Walden’s influence on Odell

My goal in writing this essay was to show the connection between Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” and Jenny Odell’s “How to Do Nothing”. I showed these connections by explaining the numerous similarities that Odell and Thoreau share in their writings, such as both of them believing in deep-listening and both having an interest in the economy. I also emphasized the importance of the other authors that Odell compared to Thoreau in her book by showing that Odell wished to connect the examples of Tehching Hsieh, a Taiwanese performance artist, and Plato, a Greek philosopher, to Thoreau in order to connect foreign examples to American lifestyles. 

One quote I would like to show from my essay is when Thoreau is trying to convince an impoverished man to economize in order to help his family, “I told him, that as he worked so hard at bogging, he required thick boots and stout clothing, which yet were soon soiled and worn out… and in an hour or two, without labor, but as a recreation, I could, if I wished, catch as many fish as I should want for two days, or earn enough money to support me a week.” I used this quote in order to expose a difference between Thoreau and Odell which is that Odell tells people to resist the attention economy, while Thoreau tells people to be a part of the economy to save yourself from poverty.

https://camhay.medium.com/waldens-influence-on-odell-96416a00af8f

Doing Nothing In a Pandemic

In Jenny Odell’s “How to Do Nothing”, I noticed the recurring themes of distancing oneself from stressful situations, such as technology and media, society, and the economy. I also noticed the theme of appreciating the world around you from when Odell goes in depth into bird watching and Deep Listening. These themes presented by Odell can be seen as a mix of self help and activist messages. They can help people overcome adversities and cope with stress, while also motivating them to cause change to themselves and the world around them. Using these themes, I decided to link them to the current situation of the pandemic because it has caused an abundance of stress in the months it has been present. 

In my essay, “Doing Nothing In a Pandemic”, I explain a connection between the messages of unplugging from the media and noticing the world around you, to the current situation of the pandemic in America. I do this by showing quotes from Odell herself where she further explains the messages she presents. I also use external examples such as an article related to the overexposure to media during the pandemic, and my own personal experiences of living life and dealing with stress during the pandemic. 

View at Medium.com

https://medium.com/@camhay/doing-nothing-in-a-pandemic-82c22fecd8b3

Enjoy

Unplugging from Stress

After reading through the first three chapters of Jenny Odell’s, “How to Do Nothing”, I have acquired a deeper understanding of the ideas and concepts presented in the book. One idea that I have chosen to mainly focus on is the thought of removing yourself from the media and your technology in order to become more connected to the people around you. This idea is initially mentioned by introducing Levi Felix, the founder of Camp Grounded and one of the biggest inspirations to people on distancing themselves from technology, as shown in the book when it is stated that Felix “spoke for forty-five minutes on the importance of unplugging from technology… everyone who was there said it was one of the most inspiring talks they had ever heard.” This idea of unplugging from technology is then later brought up when mentioning the Garden School of Epicurus, which had very similar ideals and goals of Felix’s Camp Grounded which was to enable people to become more connected to themselves, other people, and the world around them. Odell then explains the existence of the 1960’s communes which were built up by people who attempted to abandon their modern life and try their hand at country living. These communities would not last as long as the garden school of Epicurus or Camp Grounded because of the re implementation of capitalist society and the inherent greed and mistrust of people. Odell then mentions the writer Robert Houriet, author of Drop City Commune, who visited more than a thousand of these communes across the country. One of Houriets experiences was described as “At an old resort hotel in the Catskills, Houriet found two people left, and they were on their way out. Left over in one of the bedrooms were a mattress, a crate, the stub of a candle, and some roaches in an ashtray.” This goes to show the dilapidation and mass abandonment of these once numerous communes.

The idea of unplugging oneself from media and technology is appealing to me because of how relevant addiction to technology is even after the founding of Camp Grounded and after the spread of awareness of unplugging from technology. Something else that I find appealing about the idea of unplugging is that it has historical relevance all the way back to the fourth century B.C with the garden school of Epicurus which emphasized the importance of distancing oneself from the stress of society and the general city life of ancient Greece. The fact that this ideal of distancing yourself from the source of your stress, be it society or technology, has persisted from the times of Ancient Greece with Epicurus’ garden school for enlightenment and to act as a curative to stress, to the 1960’s where people wanted to abandon the modern society and live more rural and traditional lifestyles, Finally up to late 2010’s where Levi Felix founded Camp Grounded to help people distance themselves from technology and to help them better connect with each other, shows that it must be preserved and attempted more to encourage people to look away from their screens and take in the world around them.

