Wonderful, Samuél, thank you for this recap of some of the highlights from your visit to my class. I'll share this with the class participants when we meet for the last time tomorrow. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to discuss your book with you. And even better that you have now captured these highlights and shared them with others--and also given us a way to hold onto the experience for a bit longer than just our memories would allow.
Next week's post will include some of the meatier aspects of the novel, but the audio version will have to be paywalled because of the end-of-the-book spoilers I so enjoyed chatting about. Also I wonder if sooner or later all of my Substacks will be used against me by some lonely TSA agent. Only time will tell. But that's also the benefit of a paywall?
Is it keeping your head down and remaining ignorant or is it forgetting how to speak to the fans of your rival that will determine the tides of fascism in the U.S.? It's hard to forget something that is so unlearned, so novel to so many who have only been taught to choose sides and who have always instilled superiority within the culture in which they identify. I never had a huge collegiate spirit, but there is much to be studied in the psychology of it all. There is an air of acceptance that is intoxicating to participate in....when its the season for drinking and football and you're surrounded in purple and gold. What startles me though is that there remains an opportunity to live in binary spaces, fueled by hatred, and there remain individuals who seek it out. Nearly 15 years after graduating, I clearly haven't changed my level of interest in LSU football. I haven't chosen to define myself by where I graduated because that is all it means to me. I remain unmoved by collegiate politics, cult-like thinking, conformist exclusionary ideals, yet a perfect stranger in Shreveport, LA 4 hours north of me with the perfect opportunity to introduce kindness towards a face she has never seen, tells me they hate LSU fans. With such disgust and comfort it's like her hatred needed a home in someone who bled for something else. It didn't matter that that person wasn't me. I don't bleed for this school. My dad does. My uncles do. And my aunts too because of it. So for me, there is an art to politics that is absent in people and perhaps that is the parallel within our economic structure. For some, an old and battered hatred is seeking a home just as much as we are. And how do we train ourselves to look for ways to reach across the table once you've betrayed someone's trust by disrespecting their identity. I had decided in that moment that I would not befriend this stranger. Not a single morsel of what's on my table would extend to her. She'd never get to meet my family of Tiger fans and I couldn't care less if I met hers. And again I repeat, I don't even like college football. Do we train ourselves OUT of the intoxication of acceptance through hatred or acceptance through popular opinion? I laughed at the decision I had made but it felt like I had accidentally built a home for her disdain. As someone who has trained myself into alcohol sobriety within a culture of alcohol consumption, the same tides overcome many of my conversations in many different ways. People are desperate for accountability to help see themselves because there is no change without seeing and no growth without change but that desperation is yet another intoxication. It's this idea that, what if we never get to really be who we are? What if the self I identify with never gets to the light like that angler fish? I've bled Royal blue for 25 years and that's never changed but neither has my urgency to house hatred and disdain as something that lives outside of me. That doesn't tarnish my innocence or my ability to connect and know a person.
This line slaps in particular, "Like her hatred needed a home in someone who bled for something else." It's a tough question. I think folks in the USA are mostly raised, to your point, with the an instilled superiority within the culture in which they identify. And the tribalism of different towns / states / teams is reaching fever pitches all across the globe, particularly because as you point out, "desperation is yet another intoxication," and in an era of such loneliness and fragmentation and tribalistic identitarianism, many folks feel desperate to BE SEEN and yet aren't educated TO LOOK at those they imagine are their enemies.Your mention of alcohol sobriety in a culture of excessive boozing (the challenge in Paris is a major battle) is also particularly perceptive, because the feeling of intoxication is what happens when BIDEN WINS! or TRUMP WINS! or OBAMA WINS! or BUSH WINS! and when we're brainwashed into thinking that winning is all that matters, well, the best we can hope for is being a good sport whilst silently snickering at the losers and basking in our short-lived victories. TLDR The Dude said it best: it's a bummer. But speaking about it like we're doing now is at least some kind of reprieve.
