3 ms·

I grew up in the high desert. My comment therefore is as follows: This, too, is vanity.

vehemenz 5y ago
He admits as much. > But I’m really not different at all. It’s salutary to remember that you are just a type of guy, as my friend Adam reminded me. I sing the praises of the non-consumer wilderness, but will still go to great pains to obtain a fancy croissant. To the longtime residents, I am instantly identifiable as a recent Angeleno, even if I’m wearing a dirty t-shirt and cut-off shorts. My hands are too soft, my body language is too awkward. Maybe if I live out here for like a decade it won’t be accurate to accuse me of LARPing anymore.
- fullshark 5y ago
  Seems to me like a nonfiction / memoir version of lampshade hanging: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging
- pnathan 5y ago
  Not what I mean. The entire experience that it's a different place, that it inherently is different from the city. The interiority of the individual does not change, although the external world may reflect into the interior differently and the individuals' mind may easily filter one way or another. You can be and have the same interior experience if you're in the middle of a city, or if you're on the top of a mountain. it's just a place to live. one with better air and fewer people.
  - fullshark 5y ago
    I thought you were quoting the bible and was trying to decipher it: https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Ecclesiastes%204%3A4 https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Ecclesiastes%204%3A4
    - pnathan 5y ago
      I was. The whole logical schema here is vanity - or, more literally from the Hebrew - a pursuit after wind, a momentary breath, a flicker of wind on the cheek... The author's experience is that "same structure, new shapes" is the quality of the urban life. But that is also the quality of rural life, although the specific details differ; this is simply another shape in the same structure of life. Whether you're in the city, or the suburbs, or the emptiness of the mountain, you are who you are, people are who they are, there's no innate difference in the matter. The environment is strictly the environment. This, too, is vanity. To further quote the unnamed author - > Only this, I have found, is a real good: that one should eat and drink and get pleasure with all the gains he makes under the sun, during the numbered days of life that God has given him; for that is his portion. To be able to dwell in contentment where one is, is a real blessing.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

He admits as much. > But I’m really not different at all. It’s salutary to remember that you are just a type of guy, as my friend Adam reminded me. I sing the praises of the non-consumer wilderness, but will still go to great pains to obtain a fancy croissant. To the longtime residents, I am instantly identifiable as a recent Angeleno, even if I’m wearing a dirty t-shirt and cut-off shorts. My hands are too soft, my body language is too awkward. Maybe if I live out here for like a decade it won’t be accurate to accuse me of LARPing anymore.

fullshark 5y ago
Seems to me like a nonfiction / memoir version of lampshade hanging: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LampshadeHanging
pnathan 5y ago
Not what I mean. The entire experience that it's a different place, that it inherently is different from the city. The interiority of the individual does not change, although the external world may reflect into the interior differently and the individuals' mind may easily filter one way or another. You can be and have the same interior experience if you're in the middle of a city, or if you're on the top of a mountain. it's just a place to live. one with better air and fewer people.
- fullshark 5y ago
  I thought you were quoting the bible and was trying to decipher it: https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Ecclesiastes%204%3A4 https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Ecclesiastes%204%3A4
  - pnathan 5y ago
    I was. The whole logical schema here is vanity - or, more literally from the Hebrew - a pursuit after wind, a momentary breath, a flicker of wind on the cheek... The author's experience is that "same structure, new shapes" is the quality of the urban life. But that is also the quality of rural life, although the specific details differ; this is simply another shape in the same structure of life. Whether you're in the city, or the suburbs, or the emptiness of the mountain, you are who you are, people are who they are, there's no innate difference in the matter. The environment is strictly the environment. This, too, is vanity. To further quote the unnamed author - > Only this, I have found, is a real good: that one should eat and drink and get pleasure with all the gains he makes under the sun, during the numbered days of life that God has given him; for that is his portion. To be able to dwell in contentment where one is, is a real blessing.

deleted 5y ago

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