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I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it. But I use a typewriter, and afterward I mark
by nosuchthing 11y ago
I work at home, and if I wanted to, I could have a computer
right by my bed, and I'd never have to leave it.
But I use a typewriter, and afterward I mark up the pages
with a pencil. Then I call up a woman named Carol out
in Woodstock and say, "Are you still doing typing?"
Sure she is, and her husband is trying to track bluebirds
out there and not having much luck, and so we chitchat
back and forth, and I say,"Okay, I'll send you the pages."
Then I go downstairs and my wife calls, "Where are you
going?" "Well," I say, "I'm going out to buy an
envelope."And she says, "You're not a poor man.
Why don't you buy a thousand envelopes? They'll deliver
them, and you can put them in the closet and get one
whenever you want."And I say, "Hush." So I go to the
newsstand across the street where they sell magazines and
lottery tickets and stationery. I have to get in line
because there are people buying candy and all that sort of
thing, and I talk to them. The woman behind the counter
has a jewel between her eyes, and when it's my turn, I ask
her if there have been any big winners lately. I get my
envelope and put the pages in it and seal it up and go to
the postal convenience center down the block at the corner
of Forty-Seventh Street and Second Avenue, where I'm
secretly in love with the woman behind the counter. I keep
absolutely poker-faced; I never let her know how I feel
about her. One time I had my pocket picked in there and I
got to meet a cop and tell him about it. Anyway, I
address the envelope and mail it in a mailbox in front of
the post office, and I go home. And I've had a hell of a
good time. I tell you, we are here on earth to fart
around, and don't let anybody tell you any different.
— Kurt Vonnegut, (Harper's Magazine Nov. 1995)
- deanCommie 11y agoI hate this quote. Who's mind is it trying to change? People who already enjoy random frivolous human interaction are already filling their days with it, the same way he is. And people who dread useless chores like this and feel they get more pleasure and enjoyment out of the rest of their life are certainly not going to suddenly try his way. Are there people who are optimizing their workflow while secretly pining for a less efficient more personal approach to buying envelopes that could read this and see the light?
- Chinjut 11y agoThe mind it may be trying to change is that of the people who not only optimize their own lives to avoid "farting around" but furthermore cast aspersions on others who enjoy and indulge in it.
- nosuchthing 11y agoAkin to "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." The quote is saying we're all just here on a rock flying through space. Be a part of your neighborhood/communities. Enjoy life, engage strangers not as soulless husks of flesh but as humans like yourself. Perhaps there are merits to a lifestyle of pure efficiency, but there are valuable interactions lost if you stick to your own little world.
- eropple 11y agoThank you for this, seriously. I find myself saying, more often over time, that I think the tech world wants to destroy civil society because they don't understand it--posts like this make me feel a little better about us, even if it's seemingly a minority view.