Given the ideal of unplugging from technology as presented by Odell, I would apply it to my own life experience of going camping with my family. The first time my family ever went camping was roughly six years ago, and I was yet to have a phone, but I did have a tablet. When we went camping, me and my siblings could not bring our devices and were left disconnected from any media, aside from what we heard or were told, and had very little distractions presented to us while on our site. While we were unplugged from our technology, my family became more connected and shared more experiences with each other. Since that trip we had gone camping numerous other times, but we were able to bring our devices. Despite not being actually cut off from technology, we still grew as a family because of the limitations that camping presents. No one has a designated room they can isolate themselves in and browse their phone like at home, instead we sit around the fire with each other and talk and communicate, still growing closer as a family. I believe that being disconnected from technology will greatly allow you to become more connected to those around you, as shown by me and my family through our various camping trips.

In conclusion, I find the idea of unplugging from technology as presented in Jenny Odell’s “How to Do Nothing” to be appealing because of the ideas’ relevance throughout history with the garden school of Epicurus, the communes of the 1960’s and Levi Felix’s Camp Grounded. The idea is applicable to my own life because of my own experience being disconnected from technology while camping which resulted in my family becoming more connected.

Defining Jenny Odell, Cameron Hay

After reading the first chapter of Jenny Odell’s book, “How to Do Nothing”, I would define Odell’s project as a writer as to help her readers “do nothing” or simply try to relax or find their peace in the world and to find the inner beauty within the world itself, such as Odell herself going to the rose garden after the 2016 election and describing it as a survival tactic and a “beautiful garden versus terrifying world”. Regarding the aim of Odell’s project as a writer, I would say Odell is trying to motivate her readers to not see the world as bleak and hopeless as it might seem sometimes, and instead find their peaceful activity where they can “do nothing”, such as Odell going to the rose garden to get away from her computer and do most of her work. Odell also explains that “to do nothing” acts as a “deprogramming device and as sustenance for those feeling too disassembled to act meaningfully” This shows that Odell’s overall message to her readers is that by doing nothing, they will most likely be reinvigorated and compelled to do something meaningful.

Odell uses various pieces of art as examples to emphasize her point throughout the first chapter. One of which is by Elanor Coppola, a documentary filmmaker, in 1973 and was called Windows, which involved a map of windows throughout San Francisco. The point behind it was that what happened behind each window had their own story and the project was used to bring attention to the community as a whole. Another project mentioned was by Pauline Oliveros, a composer, who developed performances where people listened to and improvised responses to each other and the ambient sound environment, which brought attention to the act of Deep Listening. Oliveros explains deep listening to be “listening in every possible way to everything possible to hear no matter what you’re doing”. Odell exposing this to her readers shows that she wishes for them to be able to appreciate the things around them by listening and experiencing them fully.

Odell shares many of her own experiences with the readers to emphasize her point. One such experience is Odell’s explanation of bird-watching. Odell explains that deep listening has a huge part in bird watching because it requires you to take in everything around you to locate the birds, as well as being able to identify specific birds based on the type of call you can hear. Odell also mentions the experience of her learning that her mother spoke three languages, not two. Odell explains that whenever she heard her mother talk to another Filipino person, she was speaking Tagalog, but she was also able to speak Ilonggo because she is from the part of the Philippines where this language is spoken. This shows that Odell wants to emphasize the importance of focusing on the world around you and to appreciate it.

One of the main ideas that Odell presents in the chapter is from a passage from Gilles Deleuze in Negotiations, which is “were riddled with pointless talk, insane quantities of words and images. Stupidity Is never blind or mute. So it’s not a problem of getting people to express themselves but of providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don’t stop people expressing themselves but rather force them to express themselves; what a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, and ever rarer, thing that might be worth saying.” Odell then goes on to explain that saying and doing nothing is a necessary part of meaningful thought and speech, which shows that Odell wants to explain that doing nothing is a natural thing for her readers to do and that it will actually help them compose themselves.

Throughout the chapter, Odell connects the examples that she has made and forms them into a line of thought by structuring them and continuing to use ideas from them later on in the text. Such as Pauline Oliveros’ act of deep listening which Odell connects to her experience bird watching and explains how they are deeply connected. Another comparison Odell makes in the chapter is that of John Muir and her own father. She explains how Muir believed life was too brief and uncertain and caused him to leave his job at a wagon wheel factory in pursuit of something greater. Odell compares Muir to her father because her father left his own job when he was her age and taught himself things like how to play the flute, studied math and electronics, and realized most of the anger he felt towards his job was more to do with himself.

In conclusion, I would define Odell’s project as a writer to encourage her readers to appreciate and notice the world around them through her aims of explaining the nature of “doing nothing”, the examples and ideas she used to provide reasoning and understanding for her point, and her methods of comparing ideas and her own experiences.