I need a favor, as it were
the links🏌️♂️007
Happy Monday! 👋🏼
To our new subscribers, welcome.
To all, welcome to our monthly roundup, “the links.”
Before you go, I need a favor. Would you help with future posts by answering the two polls below?
the links🏌️♂️
I’m going to do something different here.
I’m really proud of the posts I sent from the UK. Because the program had me so busy, they didn’t get promoted as well as I’d typically like.
So I’m going to share a blurb about each post along with their links. Hopefully you enjoy the additional context.
A Case for Books
This one was fun. It felt like a big swing.
If you missed the essay, I lay out a case predicting a resurgence of book sales and reading.
I’ve heard some interesting points made in response. If I’m being honest, I only fit about half of my thought process into the original post. I’d like to write up a second post on the subject.
But I want to hear from you.
When it comes to your personal reading habits, do you feel you read enough?
A good prediction has to be a big swing. You can’t predict cold weather coming in winter. I look forward to writing more on the subject, but I stand by the prediction as is. And I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Abbey Roads
If I put a lot of thought into “A Case for Books,” it was emotion that made it to “Abbey Roads.”
If I recall correctly, I started this post early on the morning I left Oxford.
I’d spent the prior week defending 18 pages of work on Northanger Abbey to my tutors. That had me on a high, full of exciting ideas.
Then, I found myself leaving the place and people I’d quickly grown to love. I mostly finished the post in the airport that night.
I never write essays in as little time as this one took. I knew the excitement I was feeling was unique to the day. I’d sleep it off with the jet lag, and there’d be no replicating those emotions from some desk in Ohio.
Here’s the poll question: if I revised the academic essays I wrote in Oxford, would you care to read them here?
We’re talking four essays, double the length of my normal posts, in academic style.
A Man’s Sum
I lost some subscribers for this one.😂
Let me try to give some context. Honestly, understanding what’s going on with a Steve Harvey blackout poem is pretty central to the overall aim of this newsletter.
I started writing As It Were because I was feeling crazy about the content being circulated online.
You see quotes like, “Follow the light to where it leads you: your heart.” And that gets two thousand shares on Instagram. We’re saying so little.
I’m no snob. Let people like what they like. But seeing what’s applauded as today’s intellectualism was driving me a little mad.
So if you see a Steve Harvey blackout poem and think, “isn’t that a little ridiculous?” you may be right. But I’d say it’s less ridiculous than much of the deep thought out there. Read the poem—it holds up.
Societally, I feel we take big concepts and pull such flimsy meanings from them. In a poem like this one, or an essay on roundabouts, I’m having fun trying to do the opposite. It’s earnest satire, trying to pull meaning even from the absurd.
Bonus Jonas
Out of Character
Okay, this is technically a post from June. But I wrote it from the UK, and it seems like it needs included.
On Repeat
On Thursday, I got to chat with Kevin from On Repeat about my most recent EP.
I make music under the name Useful Fiction. You can stream my music on Apple Music or Spotify.
If you’re on TikTok, I post awful (awesome) memes in support of the music here.
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Until next time,
Tim
Didn't vote for the second one. Mostly because of your explanation of how Abbey Roads came about; it's an extension of your experiences while in the UK, and the context of Ohio (or anywhere else) couldn't replicate it. I like the thought of your UK posts staying pure then. Undefiled from tinkering. That said, if you revisit them and publish extended versions, I'd read them!
That's very brave of you, to make a poll with the second ❓