Grab a cup of afternoon coffee or tea (or something stronger) and take a seat. I know this open thread is going out later than usual, but there’s a reason for that, and it’s that I just got back to Brooklyn. (Hello, city. I missed you.)
I didn’t really do any work this week, although, to be fair, that was kind of the point. Last Friday was my last day at my job, and I took this week to go on vacation upstate with my girlfriend to an Airbnb where we mostly sat in front of the fireplace and did absolutely nothing. We read tarot, we played D&D, we watched trashy reality television. It was a delicious, 10/10 experience that I strongly recommend. Rest works, something that I know but that continually surprises me.
I also started reading Jenny Odell’s spectacular HOW TO DO NOTHING: RESISTING THE ATTENTION ECONOMY, which was a NYT Bestseller as well as landing on practically every notable book list of 2019, so you all may well have already read it. But shit, it’s good! I love a writer who can create tension by weaving Epicurean philosophy with discourse about 21st century asshole tech bros and observations about old Redwoods in the Bay Area. Shoot that kind of narrative non-fiction into my veins.
There are about a million quotable lines in this book, which is less about doing nothing than the value of rest, reflection, and unplugging, but one that recently stuck out to me was this —
“We absolutely require distance and time to be able to see the mechanisms we thoughtlessly submit to.”
Distance and time, Odell notes, are often a luxury afforded by money. And yet: building routines that allow you to put down your phone, to stare out the window for no reason, to contemplate — this is the stuff that thinking and creativity really rely on.
So that is what I’m thinking about right now. What about you? How was your week? My fellow Americans: how is your endeavors to rest and/or create doing after this turbulent week?
I am stepping away from some work responsibilities that dictated where the vast majority of my reading time needed to be spent, so I'm very excited to read more non-fiction and poetry, and to do it more slowly and with intention this year.
I'm back this week from my 11 day MFA virtual residency (it's a low residency program) so I'm basically super pissed that I have to do anything other than write or talk about writing. Capitalism blows.
That said... I did re-outline my novel and make a plan for my first pass at a full draft revision which is exciting!! And Terrifying!! But I'm making sure to include rest in the schedule because *gestures at entire world*
Oh, how exciting to get to free up some bandwidth for more NF and poetry! I hear you re: creative energy going toward work meaning that you don't have a lot left for your own devices.
Congratulations on re-outlining your novel! Sending you all good things for the full draft revision. Slow and steady wins the race, etc. etc. You've got this!
I'm glad you had the chance to take a well-deserved vacation, Jeanna! Rest is one of my top priorities this year. I even scheduled 3-day weekends through the end of February for some mandatory down time after last year's whirlwind. When I got to Thursday and remembered I had no deadlines or meetings on Monday to worry about...what a gift! (Especially after this week's cosmic anxiety pile-up...whew.) Currently wondering if I can get away with 3-day weekends all year long...
Thank you, Kristen! And I *love love love* that you are building in 3-day weekends through the end of Feb -- I mean, hell, if you can do it at the top of the year, why not shoot for all year? THE DREAM. Seems really restorative.
Adding How to Do Nothing to the top 3 of my "Need to Read Next" list (Pleasure Activism and How Long Til Black Future Month have been patiently waiting for me).
Between all of the *waves hands frantically towards map of the USA* and my first real Make-or-Break events at my new job, making it to Friday is a blessing in itself. Rest was not on the agenda this week.
It doesn't help that with all of the messages of MOBILIZE and HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE, I spiraled a bit thinking about how to be even more more more for my community. My sister really brought it back into perspective for me on Wednesday:
"All of this work should be about empathy and support, and if we can't offer that to ourselves then this is just another kind of performative work... You are more than what you do when you work. When you are just being, there are ways to exude the things you value, too"
My creative output was drafting a very long, angry email to INC for publishing a piece about how we should celebrate Dr. King's legacy via "inclusive capitalism". All at once angering, cathartic and inventive.
This week was a lot and it sounds like you did a lot! Congrats on your first event at your new job — that's huge! You made it to Friday! I hope you can relax this weekend in whatever way is best for you.
