[Belgrade, 8/8/20] Seeing the title, you’re bound to think I’ll describe or discuss some hellish or dystopian loving, but no, Eric Blair was one hell of a lover, among the very best. First of, you can’t love anything, a person, city, dog, poem, painting or plant, if you can’t grasp its distinctiveness, by paying very close attention, often over time.
Hi Attila, Gigolo Joe, JustPlainBill and Troy Skaggs,
Many thanks for your comments. It's heartbreaking to read about Troy's isolation, but even before Covid, Americans were lonely enough. Kunstler talks about how badly laid out American cities and towns are, with almost no spaces for casual interactions or just loitering, so one can watch others without having to buy anything. In many parts of New Jersey, the parking lot of the local Wawa convenience store has become a de facto town square. A woman told me she wouldn't even think of moving anywhere without a Wawa nearby! There are walking clubs that meet in shopping malls, but you have to drive there, then walk across a vast parking lot just to enter a charmless space filled with chain stores.
That said, downtown Windhoek, Namibia is dominated by a shopping mall! On every sidewalk, though, there are people selling produce or merchandises, with many merchants crowding one entrance of the shopping mall itself. This morning, I walked downtown to buy grocery but also to get out of my space and head. With a jelly donut and large cappuccino that cost $1.62 altogether, I sat on a concrete bench at the corner of Fidel Castro and Ndemufayo (the last king of the Oukwanyama) to watch cars and people pass by.
Also downtown this morning, I talked to two strangers about Covid "vaccines," and here, this topic hasn't split people into warring camps ready to tear into each other. Agreeing with me that these "vaccines" are toxic, they were delighted to hear my appreciation of Namibian normality and common sense. One man laughed out loud to hear that in countries like Germany, an "unvaccinated" person can't enter a restaurant, cafe or many stores. What absurdity! He told me that many Namibian radio personalities tell their audiences to stay far away from Covid jabs, so there you have it, there's more freedom of speech here than in the West!
I read "The Road to Wigan Pier" just last year, and remember that last quote of yours above, particularly: "An educated man can put up with enforced idleness, which is one of the worst evils of poverty. But a man like Paddy, with no means of filling up time, is as miserable out of work as a dog on the chain. "
And contemplating the brave new world of the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" (aka "The Great Reset"), where 80% of the jobs will be gone and all those former workers will instead receive some kind of Universal Basic Income, I wondered how those 80% will be spending their time. What aspirations they will have, or more correctly, what aspirations will they be ABLE to have?
And then I remembered that Paddy didn't have Netflix, video games, and social media......
I am thankful for the existence of every essayist with the courage to just call it as seen and to hell with the consequences. This courage is contagious and the role is more important than ever. Thanks for staying on course.
Greetings from Budapest. I enjoy every article you write. For me it is a special moment when I can read your stories. I prepare a coffee and sit down on the bed to slowly enjoy every word. You will never know how much joy and human connection you create with your writing. You bring together the joys and tragedies of real life in a mozaic of vibrant colours. Even the most mundane rituals in life are beautiful. Keep on truckin! Life is full of surprises From a Canadian / Hungarian living in Hungary.
Your prose is engrossing, and you put together a collection of quotes to make your point quite nicely. Thanks Mr. Linh. I've never read the pieces quoted, but funnily enough I have contemplated the idea of humanity's class and culture-spanning "common denominator" (I swear if blindfolded, I could identify the part of Phnom Penh I was in by the smell, though it consisted mostly of burnt hair.) Despite the close proximity and lack of "sanitary convenience" I found SE Asians to be the the most fastidiously clean people on earth. At the other end, you have the "water shy" tribe throwing tantrums when the maid forgets to put rose petals in the bidet.
Miles Mathis has a different take on Jack London. "Finding London connected to major wealth reminds us of all the others we have recently outed in the same way, most of them—like London—sold to us as poor or middle class. Think John Reed, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Samuel Parrish, Karl Marx, Jack Kerouac, and just about every other famous person we have researched. They are always promoted as being part of some Lost or Beat Generation, down-and-out and flying by their bootstraps, creating art or literature from some bohemian flat in the white ghettoes, but with a little digging we find just the opposite is true: they are from millionaire and often billionaire families, tied to the most prominent fascist families in the country, and the art they claimed to have created turns out to be the committee creation of bunch of hired hacks in Intelligence, manufactured as propaganda and then sugar-coated to feed to the masses." http://mileswmathis.com/london.pdf
You may scoff at the reference to the Salem witch trials, but it is actually much more relevant than is readily apparent. http://mileswmathis.com/salem.pdf
Not to negate the value of Orwell's work for rhetorical purposes, I'll save the subject of Mr. Eric Arthur B͟l͟a͟i͟r for another time.
