Yannick Trapman-O'Brien
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December Reading; “The Best Things in Life are Cheap”
🕑 Added 2024-12-15 17:14:37 +0000 UTCIt’s the holiday season, which is as good a time as any to think about the things we acquire and what they do for us. Above all of its arguments, I hope this book can function as an invitation to really savor some of the times and experiences you have this month; I’ve been working seriously on the project of having more fun with my work, and I wish us both the best success. To that end, stick around for the full post, and I've got a little poll for us to share resources.
Annie Raser-Rowland with Adam Grubb
Re-reading a book that made such an impact on my early twenties has proven an interesting meditation on change. The book has stayed mostly stable - from interviews, I know that in the re-release they changed some language, updated some statistics, and downplayed the idea that “being frugal will make you thin because you walk everywhere!” However, I find my relationship to frugality has changed. In my first summer out of university, I kept a composition-notebook paper budget, and lived on $7 a day in New York City. I resonated a lot with ideas in the book about diminishing consumption, but also wasn’t really in a position to choose anything else. Almost a decade later, living with modest but consistent self-employment in a vastly more affordable city, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the habits and practices those lean years left me with, and thinking about what it means to choose them, rather than default to them.
This is where I think this book really shines - rather than a moralistic or environmental appeal to consuming less, the authors make the case for diminished consumption as a path to pleasure. The chapters almost function as interchangeable essays, little invitations to new practice; some are practical, some philosophical, some political and a few openly radical, and some may end up a bridge too far for some readers. Much of this ends up aligning with a consistent fascination of my reading lists (see The Gift and other value conversations from Fair Trade and IF WE WIN), and I think this book remains a helpful entry point into considering what you want out of what and how you consume.
RELATED READINGS
Annie Raser-Rowland - The Art of Frugal Hedonism
The Permaculture Podcast
Longtime readers know I’m a shameless promoter of the “listen to 2-3 interviews so you don’t have to read the book” approach to skimming, particularly when you’re interested in a book for its information, rather than the experience of receiving it. Obviously nothing replaces the direct experience of reading it for yourself, but if you’re weighing which book to sink your self and idle thoughts into for a while, then listening to a few people (including the author) frame the contents is a good fasttrack for approximating an idea of the contents of a given book. So I shopped around, and found that this conversation is the closest proxy for all that - a fairly representative sample of what Raser-Rowland’s worldview is and what kind of voice you can expect in the book. However, if you’d like to go off the deep end, I also found a far more candid, less organized, and altogether stranger conversation that goes beyond the contents or thoughts of the book into personal struggles, voluntary extinction, and direct quotes from an interview with a possum - you can find that here.
In both cases, I’m putting a pin to explore later in my ambivalence to Raser-Rowland’s contention in both conversations that “rather than bringing a gift to a party, you can just be an interesting person,” and that “being strange or difficult is a boon to your friends, because it gives them something to complain about.” I find myself … skeptical and unsympathetic, but also wondering why this strikes me so differently from all the readings I endlessly quote on reconsidering how we create value with each other.
JENNY OFFILL in conversation with Brit Marling
City Arts & Lectures
I’ve recommended this conversation before, and I return to it in large part because I simply haven’t heard many other conversations that consider the unintentional large-scale contraction that occurred during Quarantine as an opportunity to imagine a future with less consumption. There’s a flicker of our monthly reading in Jenny Offil’s considerations of the pleasure of a smaller life, and given that I’m so enamored of her writing, that’s more than enough excuse for me.
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Okay, skill-sharing time: What are some of your favorite simple pleasures? Tell me in the comments, and I'll trade you
Comments
Lyra Levin
As to cheap thrills, I’m a devoted food maker, whether cooking or baking, canning or fermenting. As Kristen said, there’s a delight in having pastimes that result in something real, and I love that the end results of my effort are ephemeral and edible. You have to eat, everyone loves homemade treats as gifts, and you have to try to make cooking a more expensive hobby than eating out.
Lyra Levin
I’ve felt bashfully guilty around Jenny Offill, ever since listening to “How to do Nothing” while driving to a gig moonlighting for a tv show during the middle of my day job. Welp 😅
Kristen
First, I am now of the opinion that more audio experiences should utilize a peeved possum* hiss for their transitions - how fun! Second, I cannot more strongly recommend knitting and/or crocheting as a simple, enjoyable, budget-friendly pastime! To get started, all you really need are three things: 1. one to two (...to five+, but let's not get *too* complicated whilst getting started) moderately specialized sticks, 2. some vaguely yarn-shaped material (pro-tip: the simpler the better when starting, despite how alluring the fuzzy/sparkly ones might be!), and 3. either access to a library or the web for book/video tutorials - or, ideally, a friend or relative who is excited to teach you the basics and troubleshoot the creative errors that inevitably crop up. With the latter option (a human knitter/crocheter on hand for consultation), you will likely also find that they will be overjoyed at your interest and will lend or give you the necessary starting supplies outlined in points 1 and 2! While knitting and crocheting are fundamentally solo endeavors, the act of knitting in public often can spark conversation with a wide gamut of folks who are curious about what you might be creating, or who wish to excitedly share their own projects! And at the conclusion of any one project, you now have An Item, which may be something kept or gifted or donated or displayed as a work of great art (or unintentional hilarity). Most of my projects fit fairly well (sometimes with a bit of cajoling) into a gallon-sized bag or smaller and thus are reasonably portable for all sorts of adventures. Even larger projects such as blankets and Thneeds (made using non-Truffula fibres, of course) and such often have smaller elements that can be surprisingly compact. Once you get a little bit familiar with the rhythm of the activity, you might be surprised at how easy it is to knit/crochet whilst doing other things simultaneously, without diminishing the quality of either activity. Also, they're great alternatives to getting sucked into the well of perpetual scrolling... *https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/possum-vs-opossum-difference-pronunciation (n.b. requires a bit of reading to get to the Australian possum section!)
