[Cooper North]

Hi James,

Thank you for the kind words! I’m currently only twenty-three years old, so I absolutely recognize I have a lot to learn, to put it mildly. Haha.

But yes, that struck me too! Ellis’ frustration with TMWT‘s length was really amusing, meanwhile his own critique was ridiculously over-indulgent (his criticism of Iain not citing sources for lamenting the state of the modern world, as if it isn’t self-evident, is humorous).

I will say, I’m certainly glad he recognizes the value of and supports the hemisphere hypothesis. He just loses me when it comes to his critique of the metaphysics and his immature digs at Iain, personally. Like you said, there’s a certain arrogance, a “my way is right” about his writing that I find alarming… as if he didn’t make much of an effort to engage open-mindedly with Iain’s philosophy (the same can be said for Raymond Tallis, unfortunately). Did he even reflect on his own ideas? Did he, for one second, think, “maybe I’ve under-valued the left hemisphere here?” I don’t know. But, it certainly makes for good conversation here! I’d give anything to hear Iain’s response to this article, especially considering Ellis and Iain have interacted in the past.

But I’m thrilled to be here amongst friends! Honored to learn and grow around such great people.

Best,

Cooper