At long last, I'm catching up with overdue reading. Lots to unpack here, but I'm afraid I've only got in me now just enough fortitude to offer my gratitude, as always, for your ideas and honesty and perspective, and, of course, for reminding me that "a walk is never a wrong answer."
The birds singing in the voice track is so relaxing. Nature walks are something I can't afford at this time, but how I miss them. The views you show are so beautiful that I have a wild desire to visit them. Those mountains - how fascinating they are!
So glad to catch up with your writing. I also enjoyed Ghosh’s “Great Derangement,” and the take-away from that is inspiring my current fiction writing. We’ll see where that goes. I’ve just gotten into Dougald Hine’s new book, “At Work in the Ruins,” on the insistence of a friend. He pulls together many threads I’ve been following for a while, with a gentle but firm resistance to the overly rational, technocratic ways that we talk about the predicaments we’re in. So far, I’m hooked.
That sounds like a great inspiration! It seems like that was part of his intention with that book, to remind us all that art has a purpose and the world needs us to start fulfilling it. Glad you're doing that.
I should probably read Hine's book. I've been wary of the Dark Mountain Project crew since Paul Kingsnorth went so right-wing, but Hine doesn't seem to have followed him fully down that road. And he's doing things with Bayo Akomolafe, whom I've really liked whenever I hear him talk!
I hear you. I felt a real sense of belonging with the Dark Mountain crowd for years, then found other communities that fed me. Dougald's book has a gentle, kind, searching tone, which is just right for me right now. Asking a lot of questions and leaning into humility. What can we know, really? (that sort of thing)
That sounds very reassuring! I really resonated with Dark Mountain, too. I think I still do, it was just Kingsnorth who made me wary. It's hard to know which direction people will veer. And I liked Kingsnorth so much for a long time! Made me really question my own judgment. But Dougald's book sounds like a good thing to be reading now. I think I might give it a try.
Apr 25, 2023·edited Apr 25, 2023Liked by Antonia Malchik
Two lines I loved here:
"a volunteer commitment that was looming over me like a small, burning galaxy that wants me to feel the immensity of its mass. "
"There’s something insidious about others’ priorities being intentionally crashed into our time and attention from every angle possible, though the world is full of choices being imposed on those who have little say."
To be honest, AI intrusion and not having a choice about that bothers me more than things like cars, even if car culture has been more devastating to environment and community. At least with cars I can understand the immediate short-term benefits, and the material aspect of travel magnifies our dependencies; it's embedded in our physical infrastructure and deepest ways of life. And we had many opportunities to shift course along the way. But with AI, the sheer rapidity of the transformation, the default (shrug shrug) "welcome to the new normal" as if it must be our automatic destiny, the paternalistic nudging of notifications, the sheer banality of it 99% of it - I can't imagine a world dominated by this stuff that is *better.* Word processing was cool, laptops are cool, online blogging is cool, having the option of e-books and Zoom is cool, storable MP3s is cool (even though it kind of killed music culture), Wikipedia and being able to Google is cool. OK, I'm good now!
But of course, that's presumptuous and self-centered of me to assume we get to "choose." It only looks like a choice at the very beginning. One of the new defining features of our hyperconnected world seems to be that no new technology or shared social practice is really a choice anymore, unless we *make* it a choice deliberately and assertively as a statement of values (not just "choice"). And even these principled statements, like dropping off social media, tend to be made at the personal and not collective level.
I'm sure you've mentioned her before, but I imagine you would really like that new Jenny Odell book, "Saving Time."
Would the sci-fi reading circle be available to follow for those on here who can't use the app? Totally fine if no (it's a lot of extra work to double-post here for so little participation); just curious.
"with AI, the sheer rapidity of the transformation, the default (shrug shrug "welcome to the new normal" as if it must be our automatic destiny, the paternalistic nudging of notifications, the sheer banality of it 99% of it" -- I think it's the shrug acceptance that I find so ... creepy, I guess. With car-centric culture, people fought the dominance of cars on roads really hard in the early 1900s. That history's been buried but it did happen. And enclosures of the commons in land -- there were rebellions and bloody revolts and massive fights over the privatization of land in Britain over centuries. Again, that history is often buried, but at least it happened. But with AI, there seems to be very little pushback. Maybe because there's little understanding of what the changes actually are? I feel this strongly with data ownership. That's why I made it a chapter in my book, because I really don't think most people understand what the impact of all this will be on all of us.
You've reminded me of something Yuval Noah Harari said once in an interview, which is that even if we individually choose to opt out of these things, we're still swimming in a world shaped by them. We can't escape that.
You're the third person who's recommended "Saving Time" to me! I read Odell's first book, though I wasn't super into it (I have trouble engaging with books that examine subjects through art or artists, if that makes any sense), and I think I'm going to have to pick up this one.
That's a good question re the reading circle. I've been trying to think of how to connect it here. I don't think I'll do separate posts for the readings. It is a lot of work, but it's more that responding to fiction in this way is very different than the research on land ownership. So tell me what you think -- I've been thinking of just sharing what the current reading selection is (many of them are free and online, like the current one: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/folding-beijing-2/) and maybe integrating thoughts about it into some of these posts, open to everyone.
That's completely understandable about not doing separate posts for the sci-fi, and I'd feel badly if you did that for just a few people (especially if I end up not participating). I actually haven't read any sci-fi since I was much younger, so I'm kind of drawn by the idea even if I probably won't keep up. If people *did* read along and they wanted to post stray thoughts about the reading themselves here, maybe that's one compromise?
Yes, the shrug acceptance creep is creepy. But sometimes I get the opposite impression, too: that most people don't really want or like this stuff individually and wish it would just go away, but it all has so much momentum it's impossible not to participate and at some point you have to just lean in. So in that sense I wonder if AI is even *less* welcomed overall yet we feel no agency to do anything about it. And w-respect to issues like data ownership, there is such a big split in terms of awareness: tons of discussion and analysis in some academic and legal circles, but then relative lack of understanding if you're not in those fields.
I wasn't into the other Odell book either (even though I liked the concept), but this one seems like it might be better. I only read a little bit so far, though.
I don't mind doing the posts, honestly. It's a lot of work but does help clarify my thinking! But when I started reading the first sci-fi short story, I realized that approach wasn't going to work. It's hard to comment on fiction in pieces without veering into literary criticism (at least for me), which is a realm I dislike a lot. So my thought is that I'll integrate the readings more naturally into posts like this one, and we can talk about it that way. Since a lot of the stories are online and fun to read (unlike a lot of the land ownership nonfiction), discussion might come more naturally. Maybe? I don't know, it'll be an experiment! Again!
