The Sound Of Her Unspooling
Sometimes, it can feel surprising that any beauty still exists in the world. It can feel wrong to keep cultivating our gardens while the world shatters outside our windows.
Yes, it’s time to once again gawp at the mindset of the Salon-reader demographic. Or at least the Salon-writer demographic, with which it presumably overlaps. Specifically, a piece by Ms Alex Dew, “a recent graduate of Eastern Washington University’s Master of Fine Arts programme in Creative Nonfiction,” and whose urgent bulletin to the world is titled My Houseplant Garden Is A Tiny National Park Donald Trump Can Never Destroy.
If that sounds a tad overwrought and not entirely even-keeled, do read on.
I begin each day by taking a mental inventory of whatever horrors Trump has committed since I have been asleep,
As one does.
scrolling through news outlets and social media on my iPhone, even though I know that this probably bad for my mental health.
I suspect this may be a matter of putting the cart before the horse. And perhaps tellingly, mental health is mentioned more than once in Ms Dew’s article.
There is evidence that Trump’s presidency has had a negative effect on the mental health of many Democrats, with 72% of those surveyed in one study reporting an increase in anxiety since he has taken office. Sometimes, it’s enough to make me not want to get out of bed.
A phenomenon at which we’ve previously marvelled. More than once.
After reading the news, it is time to attend to my indoor garden, to do the work of keeping my plants alive: the trimming and the watering and the fertilising. This work is meditation, a way of going on.
Yes, going on. Bravely, heroically, and despite the realisation that your preferred candidate lost an election, four years ago.
And then the defiant phrase,
My houseplant garden is a tiny national park that Donald Trump can never destroy.
By the way, today’s word is fixation.
Ms Dew goes on to share with us a list of mental torments, including “daily catastrophes,” “years of therapy,” the “strange, hallucinogenic days after Trump’s inauguration,” and “my failures to get my life together after graduate school.” At which point, today’s other words could be displacement and blame-shifting.
When not spending her time being surprised “that any beauty still exists in the world” – despite, one assumes, the existence of Donald Trump – Ms Dew cherishes her “small, green children,” her “microcosm” of, er, sanity:
In my home, I have control. I may not be able to save the world from Donald Trump, but I can save my plants from scourges like root rot and spider mites.
Okay, then.
Like many Democrats, I suffer from bouts of Donald Trump Stress Disorder.
Apparently, the progressive mind is a terribly fragile thing and easily broken. Clearly, these people should be put in charge.
Numerous studies have noted that respondents reported higher levels of calm and well-being after spending time with plants. Proponents of “earthing,” or skin-to-skin contact with soil, argue that this practice reduces anxiety… While there may be scant scientific evidence of the benefits of earthing, I can anecdotally confirm that this contact with foliage and dirt brings me a new kind of peaceful awareness.
Yes, Ms Dew may be coming undone – and mentioning Mr Trump no fewer than fourteen times – but at least she can steady herself during her daily crises by clutching handfuls of soil. It’s a “small act of resistance.” A way of “healing from oppression.”
Via Lady Cutekitten.
Apparently, the progressive mind is a terribly fragile thing and easily broken. Clearly, these people should be put in charge.
LOL. That.
In my darker mood, I opine that people like this need around seven feet of good solid earth above them… To, er, better comingle with those green children. In this particularly satisfying way will they enrich these green children without diving them (or us) balmy!
LOL. That.
But it’s an odd thing, and it crops up remarkably often.
Our unhappy betters endlessly list their strange, rather improbable psychological woes, and their supposedly fascinating mental health problems, often induced by tiny, humdrum things, while demanding that the rest of us do as they say. Because, we’re assured, they should be in charge.
“As a white woman, I do not have trauma typed into my DNA”
Honk.
You what, now? Is that like ‘Military Intelligence,’ ‘Congressional Ethics,’ or ‘Government Worker’ – fit to pad out any list of oxymorons?
Honk.
It’s strange just how often exposure to academia’s Clown Quarter seems so disabling, so corrosive to realism, stoicism and autonomous mental activity. And so, we have Ms Dew, a supposedly educated adult, reduced to fondling soil while she tearfully endures “daily catastrophes” of an unspecified nature and “the seemingly endless winter of Donald Trump’s presidency.” It’s possible that Ms Dew was a bit of a case before she arrived and learned to mouth woke pieties about “privilege,” Bad Whitey, and “trauma typed into DNA.” But I very much doubt that her time there did anything to discourage any neurotic inclinations.
[ Edited. ]
Alex Dew, meet Elizabeth Farrelly.
