This essay is about the book I read, Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It. It talks about the issues and myths in todays work environment and how we can resolve these Issues. Odell actually uses a passage from the book negatively, but the book actually supports one of her main arguments. Time is such a valuable thing and we need to take advantage of it, because we only have so much time available. This was very eye opening and made me realize I have been giving into these myths most of my life. I would highly suggest taking the time to read Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It because I bet you have too.
Watching the Dragon Tree | @jermilex on DeviantArt
I feel that one of Odell’s main points is to try to tell people to think more about how they spend their time because time itself is a currency. She focuses on being curious, and one with your surroundings to take in things that could help you perceive life in ways you never thought. There are so many things that the world/government/big business/mainstream media tries to streamline, dumb down, and generalize to make people be less curious and thoughtful in their daily lives. You’re told to be productive, but one thing Odell says is that anti-productivity can help in something such as brainstorming, thinking, and learning about more things that could eventually help you in your main focus. For example, if you take breaks in your work to go out on a walk in a public space, you can notice things you may not have ever seen or thought about. These things can help you brainstorm and focus on the more important things in either your work or just general life. Obscure, or “anti-” things are some of the most important factors in creativity.
Odell definitely tends to seem drawn to things related to public space, nature, and community. She often talks about the Rose Garden in Oakland as a little get away place for her to set her mind and thoughts free. The Morcom Rose Garden is a sanctuary in a big city where people can escape the noisy, dirty city life and experience a tid-bit of fresh nature tucked away. The author uses bird-watching as a way of escapism and looking into a whole other species’ world. She notes that as she watches them she thinks of how the birds, and us, humans all live in the same world, impacting and influencing each other daily and people should be more aware outside of their tunneled head-space.
Outside of the Rose Garden and just outside her window, Odell talks a lot about the crows that come by her building regularly. She points out how she’s noticed crows and birds her whole life, but recently she has come more aware of what they actually do and are capable of. She cites that she learned that crows can actually recognize human faces from Jennifer Ackerman’s The Genius of Birds. She’s astonished at how they can remember and even perceive some people as good or bad and that they also have routines and things of the sort. All this about the crows really astonished her and made her think really hard about how all living things share the same ground, the same air, the same world. Humans are animals and we know this, but when you really think about it, life seems surreal and it’s almost like you just want to know more about what is out there and what else do we not know.
The author also brings up the Old Survivor redwood tree that is the last of its ancient old-growth kind that still dwells in Oakland’s outlying hills. Old Survivor itself is a living thing and has been around for centuries and has “seen” what the world has done and how it has changed. Odell talks of the 4th century story of “The Useless Tree” and how the loggers did not appreciate the uniqueness of the tree he sees, but eventually the tree confronts the man and asks why he thought this tree was worthless. This relates to Old Survivor because 19th century loggers ripped down all the old-growth trees apart from Old Survivor because it was different looking, even though on the inside it was the same. These stories go hand-in-hand with Odell’s point of how some people don’t appreciate certain worldly things and are so narrow-minded or even lazy in some cases that they miss out on ideas and experiences and you may regret missing. She also seems to base a lot of her research on creativity focused works such as the lecture by John Cleese and the art pieces done by Eleanor Coppola and Scott Polach. Both the lectures and art installations put forth the idea and importance of community as well as the way that time is just a social construct that almost puts too much pressure on people to rush or “use it wisely”.
Jenny Odell is a very artistic writer who also uses politics, economics, media, a lot of modern and even ancient research to shift perceptions and captivate readers . She has a vast amount of sources and examples for all the points she tries to make to validate her messages. She takes her strengths of her community, family, education, and daily experiences to bring attention to what she believes is important in her writing. She is very observational and passionate in her work which makes her a great writer and educator.
E110: Seminar in Composition 