I love science fiction, so my own thoughts about its importance are probably going to make their way into some of it, too. And I'd love to hear others' thoughts. I read a lot of it when I was young, and then didn't for many, many years until a local bookseller turned me onto N.K. Jemisin. Then I realized that sci fi and speculative fiction have been undergoing a revolution that I completely missed and I think it's so much better now. There is a lot out there!
Your thoughts on AI and data are really on point. Like not just a shrug but a feeling of helplessness. Which I get. I feel that about surveillance. Like what the hell am I meant to *do* about any of it.
If you ever use Audible, there's a book on there by Dr. Ayanna Howard called "Sex, Race & Robots." It's unfortunately *only* on Audible. Ayanna's one of the only Black women roboticists in the world and she understands all of this stuff at such a deep level. She sees all the risks and can articulate them really well, and at the same time really loves tech (she worked on the Mars Rover).
Okay, well, if you weren't into Odell's first book but are liking this one, then I'm sold on it. I've been wary because so many people loved that first book and I didn't!
No promises about the Odell book, but it looks to be more of a deep historical and sociological dive which might appeal to you more.
This isn't so much a specific criticism of her, but I'm a little tired of these popular critiques of our fast-paced productivity society that still seem targeted at functional, relatively successful people who *have* managed to fit into that society but are just miserable and can't get off the treadmill. What about people who can't even pass?
I am about 1000% with you on that. I mean, my sister's husband lost the use of his dominant hand from a surgical infection a couple months ago (he's a chef!) and they're drowning in medical bills. You can't life-hack your way out of all that. I guess it's part of the chronic problem of so many stories being told by people who don't quite get what kinds of challenges real people face in everyday life.
I so feel all of this: "...and to wonder if I should get my seed potatoes going or if we’ll have another blast of winter. And if I’m doing the right things, and what parts of my life I’ve wasted, and if I have time for a walk before making dinner, and how much choice I, or you, have in any of it, and what our responsibilities are to ourselves, our communities, and the world." When I sit to watch what's happening in the yard, the race of similar thoughts always begins spinning.
I also tire so much of the drumbeat of a belief in "progress"--and exactly because, as you say, who's "we" is really being referenced? It's disingenuous and wearying. And the tech bros who continue to demand control of our attention, while also turning an insincere blind eye to how that attention might be abused by hate speech for those who are more marginalized in society, etc. is maddening. That feeling of being controlled without choice--oof, yes. Having a hard time balancing needs with desires for integrity, kindness, and justice. How to work in these systems and yet refuse to continue in the same ways that have been handed down. It's draining and I so try to avoid falling into feelings of helplessness, but it's real. A walk outdoors, a way to refuse by giving our attention to the birds and their song, the future larches waiting patiently is vital. We have to keep moving towards that which calls to us, not that which would beg and control how we move through this life. Grateful as always to read your writing. 💜
And I for yours! Maybe with all of our efforts, erosion at what's considered accepted truth will begin to show its effects. In the meantime, we just keep trying to figure out how to nurture ourselves as well as everyone else.
A clearly articulated, qualmless, yet graceful "No" may go a long way towards avoiding some of the "collisions" of life like a firm tap on an automobile horn. But going for a walk in the woods and fields, as your essays demonstrate, has other rewards.
"Which meant that, while I didn’t have time for a long walk, I also didn’t have time to not go on a long walk when it was offered." Nia, this essay resonated with me in ways "TNTC," "too numerous to count." I hope the food poisoning has abated and that you're back to feeling OK, and thanks as always.
"Solvitur ambulando" covers it every time, doesn't it? Thank you, as always, truly, and yes! It did finally. Took about five days to be able to eat much besides Saltines, but I made it out. I've only had food poisoning 4 or 5 times and it is never fun.
Speaking of the ceaseless creep of the online, I saw that Bed Bath and Beyond is closing its brick and mortar stores and blaming online retail for it. I don't even go to BBB that much, but it feels like this is just another loss of opportunity to be able to go somewhere to touch, feel, inspect things we want to buy and use in our daily lives. I don't like shopping online, I like holding things in my hands to see if they are good. That choice is being taken from us by the corporations who want us to just buy things and not know ahead of time if what we're buying is crap or not.
I didn't even see that news until after I read your note here. Feel exactly the same way. I've never gone there that much, but I do buy a pillow once in a while! And that is one of the many, many things I'd rather not buy online. The experience of receiving crap in the mail is all too common.
There was an article about gentrification in Montana that a friend sent me a little while ago and it quoted someone in my town saying, "You can buy an $8,000 dress here* but not a pair of underwear" and as my friend said, that really nailed it. Not the online vs. offline thing, but it is a factor. I used to buy all my kids' basic clothes at the local Target but they stopped carrying a lot of it and the store is chronically a disaster, and I end up having to buy the things like underwear and socks online. Not that a big box store like Target or BBB is really what we want, but it's still physically there where you can buy physical things from people who actually live here.
*(This is true. There are a lot of sequins involved. The store and fashion line are owned by a friend of mine from high school. Long story.)
It feels like an assault on the middle class to take places that sell "not amazing, but pretty good" stuff and eliminate them, leaving only Dollar General and luxury goods stores. I have a driving cap I bought at Target probably 15 years ago and it's well made and durable. That kind of product doesn't exist in a Target clothing section anymore.
In the online side of things, it's like we're being subjected to some kind of bizzaro Sears and Roebuck catalog. You have unlimited options now, and you have no idea if you're going to get anything good. It sucks!
It does suck! And I hate things like having to replace an entire toaster because some tiny part fizzled out, and it's an easy part to replace, but they've made it so you can't get inside the thing. And at the same time my spouse told me the other day that even good shoes are only made now to last 200 miles at best. I walk 1000 miles a year! I can't buy 5 pairs of shoes a year. (Granted, about 6 months of the year I'm living in snow boots, and my last pair lasted me 18 years, so I shouldn't complain too much. But the last pair of shoes I got literally started coming apart in less than 3 months.)
It's something of an assault and also that freaking lack of choice that drives me nuts. Some people love replacing their clothes and so on every season or year. But not all of us do! Some of us just want a pair of jeans that last.
Sears and Roebuck catalog, wow does that bring back memories. I used to browse that at my grandmother's house.
