Thanks so much for the reflections. I love the term “cage-free.”
Like I said in my post, I think this sort of collection and reflection on essays is really beneficial for the form, and your synthesis here is excellent. It’s something I’d like to try on my own Substack as well.
I also want to say that even though I didn’t touch on it in the post, I very much agree with your disdain for algorithm-driven content. I used to write on Medium, and it’s amazing to see the way the importance algorithm influenced the content (it made it terrible).
Thanks, Dawson. I do think the incentives and design of Substack are far more positive sum than many other places--recommendations being probably the clearest example. I also think that, as the Roger's Bacon essay I included pointed out for physical landscapes, the way our digital spaces are designed change the way that our brains model the world, and I agree with you that many of us have seen how we've been changed by these spaces and now are searching for new and more nourishing shores. Hopefully we are, in fact, entering a golden age of essay (and digital) writing, though we can then ask the question of whether the cycle is one of degradation from an ideal (as in Hesiod's Ages of Men) or whether the golden age presages even more exciting progress in the future.
Cage-free popped into my head as a way to slightly augment Weinberger's "free-ranging essay" concept. I was also sort of going back and forth in my head about whether cage-free essay or infinite essay was better, but at any rate the name is far less important than the content.
Thanks again for directly inspiring this post with your essay!
I’m so interested in the ways in which reading changes our brains. I learned to read at three, and don’t really remember not being able to do so. However, for decades, I couldn’t read in my dreams. Any text in a dream would somehow be blurred or obscured, so that it wasn’t readable. One night though, I woke from a dream in which I’d read something-- not just “known” what it said, but actually seen the letters and read the words. And as you say above, from that point on, I’ve always been able to read in dreams.
I wonder if my dream reading somehow involved the same of changes that the brain undergoes when actually lasting to read.
Reading at three! You were ahead of the curve. I don't remember when I learned to read, though I also don't remember life before literacy, so to speak.
Your question about dreaming and reading is fascinating. I'll have to see if I can learn a bit about the neuroscience of dreaming. I must admit that my knowledge of dreaming life is rather unexplored, owing perhaps to the fact that I seldom remember my dreams.
Thanks for reading and leaving a thoughtful comment!
Thanks so much for the reflections. I love the term “cage-free.”
Like I said in my post, I think this sort of collection and reflection on essays is really beneficial for the form, and your synthesis here is excellent. It’s something I’d like to try on my own Substack as well.
I also want to say that even though I didn’t touch on it in the post, I very much agree with your disdain for algorithm-driven content. I used to write on Medium, and it’s amazing to see the way the importance algorithm influenced the content (it made it terrible).
Thanks, Dawson. I do think the incentives and design of Substack are far more positive sum than many other places--recommendations being probably the clearest example. I also think that, as the Roger's Bacon essay I included pointed out for physical landscapes, the way our digital spaces are designed change the way that our brains model the world, and I agree with you that many of us have seen how we've been changed by these spaces and now are searching for new and more nourishing shores. Hopefully we are, in fact, entering a golden age of essay (and digital) writing, though we can then ask the question of whether the cycle is one of degradation from an ideal (as in Hesiod's Ages of Men) or whether the golden age presages even more exciting progress in the future.
Cage-free popped into my head as a way to slightly augment Weinberger's "free-ranging essay" concept. I was also sort of going back and forth in my head about whether cage-free essay or infinite essay was better, but at any rate the name is far less important than the content.
Thanks again for directly inspiring this post with your essay!
I’m so interested in the ways in which reading changes our brains. I learned to read at three, and don’t really remember not being able to do so. However, for decades, I couldn’t read in my dreams. Any text in a dream would somehow be blurred or obscured, so that it wasn’t readable. One night though, I woke from a dream in which I’d read something-- not just “known” what it said, but actually seen the letters and read the words. And as you say above, from that point on, I’ve always been able to read in dreams.
I wonder if my dream reading somehow involved the same of changes that the brain undergoes when actually lasting to read.
Reading at three! You were ahead of the curve. I don't remember when I learned to read, though I also don't remember life before literacy, so to speak.
Your question about dreaming and reading is fascinating. I'll have to see if I can learn a bit about the neuroscience of dreaming. I must admit that my knowledge of dreaming life is rather unexplored, owing perhaps to the fact that I seldom remember my dreams.
Thanks for reading and leaving a thoughtful comment!