Building data structures out of pairs is one of the features of Lisp that introductions to the language tend to focus on, (particularly in academia) as it feels

Building data structures out of pairs is one of the features of Lisp that introductions to the language tend to focus on, (particularly in academia) as it feels very simple and elegant. This kind of disconnect between theory and practice is part of why I often find it hard to take writing about Lisp programming at face value.