Same, as I'm sure you know! (And I should have said anti-imperialist, too.) For this project, whatever the hell it is I'm doing, I feel like I have to read some of it in a "know thine enemy" way, but even that's feeling more and more like a waste of time that I don't have.
Walking is the best therapy for all my ills. Also bump-starts the imagination. I often walk accompanied by my novel characters, who dance their lives out in my head while I walk and breathe and look around.
That is the best way to spend time with characters, isn't it? Aside from spending time with them on the page when they keep trying to tell you what to do. 😅 Nothing helps my writing more than walking ...
I almost lost my marbles when I got my new phone this year and it enabled notifications for EVERY SINGLE APP! And, of course, it wasn't a simple matter to turn them off. Each was hidden in some different place. By the end I was pretty much murderous with rage.
What a nightmare! And that is really frustrating, that they're hidden in different places. My phone has been acting up a lot the past several months and I really, REALLY do not want to have to go through all the kerfuffle of a new one again. It was a revelation when I learned years ago that you could turn off all those notifications. And a relief. (I'd turn my phone fully off more often, but am the main contact for the school if one of my kids gets sick or hurt or loathes gym class enough that day to need to come home.)
I wish more people in this planet saw the world like you do kind Antonia. Your fierce compassion burns like a dried pine wood in wildfire. I feel it too, the urgency to handle the crisis of loss that we as a collective are enforcing on the others who are less resourceful. The disparity is stark, the indifference apparent- sometimes I feel helplessness of it all lurking like shadows, even shouting about the stories that should hopefully teach us our true nature that I usually do in Berkana doesn’t seem to help me relieve from the guilt of participation in the same systems designed to keep the world rooted in injustice, in inequitable sharing of wealth and resources. But I think we should do what we do best - write, walk, talk, participate in conversations to change things- that’s what writers have done since the beginning of time - to keep records of the world and try to bend it to our visions of fairness with mere words.
Thank you for this space, things that you talk about are indispensable. 💜🌼
I feel the same way about your writing and responses to others' work, Swarnali, and you always express it better than I can! The "crisis of loss," the helplessness "lurking in the shadows," the "guilt of participation," but also that "that's what writers have done since the beginning of time - to keep records of the world and try to bend it to our visions of fairness." Your own words, though, are powerful and not mere at all. Indispensable on your own! 🧡🧡🧡
Apr 24, 2023·edited Apr 24, 2023Liked by Antonia Malchik
I am too tired this evening to leave a very thoughtful comment (a long telephone conversation with one of my daughters that lasted into the wee hours of the morning and was worth every moment); but if I may, here are a few items:
The kind of progress that Linklater seems to celebrate (or at least apologize for), is, among other things: a progress that presupposes human superiority, human happiness as the greatest good in the cosmos, human ownership (dominion) of nature, a planet of infinite abundance, and a planet of infinite resilience. If there were such a fiendish beast as Satan (There isn’t. Satan is a mere metaphor for the evil that dwells like a wolf on a leash within every human soul), he could contrive no more effective way to wreak his havoc than to plant these cancerous lies into the minds of humans.
Not sure I’m tracking on the issue of Substack notifications.
I do a lot of self-talk, and just about every time I go for a walk I tell myself at some point during the trek: “This was an excellent decision, Kenneth!"
On the subject of dusting I am reminded of the poem ‘Dust if you must' by Rose Milligan:
“Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?
Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, and books to read;
Friends to cherish, and life to lead.
Dust if you must, but the world's out there
With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;
I have a lot of conversations with my 80-year-old self that I almost wrote about a couple weeks ago and probably still will. She has great advice that almost always includes “Go for the walk.” (Also “eat the peaches;” she appreciates the true pleasures of life.)
If you haven’t heard about the notifications, then no need to go look! It’s just a bit of a headache. Long talks with a daughter are much more rewarding and necessary.
Yes, you are right at Linklater, etc. It does seem to come down to that. I think Ghosh was getting at that from a slightly different perspective in “Nutmeg’s Curse,” too, that there are far more beings with agency as well as needs in this world and in worlds we can’t see, and human supremacy assumes—indeed it *must* assume—that that agency and intelligence and storytelling doesn’t exist. (I’m going to try to think of another metaphor than wolf for the tendency to evil in the human soul. We like wolves! But otherwise, yes.)
Sadly, I grew up in a household that pretty much tipped over into hoarding, but where housework expectations were also very strict. I would like to ignore the dusting and have found myself incapable of it. So my strategy is to minimize it by keeping the clutter to a minimum. And when I can’t, I go for another walk!
There is nothing good about clutter that I can think of, and very little wrong in cleanliness. Perhaps I am merely happy to have found a poem to excuse my own dysfunction.
You are so right about the wolf metaphor. Thank you. Our underlying values and prejudices are so deeply embedded in our language and our stories that they oftentimes seem invisible. Of course, that's when they work their greatest mischief.
The wolf is a beautiful and noble creature. I borrowed that metaphor from the late theologian, Karl Barth.
My allergy to clutter and need to dust it is definitely dysfunction. ;) I think if it weren't, it wouldn't show up in my dreams so tiresomely often. You are clear!
I figured you were a wolf friend. That relationship is always an interesting one to me. It's my daughter who really taught me to look at wolves. I liked them well enough before, but didn't *see* them until she started to show me. There's an animated kids' movie called Wolfwalkers she loves that takes place in Ireland at the time of Thomas Cromwell, 1600s. It's really interesting to watch because there is a lot of unstated comment about colonialism, control of nature, and oppression of women among the efforts to control wolves. I'm not even sure it's intentional on the part of the people who made the movie but it might be. I suspect that since it's Cromwell--who fought an horrific and oppressive war to reconquer Ireland for England--it probably is.
I have found myself putting a length warming on my comments recently and it is mostly because Substack Notes is driving me toward some uncomfortable truths. Skip this comment unless you have the time.
It is a wonderful thing that your Newsletter often emerges from a walk. Your photos often reinforce why you prioritize the walk and its effect on you. I have been affected in the most unexpected way by the class I am taking that I spoke offline with you about. The breadth of the program has now reached across 40 countries. While the topic seems to be climate and the systems that govern our lives, the powerful germ of an idea it proffers is the power of a single thought.
