Post Titled: Non-Fiction, Nov. 2008 & the Happy Dark Ages!
Post Subtitled: and to an absurd level we are accidentally so fresh and so green, like, the greenest motherf#%kers in the neighborhood ever motherf#%ker, don't tell me you give a shit about the environment if you still use electricity and drive an auto-mo-bile. word.
Since the 31st of October when negotiations shut down with Vattenfall (our power company) and our
electricity was shut off life has certainly changed- but I am going to put my neck out there (at the risk of my roommate killing me) and say that I have actually come to LIKE it.
"Why? WHY (and HOW?) is life without electricity so great?" you might ask-
well, the answer is: I am around electronic devices all day long- online, typing, absorbing information, etc-
and then i come home and walk from room to room with candles. If I want to read I position several candles in brilliantly orchestrated
collaboration with multiple mirrors to make it bright enough. Strangely enough I knocked my iPod into the sink three days ago (which was the last
means of importing /carrying
media from the outside world into the apartment) , and it has yet to show any signs
of life since...
moral of that story: only idiots try to listen to podcasts of this American life and shave at the
same time. I am an idiot.
So, yea, I get the candles lit, start a raging fire in the coal oven, then make make tea directly on the heater
in my new authentic metal prisoner
cup (a reproduction from Alcatraz) and sit back to read the dual-language book of T.C. Boyle short stories I
picked up, or the ridiculous German Superman / Gerechtlichkeitsleague (Justice League) comic from 1978 I found at the fle market for €1 and which is now totally falling apart, or the David Foster Wallace Lobster book on loan from Tod- or even play tetris on
my old RAZR -which has been useless for the past 2.1 years ever since cingular refused to unlock it for me
when I moved to Europe... when i get tired I break out my laptop and watch the first half of Risky Business, which
I torrented- and was pleasantly surprised to find that it is an 80s teen movie, who knew???
There are sounds at all times, and especially before I fall asleep - just listening to these transmissions coming from various parts of our building and the street below: babies crying, drunks grumbling, boy-girl fights,
Turks having serious discussions, couples in bed talking or fucking (also trying to figure out if the noises are real or if it is just the sound
someone watching porn, clue. real life tends to me much more irregular and less repetitive/clockwork in its animal noises) and the occasional bark of a dog...
Without electricity the senses are heightened (one visualizes rooms and their contents/objects because one is too lazy or has forgotten to bring a candle, and the sounds- all the little sounds come out of the woodwork, any sounds you'd've never ever noticed before but now that is all that's left... one is left only with simple pleasures and activities to entertain one's self. A huge leap, actually, and
the laptop battery life now limits me severely- not to mention the lack of internet... I am not in front of the computer glotzening endless Daily Show / Colbert clips online...
will all this newfound still-life get old? probably. But for now I am just so fascinated by it... that firewall of still you pass through when you pass through the front door.
So,
CONCLUSION: lemme go out on a limb here and say that I think this is actually HEALTHY. It is like camping in your house, and with complete saturation of technology and information (especially post-election) I feel like this might be exactly what I need, it hits the spot. Completely. TV TURNOFF WEEK is one thing, this is a whole different animal -and an animal I#d highly recommend taking home with you- at that.