Comments:

Erin. - 2006-08-10 00:13:52
Have you read The Storyteller by Walter Benjamin (it's in Illuminations)? It's my favorite thing of his, that he's ever written. I used to have a quote from this essay as a banner - "boredom is the dream bird that hatches the egg of experience" - he talks about how boredom fosters storytelling, the processing of experience. He talks about the loss of boredom as a tragedy. I've always thought this was really wise.
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Claudia - 2006-08-10 08:50:28
This gives me fodder for an entry. I'm not sure I'd equate boredom with exhaustion, exactly but I do think this society is way too used to having its every waking minute filled with something: tv, video games, music, etc. There is the feeling that we all deserve to be entertained - and not by ourselves - every single second. This leads to zero inner life, zero reflection, zero just letting your thoughts wander - having thoughts at all. It's like we just want to be on autopilot. We don't want to think for ourselves, want to be told what to like, what to think, etc. And, women have been told for hundreds of years that we like babies and like staying home with them to the detriment of our separate selves. And if we don't like it, there's something wrong with us. I think we are in the middle of an enormous societal change which is spawning all these sensationalistic articles about bad mommies and good mommies and better mommies and we haven't ever really lived in any particular "traditional" way. Soon, by the time our children are grown, many "other" ways of being a family will be considered normal. At least, that's my hope.
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Dr. Geek - 2006-08-10 09:48:09
I too read David Brooks' August 3 article "Bye-Bye, Bootstraps" with some interest. It was an article that struck very, very close to home for me... my brother-in-law has now been unemployed for over 18 months now, and my sister is still working part time to keep some money coming in. Both of them and their son are living with my parents. Mrs. Geek and I have difficulty with the dynamics of the situation... either of us would be doing whatever temp work we could get to keep some money coming in, rather than just staying home all day. Very interesting attitudes toward work and play have evolved in this country -- I often think that visitors to this country would find it silly to think that "work should be like play". It ranks up there with the idea that every child is so special that they deserve an A grade. Have we become so spoiled and affluent in this country that certain types of work are beneath us? I hope not.
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Dandy - 2006-08-10 09:53:22
Honestly, for children to discover, subtly, through socialization with their parents in the safe haven of their homes that they can, at times, be boring is just one of the gazillion things to be learned in formative years. In my opinion, awareness that we will not always be entertained by the world nor be entertaining helps create a basis for pro-social behavior. Also, our culture's drive to create a homogeneous "good" drives me absolutely batty.
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Julia - 2006-08-10 10:45:37
Continuing with the non sequiturs: Elizabeth Crane has a blog. On blogspot, where sometimes people specify favorite things like books and movies and music. Check out what she listed as her favorite book. (http://www.blogger.com/profile/6799739) See, meant to be. She seems cool, maybe we can convince her to moderate our little writers' workshop! (I'm not that delusional, don't worry.) I will check out Charles Baxter on my next library trip - thank you!
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