Rather than dismissing our thoughts and thinking "well that can never happen", it is useful to step back and REALIZE EVERYTHING that has EVER happened on this rock started with a SINGULAR IDEA in one person's consciousness. While we cannot trace key moments in this fashion, the thought experiment tells us it must SURELY be correct. Therefore, whatever the challenge we imagine, no matter how far-reaching and perhaps unlikely, the new reality we dream of starts with a thought. This is why when you write of "why can't things be different", my belief is they can and this can only emerge from someone's thought -- yours in this Newsletter may be that very thought needed to launch a new approach. It is one of the reasons I always consider On the Commons time well spent.
I have also been engaging my mind over the last ten days or so over Substack Notes. Writing for me was an unrealized dream until nearly 60. I cannot count patent applications, training materials or chapters describing the re-engineering of a workplace. Such writing was procedural. While it demanded precision, care and thoughtfulness, a creative spark and even inspiration was lacking. When I started the journey to write on Substack, it was fundamentally for me and a dream of where it might lead.
I have no regrets on arriving here. The unique premise to be a space of low friction for writers and a safe and exciting place for readers to discover new writing was a wonderful thing. When the product "matured" and the founders simply could not resist making phone apps to expand the reach, that seemed reasonable. NONE of this was a demand, but merely an option to reduce the friction for the writer and the reader -- bravo. Next, it was the launch of CHAT. This seeming extension of long-form writing seemed unusual to me but, to the credit of the Substack Team, it was OPTIONAL and did not demand our consciousness if we just opted out.
The launch of Substack NOTES recently is now another new innovation. While I think it unfair to call it a Twitter clone, it does have some elements in common. A hierarchical view of you and the greater world on Substack seems irresistible as the next step. For the first time, however, a significant change is presented that is MANDATORY with no opt-out. Sure, you can "just not use it" and meticulously block its reach. Of course its structure is managed by Substack, and they have been open in describing their intent to change and tune it. Whether controlling your circles or whatever, our social network is the data on offer. For me, this is quite different than the writer-reader and their subscription relationship.
You often write, including today, lamenting the lack of power in a relationship and I think that applies to the discussion. What, exactly are our options and how do we coexist with a new source of continuously increasing volume of MUZAK on our Substack channel. I guess we get used to it? I guess we remain hopeful that Substack will make sound choices on our behalf and make this instance of Social Media different than what preceded it by some careful magic thinking. While not specifically social media, the hierarchy that connects us all has many applications to our lives as revealed by Edward Snowden. A hop-based hierarchy is the commonality to all of these things. The implications of the number theory that underlies it means a lot of unintended chaff in the casual diagram that supposedly connects everyone in the world to Kevin Bacon in 6 steps.
I am exploring how to mitigate the impact of Substack Notes on me. What is of greater concern to me is the continued blossoming of my writing. I would have never tried to explore this sort of thing on Twitter as I didn't want to intermingle inane "I agree" or curated images of my restaurant burger in order to explore a connection with readers. I am not sure there are current options to Substack but am already exploring Mighty as a platform option. The people I have met on Substack (and here I speak of writers) has been the durable reason it made sense. I appreciated some connection with readers also but I have never wished to bait them with a hook to get them to read. That is the paradigm I see with Substack Notes.
Time is our finite resource and a social media intermediary does not feel right for what I seek from Substack. On a disciplined basis, I commit a certain amount of time to my Substack efforts. Ideation, Drafting, Publishing, Interacting, and Reading other Newsletters were the elements I need to time-split. We marvel at each new innovation in our digital world. However, our most precious commodity is time and a new place (Notes) to steal from our current Substack activities is the immediate source for time spent on Notes. Sure we can pull away from other things in our lives like family, friends, activities but assuming you are happy with your current allotments, this new innovation will simply steal time for other Substack efforts. That doesn't sound better to me.
I appreciate all of this, Mark, and do particularly like the idea of everything emerging from one person’s thought. I guess that’s part of what I think about when I talk about the necessity of imagining things differently. It seems hard to enact it if we insist it can’t be imagined—but it can!
That framing of stealing time from other things for other Substack efforts is a very good point. No matter the argument for how it’s necessary to contribute to one’s wider efforts, there is a lot of other things we each give up to give our attention to someone else’s priority.
I’ve appreciated your own writing and thoughts on this subject! And I also personally find that engaging in the shorter bursts of social media erodes my writing. I can’t do them both, and only one makes me feel both fulfilled and like I might be contributing something to the world. (Still love the restaurant burger/lunch example you gave in your newsletter.)
Apr 24, 2023·edited Apr 24, 2023Liked by Antonia Malchik
My sense (and fear) of what a Social Media component means, even in these early days of Notes is my observation that my latest, unscheduled post was heartfelt and pretty well written. It is likely to end up with about the lowest engagement in a very long time for a post. I am unwilling to play the Social Media game as it will only be an impediment to becoming a better writer. It is discouraging to see less engagement and I expect that to become a trend. I have two posts in the can and will decide what to do going forward. More importantly, I expect the most active responders ala Twitter to just become louder.
I'm waiting to see how it shakes out. I think Notes is drawing a lot of attention and energy, and suspect that many people will drop it after a while because it takes away from exactly what you're talking about and what attracted people to Substack in the first place (longer writing and thinking, lack of noise). But I'm not sure enough people will drop it and I imagine everyone will see a reduction in reads and comments on their regular newsletters. Social media is just too easy, and Substack has created this situation by making their social media seamless with already established networks as well.
I agree Antonia. What I have started to notice is what you describe. The action of reading your essay and reader commenting upon its impact is very different than liking the photograph you purposefully include, and using it for your own means for promotion. One is engaging and the other is redirecting. More importantly, one is done outside of the realm of the writing.
Thoughtful and lovely post as always. I love the rhythm of your prose. Brings me a similar peace & enjoyment as walking in nature :)
Thank you so much, Mia!
At long last, I'm catching up with overdue reading. Lots to unpack here, but I'm afraid I've only got in me now just enough fortitude to offer my gratitude, as always, for your ideas and honesty and perspective, and, of course, for reminding me that "a walk is never a wrong answer."
Really that's all that ever needs saying, isn't it? Despite my tendency to spill out a couple thousand words when those 7 will usually do!
🤣
The birds singing in the voice track is so relaxing. Nature walks are something I can't afford at this time, but how I miss them. The views you show are so beautiful that I have a wild desire to visit them. Those mountains - how fascinating they are!
