This made me think of the movement from polytheism to monotheism. Probably because I was primed to think of religion from your title, when you said that for most of history people didn't think of systems and forces, I wondered if that was really true, since polytheism basically does that by ascribing the forces to gods, though of course we're talking forces tied more to the natural world. Still... I think you're getting at certain human traits that have probably been with us since the very first civilizations. Perhaps there's always a desire or tendency to whittle things down as life becomes ever more complicated and that's part of why monotheism would become more popular as time went on. Beyond that, there's definitely a tension for all of us between belonging and conformity, in part because I think you can't quite tear them apart. You might naturally coalesce with certain people/groups, i.e. belong, but over time influencing will always happen. I think it can be quite comforting to fall into line with something that fits you, whether that comfort is always a good thing or not is another matter... I think possibly bildungsromans, or just the notion of coming of age, has given us this notion that you go through some process of becoming a self, and there you are, something of a fixed thing. In reality, I think we negotiate selfhood vis-a-vis society as a daily affair for as long as we are alive and a lot of it will be unconscious. Anyway, I do like getting book recommendations because I listen to about one a day at work, so the more recommendations the merrier for me. I understand what you're doing with not wanting to share the titles, etc., though, and I too would feel a bit uncomfortable with all that comes with being a person that other people follow. It's probably relatively common to want to both be a somebody and a nobody, sometimes at the same time, lol.
I hadn't thought about the meta-gaming as more nervous optimization, but it absolutely is. Same energy as people who plan their every waking minute in Notion. As much as I love the internet, I miss the elasticity of pre-internet life. Thank you for the newsletter.
Although, I think I’ve asked about a passage now and then because I’ve lovingly binge-read (in my teens and 30/40s) many of the books by some of the authors you love and cite (Zola, Wharton…) and would like to recalibrate my memory of the book it’s from if I can’t place it. In any case it’s a pleasure to see you get so much pleasure out of them, too.
This made me think of the movement from polytheism to monotheism. Probably because I was primed to think of religion from your title, when you said that for most of history people didn't think of systems and forces, I wondered if that was really true, since polytheism basically does that by ascribing the forces to gods, though of course we're talking forces tied more to the natural world. Still... I think you're getting at certain human traits that have probably been with us since the very first civilizations. Perhaps there's always a desire or tendency to whittle things down as life becomes ever more complicated and that's part of why monotheism would become more popular as time went on. Beyond that, there's definitely a tension for all of us between belonging and conformity, in part because I think you can't quite tear them apart. You might naturally coalesce with certain people/groups, i.e. belong, but over time influencing will always happen. I think it can be quite comforting to fall into line with something that fits you, whether that comfort is always a good thing or not is another matter... I think possibly bildungsromans, or just the notion of coming of age, has given us this notion that you go through some process of becoming a self, and there you are, something of a fixed thing. In reality, I think we negotiate selfhood vis-a-vis society as a daily affair for as long as we are alive and a lot of it will be unconscious. Anyway, I do like getting book recommendations because I listen to about one a day at work, so the more recommendations the merrier for me. I understand what you're doing with not wanting to share the titles, etc., though, and I too would feel a bit uncomfortable with all that comes with being a person that other people follow. It's probably relatively common to want to both be a somebody and a nobody, sometimes at the same time, lol.
Thanks for a great, thought-provoking read.
I hadn't thought about the meta-gaming as more nervous optimization, but it absolutely is. Same energy as people who plan their every waking minute in Notion. As much as I love the internet, I miss the elasticity of pre-internet life. Thank you for the newsletter.
Although, I think I’ve asked about a passage now and then because I’ve lovingly binge-read (in my teens and 30/40s) many of the books by some of the authors you love and cite (Zola, Wharton…) and would like to recalibrate my memory of the book it’s from if I can’t place it. In any case it’s a pleasure to see you get so much pleasure out of them, too.
Martin Luther's starter word would have to be "grace", no?