{Hannah Green, from “Are you still hungry, Mother?”/ Anne Carson/Sam Gordon, “A Mother’s Hate”/ Ella Wilson/ Joan Tierney/ Ella Wilson/ Ocean Vuong, from On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous/ Unknown/ Nayyirah Waheed/ Sharon Olds, “Holding To A Wall, Treading Saltwater”/ John Green, Turtles All the Way Down/ Safia Elhillo, “an inheritance,” published in Narrative Northeast/ Annie Ernaux, from I Remain in Darkness/ Poplar Street by Chen Chen/ Unknown/ Tumblr User: @inkskinned/ Elena Poniatowska, from “La Flor de Lis,” published c. January 2011/ Kyung-Sook Shin, Please Look After Mom}
people will posit things, about human psychology, without *evidence*! they do it all the time. they just…they just make stuff up, about human psychology, and then state it confidently! they dont add a disclaimer, they dont even add an epistemic warning, they just boldly and broadly claim things. most often, i think, about the source of modern malaise (and of course, about the existence of modern malaise as an object distinct from premodern malaise). people just claim that such and such is a cause of modern malaise, or *the* cause of modern malaise, and it just isnt based on anything, except at best their vague vibes about premodern life! you didnt *live* premodern life! you dont know what were the sources of their emotional wellness or lack thereof! you can, at best, maybe try to get a peek at that through their writing, through their artifacts, etc etc, but it is a peak. it is not even the view through the crack of a door, or the murmur though a door, its a crack reflected off a rusty mirror, its the echo of a murmur recorded on a shitty mp3 player.
and they dont think theyre doing anything wrong! they dont think theyre lying, or misrepresenting their certainty, or whatever, they think theyre doing something useful. grah!
Everybody talks about cutting ppl off but nobody really talks about the grief that comes with having to stand firm on that decision knowing it’s not what you wanted but what was necessary for your well-being.