Hi Attila, Gigolo Joe, JustPlainBill and Troy Skaggs,
Many thanks for your comments. It's heartbreaking to read about Troy's isolation, but even before Covid, Americans were lonely enough. Kunstler talks about how badly laid out American cities and towns are, with almost no spaces for casual interactions or just loitering, so one can watch others without having to buy anything. In many parts of New Jersey, the parking lot of the local Wawa convenience store has become a de facto town square. A woman told me she wouldn't even think of moving anywhere without a Wawa nearby! There are walking clubs that meet in shopping malls, but you have to drive there, then walk across a vast parking lot just to enter a charmless space filled with chain stores.
That said, downtown Windhoek, Namibia is dominated by a shopping mall! On every sidewalk, though, there are people selling produce or merchandises, with many merchants crowding one entrance of the shopping mall itself. This morning, I walked downtown to buy grocery but also to get out of my space and head. With a jelly donut and large cappuccino that cost $1.62 altogether, I sat on a concrete bench at the corner of Fidel Castro and Ndemufayo (the last king of the Oukwanyama) to watch cars and people pass by.
Also downtown this morning, I talked to two strangers about Covid "vaccines," and here, this topic hasn't split people into warring camps ready to tear into each other. Agreeing with me that these "vaccines" are toxic, they were delighted to hear my appreciation of Namibian normality and common sense. One man laughed out loud to hear that in countries like Germany, an "unvaccinated" person can't enter a restaurant, cafe or many stores. What absurdity! He told me that many Namibian radio personalities tell their audiences to stay far away from Covid jabs, so there you have it, there's more freedom of speech here than in the West!
Linh
I read "The Road to Wigan Pier" just last year, and remember that last quote of yours above, particularly: "An educated man can put up with enforced idleness, which is one of the worst evils of poverty. But a man like Paddy, with no means of filling up time, is as miserable out of work as a dog on the chain. "
And contemplating the brave new world of the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" (aka "The Great Reset"), where 80% of the jobs will be gone and all those former workers will instead receive some kind of Universal Basic Income, I wondered how those 80% will be spending their time. What aspirations they will have, or more correctly, what aspirations will they be ABLE to have?
And then I remembered that Paddy didn't have Netflix, video games, and social media......
I am thankful for the existence of every essayist with the courage to just call it as seen and to hell with the consequences. This courage is contagious and the role is more important than ever. Thanks for staying on course.
"Are we just shit?"
No.
They are! ;)
Linh Dinh Calling
Greetings from Budapest. I enjoy every article you write. For me it is a special moment when I can read your stories. I prepare a coffee and sit down on the bed to slowly enjoy every word. You will never know how much joy and human connection you create with your writing. You bring together the joys and tragedies of real life in a mozaic of vibrant colours. Even the most mundane rituals in life are beautiful. Keep on truckin! Life is full of surprises From a Canadian / Hungarian living in Hungary.
Your prose is engrossing, and you put together a collection of quotes to make your point quite nicely. Thanks Mr. Linh. I've never read the pieces quoted, but funnily enough I have contemplated the idea of humanity's class and culture-spanning "common denominator" (I swear if blindfolded, I could identify the part of Phnom Penh I was in by the smell, though it consisted mostly of burnt hair.) Despite the close proximity and lack of "sanitary convenience" I found SE Asians to be the the most fastidiously clean people on earth. At the other end, you have the "water shy" tribe throwing tantrums when the maid forgets to put rose petals in the bidet.
Miles Mathis has a different take on Jack London. "Finding London connected to major wealth reminds us of all the others we have recently outed in the same way, most of them—like London—sold to us as poor or middle class. Think John Reed, Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, Samuel Parrish, Karl Marx, Jack Kerouac, and just about every other famous person we have researched. They are always promoted as being part of some Lost or Beat Generation, down-and-out and flying by their bootstraps, creating art or literature from some bohemian flat in the white ghettoes, but with a little digging we find just the opposite is true: they are from millionaire and often billionaire families, tied to the most prominent fascist families in the country, and the art they claimed to have created turns out to be the committee creation of bunch of hired hacks in Intelligence, manufactured as propaganda and then sugar-coated to feed to the masses." http://mileswmathis.com/london.pdf
You may scoff at the reference to the Salem witch trials, but it is actually much more relevant than is readily apparent. http://mileswmathis.com/salem.pdf
Not to negate the value of Orwell's work for rhetorical purposes, I'll save the subject of Mr. Eric Arthur B͟l͟a͟i͟r for another time.