Hi Samuél, what a thought-ful interview. Lots to think about. What you said about the Nazis no doing all this killing: It was the permission, even encouragement they gave to others that unleashed the additional brutality. Isn't that what we have in the US today? Trump gives permission to be sexist, racist, homophobic, and to act out that hatred.
This is an important point--the permission that bigots in power give to bigots who feel powerless. There is a terrible vengeance that comes with the turning of the tables, whether real or imagined, and we're already seeing that in the behavior of the Trump administration's decidedly childish reaction to anyone who disagrees with them. Here's to naming the petulance when we see it.
"We have met the enemy and they are us." My shock in 2016 was learning who US Americans really are. The surface got scratched and revealed our true colors. Since then, my only shock has been learning how much angrier, violent, and committed those who want to snuff out liberal social principles and protections are. Forget about the quaint idea of majority rule Democracy. That ship has sailed. The rhetorical refrain taking root now is RIP, by which they mean Rot in Purgatory. You have met the enemy. Good luck with those conversations.
Fabulous class with you! The Requisitions so beautifully written, poetic in parts, well researched history entwined with philosophy - loved that your key characters represent different, important philosophical threads, Victor for our search for meaning from Victor Frankl and more, not to do too many spoilers... Your positive, informed view of the world a thought provoking bright light in our class. The Requisitions highly recommended as history, as literature, as timely commentary. Thank you for all!
You're too kind Deirdre! It's been a pleasure chatting with you over the virtual cosmos in courses & readings and hearing your questions ... there shall certainly be more books where that one came from!
I Will be in Paris next September with family (2 or 4 of us not confirmed) and would love to do the Left Bank or Hemingway tour. Will you be in Paris at the beginning of Sept?
Wonderful, Samuél, thank you for this recap of some of the highlights from your visit to my class. I'll share this with the class participants when we meet for the last time tomorrow. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to discuss your book with you. And even better that you have now captured these highlights and shared them with others--and also given us a way to hold onto the experience for a bit longer than just our memories would allow.
Next week's post will include some of the meatier aspects of the novel, but the audio version will have to be paywalled because of the end-of-the-book spoilers I so enjoyed chatting about. Also I wonder if sooner or later all of my Substacks will be used against me by some lonely TSA agent. Only time will tell. But that's also the benefit of a paywall?
Is it keeping your head down and remaining ignorant or is it forgetting how to speak to the fans of your rival that will determine the tides of fascism in the U.S.? It's hard to forget something that is so unlearned, so novel to so many who have only been taught to choose sides and who have always instilled superiority within the culture in which they identify. I never had a huge collegiate spirit, but there is much to be studied in the psychology of it all. There is an air of acceptance that is intoxicating to participate in....when its the season for drinking and football and you're surrounded in purple and gold. What startles me though is that there remains an opportunity to live in binary spaces, fueled by hatred, and there remain individuals who seek it out. Nearly 15 years after graduating, I clearly haven't changed my level of interest in LSU football. I haven't chosen to define myself by where I graduated because that is all it means to me. I remain unmoved by collegiate politics, cult-like thinking, conformist exclusionary ideals, yet a perfect stranger in Shreveport, LA 4 hours north of me with the perfect opportunity to introduce kindness towards a face she has never seen, tells me they hate LSU fans. With such disgust and comfort it's like her hatred needed a home in someone who bled for something else. It didn't matter that that person wasn't me. I don't bleed for this school. My dad does. My uncles do. And my aunts too because of it. So for me, there is an art to politics that is absent in people and perhaps that is the parallel within our economic structure. For some, an old and battered hatred is seeking a home just as much as we are. And how do we train ourselves to look for ways to reach across the table once you've betrayed someone's trust by disrespecting their identity. I had decided in that moment that I would not befriend this stranger. Not a single morsel of what's on my table would extend to her. She'd never get to meet my family of Tiger fans and I couldn't care less if I met hers. And again I repeat, I don't even like college football. Do we train ourselves OUT of the intoxication of acceptance through hatred or acceptance through popular opinion? I laughed at the decision I had made but it felt like I had accidentally built a home for her disdain. As someone who has trained myself into alcohol sobriety within a culture of alcohol consumption, the same tides overcome many of my conversations in many different ways. People are desperate for accountability to help see themselves because there is no change without seeing and no growth without change but that desperation is yet another intoxication. It's this idea that, what if we never get to really be who we are? What if the self I identify with never gets to the light like that angler fish? I've bled Royal blue for 25 years and that's never changed but neither has my urgency to house hatred and disdain as something that lives outside of me. That doesn't tarnish my innocence or my ability to connect and know a person.