I'm so glad they bring something to you! It's a pretty amazing place to live, so it's good to share it in whatever way I can. 💚
So glad to catch up with your writing. I also enjoyed Ghosh’s “Great Derangement,” and the take-away from that is inspiring my current fiction writing. We’ll see where that goes. I’ve just gotten into Dougald Hine’s new book, “At Work in the Ruins,” on the insistence of a friend. He pulls together many threads I’ve been following for a while, with a gentle but firm resistance to the overly rational, technocratic ways that we talk about the predicaments we’re in. So far, I’m hooked.
That sounds like a great inspiration! It seems like that was part of his intention with that book, to remind us all that art has a purpose and the world needs us to start fulfilling it. Glad you're doing that.
I should probably read Hine's book. I've been wary of the Dark Mountain Project crew since Paul Kingsnorth went so right-wing, but Hine doesn't seem to have followed him fully down that road. And he's doing things with Bayo Akomolafe, whom I've really liked whenever I hear him talk!
I hear you. I felt a real sense of belonging with the Dark Mountain crowd for years, then found other communities that fed me. Dougald's book has a gentle, kind, searching tone, which is just right for me right now. Asking a lot of questions and leaning into humility. What can we know, really? (that sort of thing)
Yes, it was through Dougald that I found the consortium, “Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures.” Highly recommend checking out their work.
Thank you!
Discussing this article w/ my students today: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/preparing-end-world-we-know-it/
That’s a really good read, thank you. So much to think about here, and I particularly appreciate the points about difficulty with translation.
Yes, and, especially for students, the challenge to what we call education.
That sounds very reassuring! I really resonated with Dark Mountain, too. I think I still do, it was just Kingsnorth who made me wary. It's hard to know which direction people will veer. And I liked Kingsnorth so much for a long time! Made me really question my own judgment. But Dougald's book sounds like a good thing to be reading now. I think I might give it a try.
Two lines I loved here:
"a volunteer commitment that was looming over me like a small, burning galaxy that wants me to feel the immensity of its mass. "
"There’s something insidious about others’ priorities being intentionally crashed into our time and attention from every angle possible, though the world is full of choices being imposed on those who have little say."
To be honest, AI intrusion and not having a choice about that bothers me more than things like cars, even if car culture has been more devastating to environment and community. At least with cars I can understand the immediate short-term benefits, and the material aspect of travel magnifies our dependencies; it's embedded in our physical infrastructure and deepest ways of life. And we had many opportunities to shift course along the way. But with AI, the sheer rapidity of the transformation, the default (shrug shrug) "welcome to the new normal" as if it must be our automatic destiny, the paternalistic nudging of notifications, the sheer banality of it 99% of it - I can't imagine a world dominated by this stuff that is *better.* Word processing was cool, laptops are cool, online blogging is cool, having the option of e-books and Zoom is cool, storable MP3s is cool (even though it kind of killed music culture), Wikipedia and being able to Google is cool. OK, I'm good now!
But of course, that's presumptuous and self-centered of me to assume we get to "choose." It only looks like a choice at the very beginning. One of the new defining features of our hyperconnected world seems to be that no new technology or shared social practice is really a choice anymore, unless we *make* it a choice deliberately and assertively as a statement of values (not just "choice"). And even these principled statements, like dropping off social media, tend to be made at the personal and not collective level.
I'm sure you've mentioned her before, but I imagine you would really like that new Jenny Odell book, "Saving Time."
Would the sci-fi reading circle be available to follow for those on here who can't use the app? Totally fine if no (it's a lot of extra work to double-post here for so little participation); just curious.
"with AI, the sheer rapidity of the transformation, the default (shrug shrug "welcome to the new normal" as if it must be our automatic destiny, the paternalistic nudging of notifications, the sheer banality of it 99% of it" -- I think it's the shrug acceptance that I find so ... creepy, I guess. With car-centric culture, people fought the dominance of cars on roads really hard in the early 1900s. That history's been buried but it did happen. And enclosures of the commons in land -- there were rebellions and bloody revolts and massive fights over the privatization of land in Britain over centuries. Again, that history is often buried, but at least it happened. But with AI, there seems to be very little pushback. Maybe because there's little understanding of what the changes actually are? I feel this strongly with data ownership. That's why I made it a chapter in my book, because I really don't think most people understand what the impact of all this will be on all of us.
You've reminded me of something Yuval Noah Harari said once in an interview, which is that even if we individually choose to opt out of these things, we're still swimming in a world shaped by them. We can't escape that.
You're the third person who's recommended "Saving Time" to me! I read Odell's first book, though I wasn't super into it (I have trouble engaging with books that examine subjects through art or artists, if that makes any sense), and I think I'm going to have to pick up this one.
That's a good question re the reading circle. I've been trying to think of how to connect it here. I don't think I'll do separate posts for the readings. It is a lot of work, but it's more that responding to fiction in this way is very different than the research on land ownership. So tell me what you think -- I've been thinking of just sharing what the current reading selection is (many of them are free and online, like the current one: https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/folding-beijing-2/) and maybe integrating thoughts about it into some of these posts, open to everyone.
That's completely understandable about not doing separate posts for the sci-fi, and I'd feel badly if you did that for just a few people (especially if I end up not participating). I actually haven't read any sci-fi since I was much younger, so I'm kind of drawn by the idea even if I probably won't keep up. If people *did* read along and they wanted to post stray thoughts about the reading themselves here, maybe that's one compromise?
Yes, the shrug acceptance creep is creepy. But sometimes I get the opposite impression, too: that most people don't really want or like this stuff individually and wish it would just go away, but it all has so much momentum it's impossible not to participate and at some point you have to just lean in. So in that sense I wonder if AI is even *less* welcomed overall yet we feel no agency to do anything about it. And w-respect to issues like data ownership, there is such a big split in terms of awareness: tons of discussion and analysis in some academic and legal circles, but then relative lack of understanding if you're not in those fields.
I wasn't into the other Odell book either (even though I liked the concept), but this one seems like it might be better. I only read a little bit so far, though.
I don't mind doing the posts, honestly. It's a lot of work but does help clarify my thinking! But when I started reading the first sci-fi short story, I realized that approach wasn't going to work. It's hard to comment on fiction in pieces without veering into literary criticism (at least for me), which is a realm I dislike a lot. So my thought is that I'll integrate the readings more naturally into posts like this one, and we can talk about it that way. Since a lot of the stories are online and fun to read (unlike a lot of the land ownership nonfiction), discussion might come more naturally. Maybe? I don't know, it'll be an experiment! Again!