And yes, HTDN is so good! Can't wait to get everyone on that ttrain, lol.
!!!!!! I read How to Do Nothing about two years ago now and I still haven't shut up about it. I kinda try to get everyone to read it, even though I know the ponderous pacing isn't for everyone, LOL. But gosh, I'm so happy to hear you're enjoying it.
It's such an excellent read! So smart, and the kind of book you just want to take all kinds of notes in the margins in. Any similar reads you've enjoyed?
This isn't a book, but this LRB pice is *such* a good companion to HTDN https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n04/patricia-lockwood/the-communal-mind. Basically, the author is trying to document the mental experience of scrolling through Twitter, and it's a portrait of the context collapse effect that Odell is really fixated on.
Wow yes very much adding that to my TBR pile!
I am stepping away from some work responsibilities that dictated where the vast majority of my reading time needed to be spent, so I'm very excited to read more non-fiction and poetry, and to do it more slowly and with intention this year.
I'm back this week from my 11 day MFA virtual residency (it's a low residency program) so I'm basically super pissed that I have to do anything other than write or talk about writing. Capitalism blows.
That said... I did re-outline my novel and make a plan for my first pass at a full draft revision which is exciting!! And Terrifying!! But I'm making sure to include rest in the schedule because *gestures at entire world*
Oh, how exciting to get to free up some bandwidth for more NF and poetry! I hear you re: creative energy going toward work meaning that you don't have a lot left for your own devices.
Congratulations on re-outlining your novel! Sending you all good things for the full draft revision. Slow and steady wins the race, etc. etc. You've got this!
I'm glad you had the chance to take a well-deserved vacation, Jeanna! Rest is one of my top priorities this year. I even scheduled 3-day weekends through the end of February for some mandatory down time after last year's whirlwind. When I got to Thursday and remembered I had no deadlines or meetings on Monday to worry about...what a gift! (Especially after this week's cosmic anxiety pile-up...whew.) Currently wondering if I can get away with 3-day weekends all year long...
Thank you, Kristen! And I *love love love* that you are building in 3-day weekends through the end of Feb -- I mean, hell, if you can do it at the top of the year, why not shoot for all year? THE DREAM. Seems really restorative.
Adding How to Do Nothing to the top 3 of my "Need to Read Next" list (Pleasure Activism and How Long Til Black Future Month have been patiently waiting for me).
Between all of the *waves hands frantically towards map of the USA* and my first real Make-or-Break events at my new job, making it to Friday is a blessing in itself. Rest was not on the agenda this week.
It doesn't help that with all of the messages of MOBILIZE and HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE, I spiraled a bit thinking about how to be even more more more for my community. My sister really brought it back into perspective for me on Wednesday:
"All of this work should be about empathy and support, and if we can't offer that to ourselves then this is just another kind of performative work... You are more than what you do when you work. When you are just being, there are ways to exude the things you value, too"
My creative output was drafting a very long, angry email to INC for publishing a piece about how we should celebrate Dr. King's legacy via "inclusive capitalism". All at once angering, cathartic and inventive.
So, in short, rest is mandatory this weekend.
This week was a lot and it sounds like you did a lot! Congrats on your first event at your new job — that's huge! You made it to Friday! I hope you can relax this weekend in whatever way is best for you.
And yes, HTDN is so good! Can't wait to get everyone on that ttrain, lol.
!!!!!! I read How to Do Nothing about two years ago now and I still haven't shut up about it. I kinda try to get everyone to read it, even though I know the ponderous pacing isn't for everyone, LOL. But gosh, I'm so happy to hear you're enjoying it.
It's such an excellent read! So smart, and the kind of book you just want to take all kinds of notes in the margins in. Any similar reads you've enjoyed?
This isn't a book, but this LRB pice is *such* a good companion to HTDN https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n04/patricia-lockwood/the-communal-mind. Basically, the author is trying to document the mental experience of scrolling through Twitter, and it's a portrait of the context collapse effect that Odell is really fixated on.