We can still talk about power, it just has to be something new -- the power of margins, the power of page breaks...the power of the table of contents...
I have read lots of addiction memoirs since becoming sober and I am glad I am not the only person who finds them kind of a slog. It’s usually pretty repetitive stuff I hear in meetings all the time and rarely do they contain substantial, helpful advice or platitudes. For me, however, Mary Karr is excluded from all of this, but this may just because hers was one of the first addiction memoirs I read and I have enjoyed her other work.
I think a lot of books “about” addiction are very good and worthwhile — some of them investigate the boredom and some of them don’t — I really just found this particular book to merely replicate the experience of tedious highs, not that it always happens, to be clear!
A distinctive thing about Daniel these days, almost unique among very good writers, is a playful avoidance of topical hot-buttons--but I think there is a genuine Current Issue hiding under the trying-to-keep-it-friendly tone here:
Smart and literate peoples' frustration--In These Times--with the kindergartenish let's-all-get-along other smart and literate people are taking towards everyone who (no matter how delusionally) wants to be smart and literate because everyone smart and literate feels kind of more-than-usual-attacked by the avowedly not-smart-and-not-literate lately and we all are trying to pull together even if it puts us next to people whose ideas about being smart and literate make us roll our eyes.
It is so difficult because I think many very good people are struggling immensely, but I think it’s important to think carefully and clearly and not overstate our own cases in such times! And I do often avoid discussing hot-button topics because I so rarely feel able to contribute anything new or insightful to the discussion, not because they aren’t worth discussing — I just need more time. Might be why I write historical fiction at present. I have so little to say about the way we live now!
I, of course, love and respect that I'm hearing from an author I like so much that I subscribed to their thing. And I believe your take. However, I have a further take and I'm willing to be wrong: a lot of your best jokes stem *from* the studious sense of irrelevance of what you write. Like: the sense of hilarious urgency around when we eat dinner. It's funnier because, of course, we all know it is not urgent and we know so much is. I'm gonna say there's a certain winking acknowledgment that claiming a picayune, quaint thing is important when it is not is really funny, especially when everyone's normal mode of interaction in online writing is to speak to urgency. And it is kind of deeply built into a lot of like your whole pieces for me. Idk.
I really like your angle. I've become convinced that 'storytelling' in the form you describe is actually a malign force - an ideology that's designed to exclude and alienate. And if you work in the corporate world storytelling is even more pernicious. It's essentially a weapon - a way to persuade, deceive, recruit. Although obviously much more friendly language is used: engage, immerse and so on. Powerpoints, podcasts, AI assistants, marketing web sites: all storytelling.
I agree with you and I generally dislike too much (very subjective) obvious or unnecessary speech. But someone must? It's like charity galas--I really don't understand why a nonprofit spending money to have a party makes people give money more than the nonprofit just informing everyone of the work they are doing and the need for money to support it. I see the value in people who support a particular org being together, but why can't it be a very simple potluck-ish thing that takes minimal staff work to arrange?
At last— someone is brave enough to say what I've often thought about charity galas! I used to work for a woman whose charity regularly held large events to raise money. By the time she scheduled catering, booked all the singers, speakers, etc., paid for their flights and hotels, and paid for the venue, the amount actually raised for her charity was about as much as if she'd skipped the whole thing and just passed the hat around at a church function.
Every industry has its tropes that get overused to the point where they no longer mean anything. Ask me why I roll my eyes when I hear eco-something, green, sustainable, etc etc. Eventually everything is marketing
I'm suspicious whenever someone claims to be fighting the latest book ban with a large order of books they've purchased. It feels less like "Knowledge is power!" and more like, "I'm using the power of retailers to fight censorship!"
A very powerful observation. Your words tickle my imagination for how a book festival might be more compelling with a focus other than the broad-turned-generic power of storytelling.
I enjoyed the grumble. And I will praise you for reading Fabre’s The Waitress Was New. I really loved that strange little book. This morning I was rereading Sebald’s Austerlitz. This afternoon I am on the couch with Larry Brown’s On Fire. And the Donald Richie Reader is on the ottoman next to me. They all count.
We can still talk about power, it just has to be something new -- the power of margins, the power of page breaks...the power of the table of contents...
the power of choosing the right font
The power of good book feel
(Oxford Word Classic editions have terrible book feel! They are all too tightly bound!)
the power of paying your library fees without complaint
The power of storytelling vs. the power of shutting the hell up
The power of love - H. Lewis
I have read lots of addiction memoirs since becoming sober and I am glad I am not the only person who finds them kind of a slog. It’s usually pretty repetitive stuff I hear in meetings all the time and rarely do they contain substantial, helpful advice or platitudes. For me, however, Mary Karr is excluded from all of this, but this may just because hers was one of the first addiction memoirs I read and I have enjoyed her other work.