I love science fiction, so my own thoughts about its importance are probably going to make their way into some of it, too. And I'd love to hear others' thoughts. I read a lot of it when I was young, and then didn't for many, many years until a local bookseller turned me onto N.K. Jemisin. Then I realized that sci fi and speculative fiction have been undergoing a revolution that I completely missed and I think it's so much better now. There is a lot out there!
Your thoughts on AI and data are really on point. Like not just a shrug but a feeling of helplessness. Which I get. I feel that about surveillance. Like what the hell am I meant to *do* about any of it.
If you ever use Audible, there's a book on there by Dr. Ayanna Howard called "Sex, Race & Robots." It's unfortunately *only* on Audible. Ayanna's one of the only Black women roboticists in the world and she understands all of this stuff at such a deep level. She sees all the risks and can articulate them really well, and at the same time really loves tech (she worked on the Mars Rover).
Okay, well, if you weren't into Odell's first book but are liking this one, then I'm sold on it. I've been wary because so many people loved that first book and I didn't!
No promises about the Odell book, but it looks to be more of a deep historical and sociological dive which might appeal to you more.
This isn't so much a specific criticism of her, but I'm a little tired of these popular critiques of our fast-paced productivity society that still seem targeted at functional, relatively successful people who *have* managed to fit into that society but are just miserable and can't get off the treadmill. What about people who can't even pass?
I am about 1000% with you on that. I mean, my sister's husband lost the use of his dominant hand from a surgical infection a couple months ago (he's a chef!) and they're drowning in medical bills. You can't life-hack your way out of all that. I guess it's part of the chronic problem of so many stories being told by people who don't quite get what kinds of challenges real people face in everyday life.
Thanks for another beautiful and heartfelt column, I so love to read and hear this.
"All things are Buddhist teachings; all things are liberating. Walking, standing, sitting, all are liberating acts." - Ma-tsu
Best (and hugs)
Paul
Great quote, you gave me food for thought for a couple of hours. Thank you!
Thanks you very much.
Thank you, Paul! It's always good to know you're in this little world.
Thanks, Nia. You have such a wonderful way with words, love it! Hugs, Paul
Super kind of you, Paul, thank you!
I so feel all of this: "...and to wonder if I should get my seed potatoes going or if we’ll have another blast of winter. And if I’m doing the right things, and what parts of my life I’ve wasted, and if I have time for a walk before making dinner, and how much choice I, or you, have in any of it, and what our responsibilities are to ourselves, our communities, and the world." When I sit to watch what's happening in the yard, the race of similar thoughts always begins spinning.
I also tire so much of the drumbeat of a belief in "progress"--and exactly because, as you say, who's "we" is really being referenced? It's disingenuous and wearying. And the tech bros who continue to demand control of our attention, while also turning an insincere blind eye to how that attention might be abused by hate speech for those who are more marginalized in society, etc. is maddening. That feeling of being controlled without choice--oof, yes. Having a hard time balancing needs with desires for integrity, kindness, and justice. How to work in these systems and yet refuse to continue in the same ways that have been handed down. It's draining and I so try to avoid falling into feelings of helplessness, but it's real. A walk outdoors, a way to refuse by giving our attention to the birds and their song, the future larches waiting patiently is vital. We have to keep moving towards that which calls to us, not that which would beg and control how we move through this life. Grateful as always to read your writing. 💜
And I for yours! Maybe with all of our efforts, erosion at what's considered accepted truth will begin to show its effects. In the meantime, we just keep trying to figure out how to nurture ourselves as well as everyone else.
A clearly articulated, qualmless, yet graceful "No" may go a long way towards avoiding some of the "collisions" of life like a firm tap on an automobile horn. But going for a walk in the woods and fields, as your essays demonstrate, has other rewards.
Both, probably, are needed. And I suppose it's the walks in the woods that gives us some of the energy we need to maintain the "no."
"Which meant that, while I didn’t have time for a long walk, I also didn’t have time to not go on a long walk when it was offered." Nia, this essay resonated with me in ways "TNTC," "too numerous to count." I hope the food poisoning has abated and that you're back to feeling OK, and thanks as always.
Solvitur ambulando
"Solvitur ambulando" covers it every time, doesn't it? Thank you, as always, truly, and yes! It did finally. Took about five days to be able to eat much besides Saltines, but I made it out. I've only had food poisoning 4 or 5 times and it is never fun.
Speaking of the ceaseless creep of the online, I saw that Bed Bath and Beyond is closing its brick and mortar stores and blaming online retail for it. I don't even go to BBB that much, but it feels like this is just another loss of opportunity to be able to go somewhere to touch, feel, inspect things we want to buy and use in our daily lives. I don't like shopping online, I like holding things in my hands to see if they are good. That choice is being taken from us by the corporations who want us to just buy things and not know ahead of time if what we're buying is crap or not.
I didn't even see that news until after I read your note here. Feel exactly the same way. I've never gone there that much, but I do buy a pillow once in a while! And that is one of the many, many things I'd rather not buy online. The experience of receiving crap in the mail is all too common.
There was an article about gentrification in Montana that a friend sent me a little while ago and it quoted someone in my town saying, "You can buy an $8,000 dress here* but not a pair of underwear" and as my friend said, that really nailed it. Not the online vs. offline thing, but it is a factor. I used to buy all my kids' basic clothes at the local Target but they stopped carrying a lot of it and the store is chronically a disaster, and I end up having to buy the things like underwear and socks online. Not that a big box store like Target or BBB is really what we want, but it's still physically there where you can buy physical things from people who actually live here.
*(This is true. There are a lot of sequins involved. The store and fashion line are owned by a friend of mine from high school. Long story.)
It feels like an assault on the middle class to take places that sell "not amazing, but pretty good" stuff and eliminate them, leaving only Dollar General and luxury goods stores. I have a driving cap I bought at Target probably 15 years ago and it's well made and durable. That kind of product doesn't exist in a Target clothing section anymore.
In the online side of things, it's like we're being subjected to some kind of bizzaro Sears and Roebuck catalog. You have unlimited options now, and you have no idea if you're going to get anything good. It sucks!
It does suck! And I hate things like having to replace an entire toaster because some tiny part fizzled out, and it's an easy part to replace, but they've made it so you can't get inside the thing. And at the same time my spouse told me the other day that even good shoes are only made now to last 200 miles at best. I walk 1000 miles a year! I can't buy 5 pairs of shoes a year. (Granted, about 6 months of the year I'm living in snow boots, and my last pair lasted me 18 years, so I shouldn't complain too much. But the last pair of shoes I got literally started coming apart in less than 3 months.)
