The Tired Old World
In my latest copy of Newsweek there's an article about this guy Carl Honoré. The article isn't just about his completely ridiculous last name, no. Apparently he's written this book In Praise of Slowness.

The obvious assumption from the title is "Oh great, political correctness has finally gone over the edge. Someone is going to argue that it's actually better to be retarded."

Actually no, it's about how everything and everyone is all like... you know, fast and junk. Like we're all rushy-rushy-rushy and maybe we shouldn't be. It's profound when you think about it.

I tried to get excited about it, but just couldn't. What ruined it for me is that the book is a huge hit in Europe. Europe is embracing the idea that they work too much and should try to slow down, enjoy life more. Europe, the continent that closes down for the entire months of July and August in order to Speedo-model on the Mediterranean coast. This continent that includes a country (Spain) that has a special name for the tradition of sleeping in the middle of the day (el nappo, if I recall). Europe, the continent that invented the fifteen-course seven-hour meal.

If they paced themselves any more, they'd be standing completely still.

From the article we can glean some of the brilliant suggestions, including nuggets like "Don't watch so much TV" and "schedule yourself less."

Jesus, this is what it takes to become a best-selling author? That's it, I've decided what my next project is going to be: 300 in-depth pages of self-help up-with-people motivational dreck under the title Live This Way Or Die. Chapters will include "Eat Something, You Goddamn Stick", "Eat Less, Fatty", "Try To Sleep At Least Once Per 24 Hours" and "Paint: Not For Drinking".

Slowness. This guy wants slowness? I'll give you "slowness": I've been reading The Aeneid for two months. It's 200 pages of short-line verse. How's that for slow? One person's ADD-and-children cocktail of non-achievement is another person's "savoring".

I should point out that all the conclusions I've reached are a result of reading this article. I have not read the book. According the article, the book has yet to catch on here like it has in Europe. Wouldn't it be ironic if we all really wanted to read it, but just never could get around to it?


This post on the Narcissus Scale: 4.1


Pops

- posted by Pops @ 10:23 AM