bell hooks talks to John Perry Barlow

March 19, 2015 6:21 PM

bell hooks [iconoclastic feminist, leading African-American intellectual, progressive Buddhist, self-proclaimed homebody] and John Perry Barlow [cyber philosopher, retired cattle rancher, world traveler, Grateful Dead lyricist, self-proclaimed Republican, EFF founder] have a conversation in the September 1995 issue of Shambhala Sun.
posted by Elementary Penguin (8 comments total)

I'm still reading it but I feel like somebody should mention that Barlow uses the n word at one point, in a way that will bother at least some readers.
posted by OnSecondThought at 7:05 PM on March 19, 2015 [4 favorites]

Just great! Each of the say some things in this conversation so clearly and so "to the point" that it's kind of breathtaking.
posted by cleroy at 7:15 PM on March 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

I would make an ongoing series of such conversations between unlikely conversationalists my daily devotional reading.
posted by echocollate at 7:21 PM on March 19, 2015 [5 favorites]

Spoiler alert: these two apparently completely different people don't disagree about anything.
posted by um at 8:16 PM on March 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

I really needed to read this today. That was wonderful.
posted by sallybrown at 8:17 PM on March 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

It's hard to tell if they're carefully agreeing with each other or blissfully talking past each other, but either way it makes for very interesting reading. It seems like they came away from the conversation with a feeling of compatibility.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:26 PM on March 19, 2015 [2 favorites]

Barlow uses the n word at one point, in a way that will bother at least some readers.

How so?
posted by Mister Bijou at 2:31 AM on March 20, 2015

How so?

Yeah, it didn't seem to bother bell hooks much, who, as you may know, is black.
posted by kozad at 9:37 AM on March 20, 2015