It's something of an assault and also that freaking lack of choice that drives me nuts. Some people love replacing their clothes and so on every season or year. But not all of us do! Some of us just want a pair of jeans that last.
Sears and Roebuck catalog, wow does that bring back memories. I used to browse that at my grandmother's house.
"Unless the writing is explicitly anti-capitalist...."
I'm finding little patience for any kind of writing about resisting, fixing, whatever that ISN'T this.
Same, as I'm sure you know! (And I should have said anti-imperialist, too.) For this project, whatever the hell it is I'm doing, I feel like I have to read some of it in a "know thine enemy" way, but even that's feeling more and more like a waste of time that I don't have.
Walking is the best therapy for all my ills. Also bump-starts the imagination. I often walk accompanied by my novel characters, who dance their lives out in my head while I walk and breathe and look around.
That is the best way to spend time with characters, isn't it? Aside from spending time with them on the page when they keep trying to tell you what to do. 😅 Nothing helps my writing more than walking ...
I almost lost my marbles when I got my new phone this year and it enabled notifications for EVERY SINGLE APP! And, of course, it wasn't a simple matter to turn them off. Each was hidden in some different place. By the end I was pretty much murderous with rage.
What a nightmare! And that is really frustrating, that they're hidden in different places. My phone has been acting up a lot the past several months and I really, REALLY do not want to have to go through all the kerfuffle of a new one again. It was a revelation when I learned years ago that you could turn off all those notifications. And a relief. (I'd turn my phone fully off more often, but am the main contact for the school if one of my kids gets sick or hurt or loathes gym class enough that day to need to come home.)
I wish more people in this planet saw the world like you do kind Antonia. Your fierce compassion burns like a dried pine wood in wildfire. I feel it too, the urgency to handle the crisis of loss that we as a collective are enforcing on the others who are less resourceful. The disparity is stark, the indifference apparent- sometimes I feel helplessness of it all lurking like shadows, even shouting about the stories that should hopefully teach us our true nature that I usually do in Berkana doesn’t seem to help me relieve from the guilt of participation in the same systems designed to keep the world rooted in injustice, in inequitable sharing of wealth and resources. But I think we should do what we do best - write, walk, talk, participate in conversations to change things- that’s what writers have done since the beginning of time - to keep records of the world and try to bend it to our visions of fairness with mere words.
Thank you for this space, things that you talk about are indispensable. 💜🌼
I feel the same way about your writing and responses to others' work, Swarnali, and you always express it better than I can! The "crisis of loss," the helplessness "lurking in the shadows," the "guilt of participation," but also that "that's what writers have done since the beginning of time - to keep records of the world and try to bend it to our visions of fairness." Your own words, though, are powerful and not mere at all. Indispensable on your own! 🧡🧡🧡
Thank you friend, you are very generous with your praise for others.
Maybe, but I'm also a terrible liar, so it's all just the truth as I see it. 😌🧡 Besides, you are, too! And with very clear vision.
🌼❤️
I am too tired this evening to leave a very thoughtful comment (a long telephone conversation with one of my daughters that lasted into the wee hours of the morning and was worth every moment); but if I may, here are a few items:
The kind of progress that Linklater seems to celebrate (or at least apologize for), is, among other things: a progress that presupposes human superiority, human happiness as the greatest good in the cosmos, human ownership (dominion) of nature, a planet of infinite abundance, and a planet of infinite resilience. If there were such a fiendish beast as Satan (There isn’t. Satan is a mere metaphor for the evil that dwells like a wolf on a leash within every human soul), he could contrive no more effective way to wreak his havoc than to plant these cancerous lies into the minds of humans.
Not sure I’m tracking on the issue of Substack notifications.
I do a lot of self-talk, and just about every time I go for a walk I tell myself at some point during the trek: “This was an excellent decision, Kenneth!"
On the subject of dusting I am reminded of the poem ‘Dust if you must' by Rose Milligan:
“Dust if you must, but wouldn't it be better
To paint a picture, or write a letter,
Bake a cake, or plant a seed;
Ponder the difference between want and need?
Dust if you must, but there's not much time,
With rivers to swim, and mountains to climb;
Music to hear, and books to read;
Friends to cherish, and life to lead.
Dust if you must, but the world's out there
With the sun in your eyes, and the wind in your hair;
A flutter of snow, a shower of rain,
This day will not come around again.
Dust if you must, but bear in mind,
Old age will come and it’s not kind.
And when you go (and go you must)
You, yourself, will make more dust.”
I have a lot of conversations with my 80-year-old self that I almost wrote about a couple weeks ago and probably still will. She has great advice that almost always includes “Go for the walk.” (Also “eat the peaches;” she appreciates the true pleasures of life.)
If you haven’t heard about the notifications, then no need to go look! It’s just a bit of a headache. Long talks with a daughter are much more rewarding and necessary.
Yes, you are right at Linklater, etc. It does seem to come down to that. I think Ghosh was getting at that from a slightly different perspective in “Nutmeg’s Curse,” too, that there are far more beings with agency as well as needs in this world and in worlds we can’t see, and human supremacy assumes—indeed it *must* assume—that that agency and intelligence and storytelling doesn’t exist. (I’m going to try to think of another metaphor than wolf for the tendency to evil in the human soul. We like wolves! But otherwise, yes.)
Sadly, I grew up in a household that pretty much tipped over into hoarding, but where housework expectations were also very strict. I would like to ignore the dusting and have found myself incapable of it. So my strategy is to minimize it by keeping the clutter to a minimum. And when I can’t, I go for another walk!
There is nothing good about clutter that I can think of, and very little wrong in cleanliness. Perhaps I am merely happy to have found a poem to excuse my own dysfunction.
You are so right about the wolf metaphor. Thank you. Our underlying values and prejudices are so deeply embedded in our language and our stories that they oftentimes seem invisible. Of course, that's when they work their greatest mischief.
The wolf is a beautiful and noble creature. I borrowed that metaphor from the late theologian, Karl Barth.
My allergy to clutter and need to dust it is definitely dysfunction. ;) I think if it weren't, it wouldn't show up in my dreams so tiresomely often. You are clear!
I figured you were a wolf friend. That relationship is always an interesting one to me. It's my daughter who really taught me to look at wolves. I liked them well enough before, but didn't *see* them until she started to show me. There's an animated kids' movie called Wolfwalkers she loves that takes place in Ireland at the time of Thomas Cromwell, 1600s. It's really interesting to watch because there is a lot of unstated comment about colonialism, control of nature, and oppression of women among the efforts to control wolves. I'm not even sure it's intentional on the part of the people who made the movie but it might be. I suspect that since it's Cromwell--who fought an horrific and oppressive war to reconquer Ireland for England--it probably is.
