I am new to running my own website, so it may be a bit sketchy at first. This is the first of occasional blog posts related to my new book and ongoing work.
My thoughts today are on the importance of structure and momentum. The cultural heritage of Ireland provided a solid structure for my argument; sometimes it felt like merely connecting the dots. I relied on a lot of secondary sources to back up the thesis of the book. There is a metaphor for argumentation from the 20th-century philosopher Isaiah Berlin and the ancient Greek philosopher Archilochus that “πόλλ’ οἶδ’ ἀλώπηξ, ἀλλ’ ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα/a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog one important thing.” I take this to mean that a hedgehog has one idea or critical lens to select and analyze evidence, while a fox is more nimble and open to contrary or chaotic data. I confess to being a hedgehog in this book.
If you want a more fox-like approach to the same or similar material, try Declan Kiberd’s writing. I relied heavily on his “Irish Classics” for my writing and am currently reading his more recent “After Ireland…” The latter takes Samuel Beckett as its point of departure to consider later writers in a more globalized world.