You’re both welcome.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/we-broke-the-rules-and-coronavirus-is-our-punishment-20200319-p54br8.html
…I opine that people like this need around seven feet of good solid earth above them…
I would suggest concrete would be better, it is possible one could dig out of just plain dirt.
Proponents of “earthing,” or skin-to-skin contact with soil, argue that this practice reduces anxiety…
So that explains why these gents are so relaxed.
Creative non-fiction? Is that what they’re calling journalism now?
She sounds pleasant.
Xas,
It is tempting to note the similarity of “fake” to “creative” and “news” to “nonfiction”. Or perhaps I’m being too reductive.
Also, is anyone else having trouble getting access to Small Dead Animals of late?
Alex Dew, meet Elizabeth Farrelly.
Oh dear lord – that head tilt, the pursed lip smug expression. Isn’t she one of Tim Blair’s Frightbats? Dang I miss his blog. But I’m glad he gets paid for it now.
All these articles, these people of a certain ideology – worldwide – just seem so overwrought to me. Like their lives are so easy they are desperately trying to manufacture something to be a victim of, to virtue signal their superiority over. They’ve got life backwards, it seems.
There is evidence that Trump’s presidency has had a negative effect on the mental health of many Democrats
Clarence Thomas also has a negative effect on their mental health.
Thing is .. while this douche-bag is freaking out because the fat side of rotting beef (Hillary) lost the election four years ago … I wake up each morning and thank god for Donald Trump’s presidency.
Oh dear lord – that head tilt, the pursed lip smug expression. Isn’t she one of Tim Blair’s Frightbats? Dang I miss his blog. But I’m glad he gets paid for it now.
Yes, that’s her. Don’t have a link, but her column when a removalist’s van blocked her bicycle lane causing her to go into an existentialist crisis is a classic.
oh here it is, at least in Tim Blair’s transmission
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/blogs/tim-blair/path-of-most-resistance/news-story/bb3e0dd9c1cc6d61b0a01b983cb3425d
How can you have a Master’s in Creative Nonfiction? Isn’t that impossible – it is either fiction (which is things you imagine) or non-fiction (things that are real and based in something that looks like facts). But then given how evidence about COVID19 infection/death rates seem to be largely projections based on not much, maybe creative non-fiction and fiction is now the same.
Can’t say I’ve noticed any difference.
And may the Lord have mercy on her plants…
Could be worse. She could be wearing a red robe with a white bonnet.
For some reason, this came to mind.
Needs updating, of course.
As a medical student many years ago, I did a several months long training rotation in a psychiatric unit. It was fascinating to see and hear, in person, these unfortunate patients describe or otherwise display the manifestations of their psychoses. It’s one thing to read about ideas of reference, waxy flexibility, manic psychosis or catatonic depression in a textbook. Quite another to sit on a sofa with someone suffering from it.
Which is my way of urging you all to read the original article in Salon. It’s an articulate and honest window into the mind of a mentally ill person. The author lays bare her intense, suffocating solipsism and relentlessly insists that the vacuum that resides inside her is the fault of external forces. Plus, it goes without saying, an inchoate and all-consuming hatred of Mr. Trump. To call her a snowflake would be to minimize the sturdiness of snowflakes.
I swear, people like this are almost extraterrestrial in their alien-ness. How can we be the same species?
Hi Tony,
So you don’t think it’s a parody?
Aunt Betty, meanwhile, responds to neither emails nor calls.
Nobody cares that you can’t get through to your travel agent, sweetie. You’re not going anywhere soon, and you can wait another week or two to sort out your voucher or refund or whatever. There are people with actual emergencies trying to get things done right now.
Next time, it says, book through a more substantial agent. Ahah. Next time.
Yes, next time! You really think your sob story has convinced anybody that you’re going to settle down in your cottage for the foreseeable? Does anybody really believe that
Simka GravasLiz Farrelly isn’t going to start flying around the world just as soon as the opportunity arises? That she won’t send her kid off toparty with her friendsstudy in some trendy city on another continent? Puhleeze.We attack nature; eventually nature fights back.
Silly bint has lived in safety and luxury for so long that she doesn’t even realize how backwards she has it. Listen, honey: your long life of ease up to now was possible only because countless generations of clever men figured out ways to keep nature at arm’s length. Your comfortable house, plentiful food, clean water, and absence of everyday pestilence is nothing less than a miracle for which you should give thanks daily. It’s not some invisible baseline to be taken for granted — or worse, to be blamed for your current anxieties.
We don’t attack nature; we defend ourselves from it.
