The 'lingering' factor
Places, spaces that facilitate lingering...are drawing fans in.
In amongst our anxious striving for frictionless-everything, there are also rare moments that welcome a certain kind of luxurious 'lingering'.
Instead of fastness, saving time, rushing, being efficient; lingering is the paradoxically revolutionary act of purposefully musing, slowing down, taking time back for yourself.
And places, spaces that facilitate lingering...are drawing fans in.
One such place in New York City is the appropriately named The Center for Fiction.
As far as we can tell, there's not too much difference between this place and a public library.
But perhaps unlike a public library The Center for Fiction is dedicated to hosting events, reading groups, supports writers and readers and offers corporate memberships to mentally fried executives who are in desperate need of some non-ChatGPT generated text to make them feel a bit better about the state of the world.
News headlines and the blue-rinse brigade that constantly phone into CapeTalk, with all of their sad stories, will bemoan the apparent death of reading and will call for a return to 'the good old days' (whenever the hell that was).
But as far as we can tell, books are as popular as ever, and reading while actively using your brain is still having a bit of a moment.
Fast and efficient has its place, but so too does lingering.
Related:
Jon Cherry
Jon Cherry
Sven Axelrad