Not P but DFW: politically indifferent

[Mark Kohut]

I suggest it also could be read---and this isn't an either-or---as
bipartisan....Vanity Fair's stories
of the famously elite in style, influence, new kinds of success,
etc.......is beyond partisan politics
and politics doesn't really matter in their --VF's--profiles and
pieces......,

On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 10:00 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Point taken, but you get the general idea. This was prompted by another
> change suggested by a proofreader.
>
> Thanks for replying, Mike.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 11:40 PM Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
> > I'd say apathetic isn't quite correct - I'd say it means it doesn't care
> > about/ not concerned with politics - which maybe is the same as
> > apathetic and of an individual I'd agree but to describe a publication
> > as apathetic doesn't seem right. You wouldn't describe a mag dedicated
> > to fashion as apathetic about a subject beyond its remit.
> >
> > Clearly in a hairsplitting mood today.
> > Cheers
> > Mike
> >
> > On 10/02/2026 14:24, Mike Jing wrote:
> > > The following excerpt is from David Foster Wallace's *Up, Simba*:
> > >
> > > The far-Right *National Review*, for example, calls McCain “a crook
> and a
> > > showboat,” while the old-Left *New York Review of Books* feels that
> > “McCain
> > > isn’t the anti-Clinton … McCain is more like the unClinton, in the way
> > 7Up
> > > was the unCola: different flavor, same sugar content,” and the
> > politically
> > > indifferent *Vanity Fair* quotes Washington insiders of unknown
> > affiliation
> > > saying “People should never underestimate [McCain’s] shrewdness. His
> > > positions, in many instances, are very calculated in terms of media
> > appeal.”
> > >
> > > Does the word "indifferent" here mean "neutral" or "apathetic"? I'm
> > pretty
> > > sure it's the latter since the first meaning is labelled as "archaic"
> by
> > > the OED, and the fact that *Vanity Fair* is not known for its political
> > > leanings.
> > > --
> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
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>