 5 was previously published as “The Internet of Snails,” Cabinet Magazine 58 (2016): 29–37. Part of the early portion of chapter 8 was previously published under the title “Punching Down,” in The Point Magazine 14 (Autumn, 2017): 117–23.
Paris, August 2018