17 Comments

Linked at Chicago Boyz:

https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/72719.html

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Love the roundup and the Pynchon!

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Loved this and loved the opening of Bleak House, too. Amazing writer. Thank you! Merry Christmas 🎁🎄!

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Thank you and merry Christmas!

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I love your style. Would I be imposing to share a post on Chekhov for your thoughts? If so, i apologize in advance. If not, wonderful.

Thanks

https://substack.com/@johnnogowski2/note/p-145737261?r=7pf7u&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

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<I>Our political and social problems bear this out. Our failure to preserve reading in the era of social media has much to do with our hauntingly willing descent into thoughtless tribalism. If we read more, we would fight less.</I>

I want this to be true. And that's the problem. Confirmation bias is a thing. I can't remember ever not reading and I read at least a book a week (usually more), after five decades (I can round down, right?).

I enjoy your insights and it seems right up your alley to flesh that out. Here's hoping. Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night (different author, same era).

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Thank you for this! I hear you on confirmation bias and wanting this to be true. Also, neuroscience is actually suggesting that one place where we can get past our confirmation bias is reading – that stories can actually be a playground and training center for getting over ourselves and extending our sense of what is possible and right.

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Beautiful sentiments and exploration of the Dickensian view of Christmas as a portal to expanding our awareness and understanding of our fellow man. We deserve love, but we must also love others in kind, and that means seeing our "others" as fellow travelers, not enemies and avatars of evil.

I'm enthralled by the idea, however quaint or simplistic, that storytelling and story-reading will be the salvation of our civil society. But it will not happen quickly, and it must be encouraged at all levels, individually and collectively.

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Thank you for this! Really appreciate your thoughts. Agreed that it can't happen quickly. Then again, genuine deep change takes time.

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True change, like what happens to Scrooge, can be both "overnight" AND yet also take a lifetime. We must face our past, while also living in the present, being willing to forgive the wrongs committed and acknowledge our own culpability in shaping the culture in negative ways, while actively steering towards a future of positive action, commitment to values that uphold free speech, democratic ideals, and a coherent moral and ethical framework for us collectively and individually. It will take reading stories like A Christmas Carol and forming new stories that encourage this mode of being.

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So eloquent and so right! Makes me think of the definition of change that Ernest Hemingway gave when asked how he went bankrupt. He said it happened gradually and then suddenly.

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A wonderful discourse on why story matters and how it helps socialize us. Seeing movies or watching TV together is better than alone, but if the experience is shared with a thoughtful discussion, we all see another's reaction to what we just shared. We see/hear the same thing at the same time, but we will not all react in the same way and same intensity. We need to learn that this is normal and constructive. It is a start for learning to expect and accept that others will react differently than you to the same experience. Discussion of how we react to a the same story differently isn’t something most of us do and we don’t do it often. Debating differing opinions to a story or show is a safer way to start looking at social differences not being necessarily bad or a threat to how we think. Love this post.

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I love this comment – connecting so many disparate dots in a very chewy and thought-provoking way. Thank you!

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Beautiful. Especially the part about reading aloud together. I love that.

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Thank you!!

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This is a lovely reflection. Thank you!

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Thank *you*!

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