We don’t attack nature; we defend ourselves from it.
It has been said that it is mostly people who live comfortable lives, isolated from the harsh and brutal realities of nature in the raw, who appreciate the beauty of barren deserts and suchlike. Those who live close to nature, with the constant risk of starvation or death, tend to not see beauty in such things.
Further proof that for many people politics is simply LARPing
Yes, imagine yourself as Boudicca defending your potplant against Donaldus Trumpus Megamagnus
Master of Fine Arts programme in Creative Nonfiction
Is there any truth to the rumor that Christopher Steele is a senior lecturer in said program?
“COVID19 infection/death rates seem to be largely projections based on not much”
Oh dear, doesn’t Maureen from Regina need to be punished (perhaps some re-grooving) for Failing to be Concerned Enough and Wanting Innocent People to Die of
ClimateChangeCoronavirus?The author lays bare her intense, suffocating solipsism and relentlessly insists that the vacuum that resides inside her is the fault of external forces.
A recurring theme of woke posturing – pretty much its signature – is the displacement of responsibility, and agency, the rejection of self-possession, typically in ways that require some contortion:
“I only got a ‘C’ on my maths test. Maybe I should have studied more.”
“Studying won’t help. It’s because of white supremacy.”
“I feel awkward and unattractive because I’m 300lbs. And my chest hurts.”
“Don’t let the patriarchy body-shame you. Fat is beautiful.”
And yes, it’s a little odd to see someone for whom politics, i.e., leftist politics, appears to be an all-consuming narcissistic drama, an unhinged passion play, and simultaneously, utterly facile.
We don’t attack nature; we defend ourselves from it.
Which reminds me, Saturday, March 28, 8:30 pm is Earth Hour. I’ll have to break out the 20,000 Watt Bulb again.
[ Rummages around in basement behind the Christmas decorations ]
I don’t want to share the planet with people like this
She lives a rough life man. After I get up and eat, I go to work in an actual job. She should try that.
Those who live close to nature, with the constant risk of starvation or death, tend to not see beauty in such things.
Posted by: pst314 | March 26, 2020 at 16:23
————————————–
Quite. I suspect that those least likely to proclaim “Save the Tiger!” or “Save the Polar Bear!” are those most likely to have their face torn off by one.
A recurring theme of woke posturing – pretty much its signature – is the displacement of responsibility, and agency, the rejection of self-possession, typically in ways that require some contortion
That.
You know, I was not happy with George W. Bush during the last six years of his term, and I wasn’t happy with Obama at all, especially since I was working the copy desk and witnessed first-hand — from the staff and the news wires — the intense leftward lurch the media took.
It didn’t help that CNN was on in the newsroom constantly, and every time I heard their voice I would cring. Imagine “A Clockwork Orange”-style indoctrination only in a Dilbert-office environment.
But that doesn’t begin to approach the mental torment I’m witnessing over The Donald over such a wide swath of the population. I mean, I’m reading freaking pop fiction from an Australian author (*cough* John Birmingham *cough*) only to get slapped in the face with the wet-salmon of “truth” about DJT.
That’s on a par with the Facebook post from my ex-wife, whom I haven’t seen nor heard from in (counts on fingers, takes off shoes and socks) 20 years. But I’m not soused enough to tell that story. Yet.
That’s just one small sample. There needs to be a support group.
But I’m not soused enough to tell that story. Yet.
You’re among friends. We won’t judge.
[ Reaches under bar, hits ‘record’. ]
Huh. Cuz I’m a fair minded guy, and because I noted the phrase “cultivating our gardens” in David’s lead quote, I took a look at the actual Salon article. See, it crossed my mind that the author might have been making some philosophical point relating back to the end of Voltaire’s Candide. “Il faut cultiver son jardin” if memory serves.
Wow, was I ever disabused of that notion in a hurry.
Oh dear lord – that head tilt, the pursed lip smug expression.
So, Margaret Atwood with even worse hair?
And I remember when Salon and Slate were brand new and appeared to have sane people writing for them.
So many once interesting journals now so much wastepaper. Scientific American. The New Yorker. Atlantic. The Economist ( nearly, anyway.) Newsweek.
[pissing and moaning sounds continue]
I’m so old I remember when the Atlantic was worth reading! Remember Mark Derr’s great dog 🐶 articles? Now it’s all Emma Phule, Girl Reporter, writing about girlish things, which is fine, but writing POORLY about girlish things, which is not fine.
We don’t attack nature; we defend ourselves from it.
My usual way of putting it: Nature doesn’t want to kill you. Nature is a system indifferent to whether you live or die.