This line slaps in particular, "Like her hatred needed a home in someone who bled for something else." It's a tough question. I think folks in the USA are mostly raised, to your point, with the an instilled superiority within the culture in which they identify. And the tribalism of different towns / states / teams is reaching fever pitches all across the globe, particularly because as you point out, "desperation is yet another intoxication," and in an era of such loneliness and fragmentation and tribalistic identitarianism, many folks feel desperate to BE SEEN and yet aren't educated TO LOOK at those they imagine are their enemies.Your mention of alcohol sobriety in a culture of excessive boozing (the challenge in Paris is a major battle) is also particularly perceptive, because the feeling of intoxication is what happens when BIDEN WINS! or TRUMP WINS! or OBAMA WINS! or BUSH WINS! and when we're brainwashed into thinking that winning is all that matters, well, the best we can hope for is being a good sport whilst silently snickering at the losers and basking in our short-lived victories. TLDR The Dude said it best: it's a bummer. But speaking about it like we're doing now is at least some kind of reprieve.
Hi Samuél, what a thought-ful interview. Lots to think about. What you said about the Nazis no doing all this killing: It was the permission, even encouragement they gave to others that unleashed the additional brutality. Isn't that what we have in the US today? Trump gives permission to be sexist, racist, homophobic, and to act out that hatred.
This is an important point--the permission that bigots in power give to bigots who feel powerless. There is a terrible vengeance that comes with the turning of the tables, whether real or imagined, and we're already seeing that in the behavior of the Trump administration's decidedly childish reaction to anyone who disagrees with them. Here's to naming the petulance when we see it.
Childish? I assume you're referring to a born sociopath who at a very young age displays the characteristics of a. antisocial criminal mind.
Ha. Yes. That's precisely what I am referring to. An outsized sociopathic baby with daddy's money.
"We have met the enemy and they are us." My shock in 2016 was learning who US Americans really are. The surface got scratched and revealed our true colors. Since then, my only shock has been learning how much angrier, violent, and committed those who want to snuff out liberal social principles and protections are. Forget about the quaint idea of majority rule Democracy. That ship has sailed. The rhetorical refrain taking root now is RIP, by which they mean Rot in Purgatory. You have met the enemy. Good luck with those conversations.
Wow. RIP, I hadn't heard of that one before. In my darkest moments I tend to revert to joie de vivre and calculated absurdism--will that protect me?
Fabulous class with you! The Requisitions so beautifully written, poetic in parts, well researched history entwined with philosophy - loved that your key characters represent different, important philosophical threads, Victor for our search for meaning from Victor Frankl and more, not to do too many spoilers... Your positive, informed view of the world a thought provoking bright light in our class. The Requisitions highly recommended as history, as literature, as timely commentary. Thank you for all!
You're too kind Deirdre! It's been a pleasure chatting with you over the virtual cosmos in courses & readings and hearing your questions ... there shall certainly be more books where that one came from!
I Will be in Paris next September with family (2 or 4 of us not confirmed) and would love to do the Left Bank or Hemingway tour. Will you be in Paris at the beginning of Sept?
Yes! Shoot me a message via the form on this website and I'll respond via email
https://www.samuellopezbarrantes.com/pariswalks