In Praise of Idleness…Why Are We So Bizzzzzzzy?
An eye-opening essay by Mark Slouka that I stumbled upon in my River of Google. It is fitting for this time of year along with a little Thoreau as well.
I especially like the buzz-harshing power of this sample:
Quitting the Paint Factory by Mark Slouka « adamantine
A resuscitated orthodoxy, so pervasive as to be nearly invisible, rules the land. Like any religion worth its salt, it shapes our world in its image, demonizing if necessary, absorbing when possible. Thus has the great sovereign territory of what Nabokov called “unreal estate,” the continent of invisible possessions from time to talent to contentment, been either infantilized, rendered unclean, or translated into the grammar of dollars and cents. Thus has the great wilderness of the inner life been compressed into a median strip by the demands of the “real world,” which of course is anything but. Thus have we succeeded in transforming even ourselves into bipedal products, paying richly for seminars that teach us how to market the self so it may be sold to the highest bidder. Or perhaps “down the river” is the phrase.And Thoreau, too:
And lest we forget, perhaps a little Ted Roethke, too:
Such are the effects from a muddy barnlot, two inches of rain, and the day that got darker when it should have lightened.
tellio :: Apr.03.2008 :: Good Reading :: No Comments »
