"Quarantine" Edition

Hello,

I hope you have a lovely Valentine’s Day.

Obligatory shilling. I wrote for my paying subscribers about how the Internet chews up “content creators” and spits them out as content.

Isolation blues. Yes, I finally got COVID. My other half had to do a test to make an appointment and boom we were in quarantine. It feels a bit like being killed in the final days of World War One.

Of course, it has been the sunniest weekend for months. The air was warm. The birds were singing. Fuck it. We are fortunate that we have friends to help us and that our symptoms are mild. Certainly, the worst thing about quarantine is having to give the dog away for a week and a half. This pandemic has exposed “garden privilege” for all to see.

Pithy hashtags and shiny endorsements. Dr Lucy Foulkes addresses the pathologies of mental health awareness:

With every pithy hashtag and shiny celebrity endorsement, I keep coming back to the same conclusion: despite their theoretical benefits, I’m not sure how much these campaigns are actually helping. In the course of my academic work and writing on this subject, I have spoken to dozens of practising psychologists, teachers, parents and others who share my concern: that in some respects, the current public messaging about mental health might even be making things worse.

Why?

At one end, the opacity of the language in these campaigns means that too many negative emotions and experiences are interpreted as disorders, or things that should be feared and obliterated as soon as possible…At the other end, someone who is seriously unwell, maybe actively suicidal, ends up seeing advice about taking a hot bath or downloading a mindfulness app.

A fine, important piece. I have made similar points in articles on the overvaluation of therapy and the demonisation of stoicism but it is good to see them stated elegantly by someone with Dr Foulkes’s expertise.

“I’m a progressive but…” Sarah Haider dismisses “throat clearing” as a defensive mechanism:

Former friends and allies are more than just critics, they are traitors - guilty of a moral crime worse than simple opposition. The severity and visibility of traitor stigmatization also doubles as a lesson for others. 

Monotonous sea. Esther Manov is hard but fair on modern literary fiction:

Similarly, one excuses their unambitious and unintelligible style by reference to the influence of “online” life on young minds. However, the more accurate explanation for this monotonous sea of uninspired cliché is that these writers do not read anyone except their friends, nor do they aspire to much readership beyond them. 

Hyper-problematization. Dan Simon takes a grim look at the state of cricket:

No pastime, however cherished, is safe. All is before the tribunal and the message is clear: That thing you like; that thing that’s brought you so much joy, that thing you loved watching with your father, and he enjoyed watching with his? We don’t like that you like it.

I think the decline of regionalism and the waning of attention spans spelled doom for cricket anyway, but culture wars don’t help.

Drugs or novels. Peter Richardson explores the working habits of Hunter S. Thompson:

Thompson’s lifestyle affected his professional decisions as well his writing process. At one party, Joe Klein suggested that Thompson write a novel. Gesturing to the drugs, Thompson replied, “Well, if I did that, I’d have to give those up.”

He must have been appalling to know - never mind to edit - but can you blame Thompson for wondering what he would be without the drugs? They are what people most associate with him.

Have a lovely week,

Ben