In the September edition of New English Review, the good doctor muses on his pedantic interests while attempting to catalogue his vast library in his French countryside villa.

I suspect that we are fast approaching a state of society in which pedantry will be the best defence against the prevailing moral and philosophical (not to say physical) ugliness. Find a corner of the world about which nobody cares, and immerse yourself pedantically in it. That will be the way to survive until you reach the bourne from which no traveller returns.