Scientific American.
I had a subscription about four decades ago. It was such a wonderful magazine. A couple years ago, I picked up a copy in a bookstore and thumbed through it. I felt the need to take a shower afterward.
So many once interesting journals now so much wastepaper. Scientific American. The New Yorker. Atlantic. The Economist ( nearly, anyway.) Newsweek.
I think a lot of it has to do with the vanishing of objective editing. A writer’s research skills and general knowledge have always, on average, bordered on barely competent; but you could always count on a veteran, experienced editor to clean things up before publication.
Ms. Dew tells us “The 1970s saw one of the few other presidential impeachments…” A good editor wouldn’t have let that through. Although to be fair, It has become widely accepted (wrongly) among the $50K per year educated that Nixon was impeached.
“So many once interesting journals now so much wastepaper. Scientific American. The New Yorker. Atlantic. The Economist…”
I still have some photocopied articles from S.A. that were both interesting and potentialy useful for, well never mind. Point being, I haven’t touched a copy in ages.
Conquest’s second law in action, I suppose. Was the outcasting (is that a word?) of Bjorn Lomberg the moment when they dropped the mask?
Sunny,
For SA, their decline preceded the Lomborg fiasco by years.
When Kosta Tsipis became a major contributor in the 70’s era of nuclear disarmament talks, And even he started out perfectly rational – took 2 or 3 years for him to become pointless to read.
David Burge@iowahawkblog May 25, 2016
1. Target a respected institution
2. Kill & clean it
3. Wear it as a skin suit, while demanding respect
Imagine “A Clockwork Orange”-style indoctrination only in a Dilbert-office environment.
* applause *
You have described every HR Department in the Western World
It didn’t help that CNN was on in the newsroom constantly, and every time I heard their voice I would cringe.
My local classical music station’s political biases make me reluctant to donate during their regular fund-raising campaigns. (Why do they think they need to read the headlines several times a day? And why must they slant the news so blatantly and dishonestly?
BrassG,
I grew up in the 60’s with SA, among others. In my teens I used to visit the local 2-year college’s library, where they had big bound volumes going back to Issue 1. I probably read them all. Just the kind of guy I was and still am.
[increasing sounds of interested ladies flocking in my direction]
I read SA every month starting in high school, and subscribed after college. I dropped them forever in the 90’s when their political biases became to blatant to ignore.
“Creative Nonfiction”. AKA Journalism, for those of you wondering.
I read SA every month starting in high school, and subscribed after college. I dropped them forever in the 90’s when their political biases became to blatant to ignore.
Almost exact parallel here. I know it’s terribly superficial to say this, but one thing that would constantly make me cringe was how their economics writer had an email address of @aol.com. A science magazine. In the late 1990’s.
Notably absent in the piece: working in a useful job.
The Elizabeth Farrelly article is full of gems.
From bemoaning she cant return her superfluous Apple computer, to losing flights to Europe to ‘hug my daughter’ who was there on a study trip, the heartstrings are well and truly tugged.
But the best bit for me was one of the comments, posted by “count factula”:
Sorry about your flight to the UK – as I recall, you recommend we all just take 3 or so international flights during our lifetime, from memory, for the sake of the environment. Was your thwarted international flight your second, or third??
…which, if true is a pretty good example of why its hard to take these folks seriously.
“Nature is a system indifferent to whether you live or die.” That is accurate, Squires. And in that natural system there are many things that are indifferent to whether we live or die but, live or dead, they want to eat us.
You could add New Scientist to the list of now worthless publications, except that it was probably never any good in the first place.
Betty Farrelley has always been a particularly rich fruitcake, but the lack of self-awareness in that article is something to behold. Talk about a litany of first-world problems.
I had to laugh when I noticed an ad for “Earth Hour” coming this Saturday night. I wonder if the people trying to persuade us that we are living in a Climate Change induced global emergency have done a double-take in the face of the real thing?
Oh! So this is the button everyone keeps wittering about…
Pickled egg and a packet of pork scratchings, please.
Oh! So this is the button everyone keeps wittering about…
Bless you, sir. May you retain a childlike delight in the first snowfall of the year. Also, bird song.
It is oddly convenient, and poetically alliterative that the initials of the current President of the USA and Delirium Tremens are the same.
DT DTs…
“In Donald Trump’s America, where we wake up to a new assault on human rights, the environment, and the constitution every day, the simple fact that a rainforest plant can still grow beautiful and strong in the middle of winter becomes soaked with meaning”
#Mentalist.
#Mentalist.
We live in an age of the breathless, depressive drama queen.