This is everything we all need to hear and *do*. Thanks for taking the time for this. I just lined up "They Thought They Were Free" as my next audiobook right now.
I've been calling it complacency because I couldn't think of a word that was better suited but passivity is more precise, so thank you for that and thank you for this essay!
Been dragging my feet to get more involved politically. I like that these spaces are political because everything is political. Open your curiosity. I really liked this article.
What you’re describing is a lot of what he calls cool media… it’s accessible because it requires engagement and interpretation, making it personalizable (and susceptible to more conspiratorial and detached takeaways) the theoretical terminology is always a turnoff but giving words to more complex things is the only way for people to take on increasingly complex fights… I haven’t read all his work but I’ll go one for one with you and chat through tough spots if you find any
Thank you for another excellent essay. I'm interested in the movement of mind that is, "I need a break." It's overwhelm for sure, an inability to confront another crisis or an ongoing crisis, and drives us towards escapist fantasies. I wonder how we can honor the reality of our animal bodies at capacity while also being more political, more realistic and aware.
I think rest is vital. I think what I wanted to explore is the ideas of entire realities formed out of escapism. It’s good for people to have hobbies and fun and be able to find joy - otherwise, there’s no energy or anything to fight for - but life can’t be an escape
This was such an incredible read, thank you! Going to send it to everyone I know because this is so important and you worded everything I've been trying to say so eloquently and meaningfully 🫶🏽
No one is going to read it because people appreciate and need to be able to dissconect from the world and its atrocities through whatever content form they plase: doom scrolling, fantasy literature, shows you watch on repeat. Also, they will dislike you for sending it to them, for having a pretension on how they should use the very little time they have free, because them too, are part of a crazy exploitative system and crave to just chill without their pedantic friend telling them that if their leisure reading is counter revolutionary
Thanks for this essay. I don't know what's happening on booktok as a whole, but it's relevant to understand people's relationship with reading.
So there are creators who present as using books to disengage from politics, who would encourage others to do the same? "escapism as self care, self-care for freedom, freedom to choose nothing"
You've pointed out such a strange phenomomen. I agree, "being a reader" isn't separable from the ideologies and political implications that books present, so the silence on the latter half implies partial engagement at best. Then making content which markets the "reader" halo as an isolationist anesthetic for intolerable ideas is even stranger (cope).
This makes me wonder about the themes and motivations of book hoarding throughout history and how this chapter will fit in (like JP Morgan was it just an obsession with accumulating cultural legitimacy as a nouveau riche of the gilded era?)
I'm having a difficult time finding meaning in political discourse because it seems a lot of the voting public see a guy who is angry, identifies w him and votes for him because they are also angry. I want to read, and did read political books (President/Justice Taft being the last political person I found interesting and multifaceted). But now, I'm just sort of numb and find modern day politics full of lying liars and the people who follow them say the same thing about the "the other side".
Gingrich and Fox News did a number and it is hard to dig into that and find a solution out of it. Give me a world without it, in a book, but not a world of uninformed readers.
"Escapism is passivity. It is a denial, disregard, or misunderstanding of reality that will capture and transform you into something horrifying." 🔥🔥
Whenever conversations about "I just read for escapism" emerge I always feel compelled to ask why their escapism means escaping into worlds where my identity is not allowed or is portrayed as a danger, why escapism means white, cis het, and able-bodied. And so many people don't realise that this is the case -- that their escapist worlds are not places everyone can escape to, that that their escapist worlds are oftentimes other people's nightmare scenarios.
they are probably escaping from you ella. look at what you think when poor tired af people tell you they read to chill their over fried minds a little. demands, demands, demands. People can read stuff where your identity is not a part of. My god.
YES YES YES THIS! Art and the consumption of art has always been and always will be political.
This is everything we all need to hear and *do*. Thanks for taking the time for this. I just lined up "They Thought They Were Free" as my next audiobook right now.
