11 Comments
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Will Mannon's avatar

Enjoyed this, thanks. I briefly came across something about the Strother School for Attention in Brookyln earlier this year, starting to connect some dots...I believe in the cause. Nice moment about the silent car ride to stick the landing

Patrick Jordan Anderson's avatar

Glad you enjoyed it, Will. It's funny, I'm still not clear on the connection with the Strother School for Attention. I think it's something Matthew must have been involved in before moving up to Catskill, but which still exists separately from the Matthew Strother Center.

Will Mannon's avatar

Got it, so they're separate! I wasn't sure

Melba's avatar

'Refugees from the land of usefulness', what a great phrase. I enjoyed this piece.

Patrick Jordan Anderson's avatar

Thank you, Melba. To be honest, I'm fairly sure I borrowed that phrase from somewhere, although I can't place it. I think Jenny Odell may have used it in How To Do Nothing (which I quoted in this piece), but I wasn't able to find it when I went looking.

REL's avatar

Thanks for this essay and the pointers to other moments in the conversation. You might also be interested in Peter Slotetdijk’s book You Must Change Your Life, which has—among a bevy of other topics— a longish reading of Rilke’s poem, in the context of thinking about practices of various sorts.

Patrick Jordan Anderson's avatar

It's funny--when I first saw that phrase on the tote bag, I immediately thought of the Sloterdijk book (which I have yet to read). It took some time before I remembered that its title comes from the Rilke poem.

Bhuvan's avatar

Thank you so much for sharing this, Patrick. I loved reading it and I've been unable to stop thinking about the issues you raise in the post. Big fan of everything you write 😁

Patrick Jordan Anderson's avatar

Thanks for reading, Bhuvan! Glad it's resonating with you!

Erik J Larson's avatar

Talk about a nice thoughtful long form essay this is great. I need to get back to doing this.

Patrick Jordan Anderson's avatar

Really appreciate the encouragement, Erik. As a writer, you know: this stuff takes a lot of unseen time and effort to pull together. Glad you enjoyed it.