The first half of this essay describes how easy it is to annoy the absolute shit out of your fellow apartment-dwellers in ways that you can't easily predict or understand, much less fix. They might constantly be yelling, "Shut up!" when you do perfectly innocuous things like close the bathroom drawer.
The first half of this essay describes how easy it is to annoy the absolute shit out of your fellow apartment-dwellers in ways that you can't easily predict or understand, much less fix. They might constantly be yelling, "Shut up!" when you do perfectly innocuous things like close the bathroom drawer.
And then you ask the reader, "Do you perceive the presence of people around you—10, 15, 20 feet away on two sides, and under and over you—as a kind of latent community? A hedge against loneliness?"
I dunno, I feel both of those things. I think about this a lot - things we like or that are good for us, but that are almost impossible to affirmatively choose. Commuting to an office is another good example.
The first half of this essay describes how easy it is to annoy the absolute shit out of your fellow apartment-dwellers in ways that you can't easily predict or understand, much less fix. They might constantly be yelling, "Shut up!" when you do perfectly innocuous things like close the bathroom drawer.
And then you ask the reader, "Do you perceive the presence of people around you—10, 15, 20 feet away on two sides, and under and over you—as a kind of latent community? A hedge against loneliness?"
The juxtaposition made me giggle a bit. 😂
I dunno, I feel both of those things. I think about this a lot - things we like or that are good for us, but that are almost impossible to affirmatively choose. Commuting to an office is another good example.