Not sure if you saw the Queen’s gambit video on my blog… but I like their (official) first meeting. He was the only one who fazed her, as in, had an actual effect on her. So cute. But that’s as far as the comparison goes (you’re not going to come out of the closet all of the sudden, I hope). The kind of intellectual style I valued most was what you showcased so brilliantly in the first few answers of the svanidze interview I mentioned (I could listen to you talk like that forever!). I wouldn’t be surprised if you were more adept at that kind of deep sophisticated thinking while you were still teaching, the same way I was into dense academic text when I had all the time in the world during my university years. I don’t read that stuff anymore sadly and now forget how to do them. But if you want my opinion, I’d say your short fiction and poetry are creative outlets for you given the intellectually demanding nature of your day-to-day toil. The same way Henry liked to read mid-brow fiction that wasn’t meant to impress, but then he spent everyday scanning tedious pedantic highly conceptual academic papers that taxed his brain. You know, early on I preferred the aphoristic French style that expresses the profundity of the human condition, but then got drawn into the long, laborious style of the philosophical Germans splitting hairs about almost nothing. Yours combines a bit of both that also addresses the contemporary questions, switching from historical references to conceptual delineation so neatly. That’s how I perceived the inner working of your mind in those first few questions of the svanidze’s. So I hope I’m answering your question of whether I think you’re uniquely and exceptionally brilliant. And you did your expatiation ex tempore too. I couldn’t have done that in this lifetime, not even if I had all the time in the world to practice. I can write prettily which is the superpower I cherish (I should have written more in my early 20s, looking back, instead of scribbling extracts in my little notebooks) but I’m very much jealous of someone with a great command of facts mixed with deep insights of both philosophical and practical interests. I think you have an expansive and highly receptive mind, Dmitry, of great gravity and light flexibility in combination. The poems and the novellas are just the fun icing on the cake.
— Salisa to Dmitry, November 5th, 2026