I have found myself putting a length warming on my comments recently and it is mostly because Substack Notes is driving me toward some uncomfortable truths. Skip this comment unless you have the time.
It is a wonderful thing that your Newsletter often emerges from a walk. Your photos often reinforce why you prioritize the walk and its effect on you. I have been affected in the most unexpected way by the class I am taking that I spoke offline with you about. The breadth of the program has now reached across 40 countries. While the topic seems to be climate and the systems that govern our lives, the powerful germ of an idea it proffers is the power of a single thought.
Rather than dismissing our thoughts and thinking "well that can never happen", it is useful to step back and REALIZE EVERYTHING that has EVER happened on this rock started with a SINGULAR IDEA in one person's consciousness. While we cannot trace key moments in this fashion, the thought experiment tells us it must SURELY be correct. Therefore, whatever the challenge we imagine, no matter how far-reaching and perhaps unlikely, the new reality we dream of starts with a thought. This is why when you write of "why can't things be different", my belief is they can and this can only emerge from someone's thought -- yours in this Newsletter may be that very thought needed to launch a new approach. It is one of the reasons I always consider On the Commons time well spent.
I have also been engaging my mind over the last ten days or so over Substack Notes. Writing for me was an unrealized dream until nearly 60. I cannot count patent applications, training materials or chapters describing the re-engineering of a workplace. Such writing was procedural. While it demanded precision, care and thoughtfulness, a creative spark and even inspiration was lacking. When I started the journey to write on Substack, it was fundamentally for me and a dream of where it might lead.
I have no regrets on arriving here. The unique premise to be a space of low friction for writers and a safe and exciting place for readers to discover new writing was a wonderful thing. When the product "matured" and the founders simply could not resist making phone apps to expand the reach, that seemed reasonable. NONE of this was a demand, but merely an option to reduce the friction for the writer and the reader -- bravo. Next, it was the launch of CHAT. This seeming extension of long-form writing seemed unusual to me but, to the credit of the Substack Team, it was OPTIONAL and did not demand our consciousness if we just opted out.
The launch of Substack NOTES recently is now another new innovation. While I think it unfair to call it a Twitter clone, it does have some elements in common. A hierarchical view of you and the greater world on Substack seems irresistible as the next step. For the first time, however, a significant change is presented that is MANDATORY with no opt-out. Sure, you can "just not use it" and meticulously block its reach. Of course its structure is managed by Substack, and they have been open in describing their intent to change and tune it. Whether controlling your circles or whatever, our social network is the data on offer. For me, this is quite different than the writer-reader and their subscription relationship.
You often write, including today, lamenting the lack of power in a relationship and I think that applies to the discussion. What, exactly are our options and how do we coexist with a new source of continuously increasing volume of MUZAK on our Substack channel. I guess we get used to it? I guess we remain hopeful that Substack will make sound choices on our behalf and make this instance of Social Media different than what preceded it by some careful magic thinking. While not specifically social media, the hierarchy that connects us all has many applications to our lives as revealed by Edward Snowden. A hop-based hierarchy is the commonality to all of these things. The implications of the number theory that underlies it means a lot of unintended chaff in the casual diagram that supposedly connects everyone in the world to Kevin Bacon in 6 steps.
I am exploring how to mitigate the impact of Substack Notes on me. What is of greater concern to me is the continued blossoming of my writing. I would have never tried to explore this sort of thing on Twitter as I didn't want to intermingle inane "I agree" or curated images of my restaurant burger in order to explore a connection with readers. I am not sure there are current options to Substack but am already exploring Mighty as a platform option. The people I have met on Substack (and here I speak of writers) has been the durable reason it made sense. I appreciated some connection with readers also but I have never wished to bait them with a hook to get them to read. That is the paradigm I see with Substack Notes.
Time is our finite resource and a social media intermediary does not feel right for what I seek from Substack. On a disciplined basis, I commit a certain amount of time to my Substack efforts. Ideation, Drafting, Publishing, Interacting, and Reading other Newsletters were the elements I need to time-split. We marvel at each new innovation in our digital world. However, our most precious commodity is time and a new place (Notes) to steal from our current Substack activities is the immediate source for time spent on Notes. Sure we can pull away from other things in our lives like family, friends, activities but assuming you are happy with your current allotments, this new innovation will simply steal time for other Substack efforts. That doesn't sound better to me.
I appreciate all of this, Mark, and do particularly like the idea of everything emerging from one person’s thought. I guess that’s part of what I think about when I talk about the necessity of imagining things differently. It seems hard to enact it if we insist it can’t be imagined—but it can!
That framing of stealing time from other things for other Substack efforts is a very good point. No matter the argument for how it’s necessary to contribute to one’s wider efforts, there is a lot of other things we each give up to give our attention to someone else’s priority.
I’ve appreciated your own writing and thoughts on this subject! And I also personally find that engaging in the shorter bursts of social media erodes my writing. I can’t do them both, and only one makes me feel both fulfilled and like I might be contributing something to the world. (Still love the restaurant burger/lunch example you gave in your newsletter.)
My sense (and fear) of what a Social Media component means, even in these early days of Notes is my observation that my latest, unscheduled post was heartfelt and pretty well written. It is likely to end up with about the lowest engagement in a very long time for a post. I am unwilling to play the Social Media game as it will only be an impediment to becoming a better writer. It is discouraging to see less engagement and I expect that to become a trend. I have two posts in the can and will decide what to do going forward. More importantly, I expect the most active responders ala Twitter to just become louder.
I'm waiting to see how it shakes out. I think Notes is drawing a lot of attention and energy, and suspect that many people will drop it after a while because it takes away from exactly what you're talking about and what attracted people to Substack in the first place (longer writing and thinking, lack of noise). But I'm not sure enough people will drop it and I imagine everyone will see a reduction in reads and comments on their regular newsletters. Social media is just too easy, and Substack has created this situation by making their social media seamless with already established networks as well.
I agree Antonia. What I have started to notice is what you describe. The action of reading your essay and reader commenting upon its impact is very different than liking the photograph you purposefully include, and using it for your own means for promotion. One is engaging and the other is redirecting. More importantly, one is done outside of the realm of the writing.
Very good points. I appreciate that way of looking at it.