I think a lot of books “about” addiction are very good and worthwhile — some of them investigate the boredom and some of them don’t — I really just found this particular book to merely replicate the experience of tedious highs, not that it always happens, to be clear!
A distinctive thing about Daniel these days, almost unique among very good writers, is a playful avoidance of topical hot-buttons--but I think there is a genuine Current Issue hiding under the trying-to-keep-it-friendly tone here:
Smart and literate peoples' frustration--In These Times--with the kindergartenish let's-all-get-along other smart and literate people are taking towards everyone who (no matter how delusionally) wants to be smart and literate because everyone smart and literate feels kind of more-than-usual-attacked by the avowedly not-smart-and-not-literate lately and we all are trying to pull together even if it puts us next to people whose ideas about being smart and literate make us roll our eyes.
It is so difficult because I think many very good people are struggling immensely, but I think it’s important to think carefully and clearly and not overstate our own cases in such times! And I do often avoid discussing hot-button topics because I so rarely feel able to contribute anything new or insightful to the discussion, not because they aren’t worth discussing — I just need more time. Might be why I write historical fiction at present. I have so little to say about the way we live now!
I, of course, love and respect that I'm hearing from an author I like so much that I subscribed to their thing. And I believe your take. However, I have a further take and I'm willing to be wrong: a lot of your best jokes stem *from* the studious sense of irrelevance of what you write. Like: the sense of hilarious urgency around when we eat dinner. It's funnier because, of course, we all know it is not urgent and we know so much is. I'm gonna say there's a certain winking acknowledgment that claiming a picayune, quaint thing is important when it is not is really funny, especially when everyone's normal mode of interaction in online writing is to speak to urgency. And it is kind of deeply built into a lot of like your whole pieces for me. Idk.
Compelled to heart this immediately based on title alone.
I will take up the mantle of suggesting that these speeches are in fact wicked, wrong, or foolish 🫡
Fashion is Spinach is so much fun!! and the few examples of Elizabeth Hawes dresses that you can find online are just devastatingly good.
I really like your angle. I've become convinced that 'storytelling' in the form you describe is actually a malign force - an ideology that's designed to exclude and alienate. And if you work in the corporate world storytelling is even more pernicious. It's essentially a weapon - a way to persuade, deceive, recruit. Although obviously much more friendly language is used: engage, immerse and so on. Powerpoints, podcasts, AI assistants, marketing web sites: all storytelling.
Taking notes!!
I agree with you and I generally dislike too much (very subjective) obvious or unnecessary speech. But someone must? It's like charity galas--I really don't understand why a nonprofit spending money to have a party makes people give money more than the nonprofit just informing everyone of the work they are doing and the need for money to support it. I see the value in people who support a particular org being together, but why can't it be a very simple potluck-ish thing that takes minimal staff work to arrange?
I do wish there were more potlucks generally
At last— someone is brave enough to say what I've often thought about charity galas! I used to work for a woman whose charity regularly held large events to raise money. By the time she scheduled catering, booked all the singers, speakers, etc., paid for their flights and hotels, and paid for the venue, the amount actually raised for her charity was about as much as if she'd skipped the whole thing and just passed the hat around at a church function.
Every industry has its tropes that get overused to the point where they no longer mean anything. Ask me why I roll my eyes when I hear eco-something, green, sustainable, etc etc. Eventually everything is marketing
I'm suspicious whenever someone claims to be fighting the latest book ban with a large order of books they've purchased. It feels less like "Knowledge is power!" and more like, "I'm using the power of retailers to fight censorship!"
A very powerful observation. Your words tickle my imagination for how a book festival might be more compelling with a focus other than the broad-turned-generic power of storytelling.
The argument against it, for novelty: here you go! https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/07/10/seduced-by-story-peter-brooks-bewitching-the-modern-mind-christian-salmon-the-story-paradox-jonathan-gottschall-book-review
I enjoyed the grumble. And I will praise you for reading Fabre’s The Waitress Was New. I really loved that strange little book. This morning I was rereading Sebald’s Austerlitz. This afternoon I am on the couch with Larry Brown’s On Fire. And the Donald Richie Reader is on the ottoman next to me. They all count.