I've been calling it complacency because I couldn't think of a word that was better suited but passivity is more precise, so thank you for that and thank you for this essay!
Thanks for reading 🥹
An important reminder. Thank you for writing this! Incredible.
Been dragging my feet to get more involved politically. I like that these spaces are political because everything is political. Open your curiosity. I really liked this article.
Couldn’t help thinking of Marshall McLuhan reading this… (“understanding media” is an unknown backbone to cultural studies)
What you’re describing is a lot of what he calls cool media… it’s accessible because it requires engagement and interpretation, making it personalizable (and susceptible to more conspiratorial and detached takeaways) the theoretical terminology is always a turnoff but giving words to more complex things is the only way for people to take on increasingly complex fights… I haven’t read all his work but I’ll go one for one with you and chat through tough spots if you find any
I’m going to have to check that book out - feels like something I’d love exploring. Thank you!
Thank you for another excellent essay. I'm interested in the movement of mind that is, "I need a break." It's overwhelm for sure, an inability to confront another crisis or an ongoing crisis, and drives us towards escapist fantasies. I wonder how we can honor the reality of our animal bodies at capacity while also being more political, more realistic and aware.
I think rest is vital. I think what I wanted to explore is the ideas of entire realities formed out of escapism. It’s good for people to have hobbies and fun and be able to find joy - otherwise, there’s no energy or anything to fight for - but life can’t be an escape
One HUNDRED per cent!
This reads snobish
This was such an incredible read, thank you! Going to send it to everyone I know because this is so important and you worded everything I've been trying to say so eloquently and meaningfully 🫶🏽
No one is going to read it because people appreciate and need to be able to dissconect from the world and its atrocities through whatever content form they plase: doom scrolling, fantasy literature, shows you watch on repeat. Also, they will dislike you for sending it to them, for having a pretension on how they should use the very little time they have free, because them too, are part of a crazy exploitative system and crave to just chill without their pedantic friend telling them that if their leisure reading is counter revolutionary
Thanks for this essay. I don't know what's happening on booktok as a whole, but it's relevant to understand people's relationship with reading.
So there are creators who present as using books to disengage from politics, who would encourage others to do the same? "escapism as self care, self-care for freedom, freedom to choose nothing"
You've pointed out such a strange phenomomen. I agree, "being a reader" isn't separable from the ideologies and political implications that books present, so the silence on the latter half implies partial engagement at best. Then making content which markets the "reader" halo as an isolationist anesthetic for intolerable ideas is even stranger (cope).
This makes me wonder about the themes and motivations of book hoarding throughout history and how this chapter will fit in (like JP Morgan was it just an obsession with accumulating cultural legitimacy as a nouveau riche of the gilded era?)
👏👏👏
I'm having a difficult time finding meaning in political discourse because it seems a lot of the voting public see a guy who is angry, identifies w him and votes for him because they are also angry. I want to read, and did read political books (President/Justice Taft being the last political person I found interesting and multifaceted). But now, I'm just sort of numb and find modern day politics full of lying liars and the people who follow them say the same thing about the "the other side".
Gingrich and Fox News did a number and it is hard to dig into that and find a solution out of it. Give me a world without it, in a book, but not a world of uninformed readers.
This was so patronizing . I don’t care about American politics.
"Escapism is passivity. It is a denial, disregard, or misunderstanding of reality that will capture and transform you into something horrifying." 🔥🔥
Whenever conversations about "I just read for escapism" emerge I always feel compelled to ask why their escapism means escaping into worlds where my identity is not allowed or is portrayed as a danger, why escapism means white, cis het, and able-bodied. And so many people don't realise that this is the case -- that their escapist worlds are not places everyone can escape to, that that their escapist worlds are oftentimes other people's nightmare scenarios.
Thank you for this piece!
they are probably escaping from you ella. look at what you think when poor tired af people tell you they read to chill their over fried minds a little. demands, demands, demands. People can read stuff where your identity is not a part of. My god.