Generally speaking, I enjoy Esquire & Grantland.com columnist and NPR contributor Charles “Charlie” Pierce very much. His essays are intelligent and funny, and more than occasionally tipped with venom, which makes for enjoyable reading. But every so often my man Charlies goes off on a tangential reference that loses me from the get-go.
“Fred Hiatt, the chief hog-caller of the Washington Post’s op-ed corral, has managed to throw us over the event horizon of empty two-faced piety by letting Michael Gerson write about the new book by David Brooks. Driftglass, the kwisatz haderach of the Brooksian jihad, deals with this at some length.”
My hat is off to anyone who can determine whatever the hell “the kwisatz haderach of the Brooksian jihad” means. I am at a loss.
Well, it’s obviously a Dune reference. And I believe the revolutionary movement of the Fremen in those books was characterized in terms that would be aptly described as jihad (not quite remembering if the word was used in the book). And the kwisatz haderach was the leader of that movement.
I’m at a loss to explain what “Driftglass” means, or what a Brooksian jihad might be.
I used to listen to him on the Stephanie Miller show every Tuesday until Clear Channel decided to get rid of liberals on air, but the guy talks really really fast and changes subjects all the time. I wish he’d slow down a bit
Okay, I clicked on the link in the OP, and I was led to a link to a blog called “Driftglass.” From the context of the things I read in that particular blog post, and other posts that I drilled down to, I gather that, in Mr Pierce’s view, a “Brooksian jihad” is a cultural struggle to oppose David Brooks and the things he writes.
Further, I gather that Mr. Pierce considers the blogger known as Driftglass to be probably the most effective contributor to that struggle.
The Butlerian Jihad was when people rose up against the machines, which took place long before the events in the books. It’s why there are no computers or robots in the Dune universe.
Alas, while I take for granted that your reference is correct, that reference (and it’s use of “obviously”) does me no good as I am in the majority of the population that has never read Dune or seen the movie. I will accept that to be a moral failure on my part.
Ah. Thanks for the clarification/reminder. I read the first three books of the Dune series more than thirty years ago (I started in 1974, IIRC), and while I enjoyed them, getting to the end of Children of Dune had become a bit of a chore for me. I wasn’t particularly interested any more by the time Dune Messiah came out in 1981. So I guess I’m a bit fuzzy on the details.
No worries. Here’s the wikipedia article that includes the synopsis of the first novel. Evidently, Mr. Pierce would have been more precise had he called Driftglass the “Lisan al-Gaib of the Brooksian jihad,” but even though Paul Atreides evidently decided to work more for the Fremen than for the Bene Gesserit, the Kwisatz Haderach moniker seems to have been the one that people remember.
O…K…Mr. Maserschmidt…if you say so…{zamboniracer edges toward the door, being careful not to make any sudden moves}
Seriously, thanks for the great, informative responses everyone. I love this board.
“Fred Hiatt, the chief hog-caller of the Washington Post’s op-ed corral…”
An unflattering decription of Hiatt’s skills and role at WP, and of WP’s structure itself. Two pig/animal farming metaphors are well used in reference to how WP’s reporters work.
“…has managed to throw us over the event horizon of empty two-faced piety…”
They have now broken what we all thought was the limit of just how disengenuous people could be.
“…by letting Michael Gerson write about the new book by David Brooks…”
By letting a person who is the antithesis (I guess from context) of DB, write about DB’s new book.
“Driftglass, the kwisatz haderach of the Brooksian jihad, deals with this at some length.”
As other said, a Dune reference, but, not entirely clear to me because I don’t know much about the Driftglass org.