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chanelchapters 's review for:
In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed
by Carl Honoré
With regards to this book it is more about the advised philosophy than the strength of the writing. I picked this up because I was interested in the Slow Movement. One of my favourite subjects was that of time, the opening subject, which started off well with the following paragraph - What is the very first thing you do in the morning? Draw the curtains? Roll over to snuggle with your partner or pillow? Spring out of bed and do ten push ups to get the blood pumping? No, the first thing you do, the first thing everyone does, is check the time. Page 17.
In my opinion it was one of the strongest subjects and made me think about my own relationship with time.
"Boredom - the word itself hardly existed 150 years ago - is a modern invention." This sentence really made me stop and think. 'I'm bored' is a term I have heard with increasing frequency each year. I only have to think back to when I was a child, and how the more technology developed and the less time we spent outdoors, the more bored we got, and to look at my young cousins now who are glued to their DS's which once the battery dies have absolutely no idea how to amuse themselves. It seems we have all forgotten how to slow down and simply be alive rather than constantly trying to maintain a state of hyper stimulation.
"Thanks to speed we live in the age of rage."
This rang truer for me than I would like to admit. I'm embarrassed to think of all the times I have huffed and puffed and gotten angry just by getting stuck in traffic or if I have to line up somewhere for more than a minute, not to mention if my Internet is lagging, having obviously completely forgotten what it was like when the first modem came out...When I think back on all the times I have gotten angry, most of it has been over nothing. Really. What does it matter if you have to wait a few minutes? After reading this I changed my ways. I know longer mind waiting. Instead I do some deep breathing, day dream about the newest hunk on True Blood or simply have a gander at what is going on in the world around me - birds finding twigs, children playing games, a leaf dancing on the wind etc. Slowing down has made me happier and calmer.
What I didn't like about this book was the chapter on music; it dragged on far too long and was very repetitive. Some chapters too suffered from repetition.
I also lost respect for the author on the chapter of Tantric sex. It might be a personal bias, but I could not understand how he could go back to the second class WITHOUT HIS WIFE. He went on to say, that although he performed the night's exercises with another woman (including touching her in places to see how pleasurable it was for her etc) it was all completely innocent. I mean honestly, he couldn't skip one night and wait until the next to go back with his wife to experience non-sex-induced orgasms??
After that I didn't really enjoy hearing his personal slant on everything and would have preferred he stay neutral and merely inform me of the different fields of the Slow Movement.
In my opinion it was one of the strongest subjects and made me think about my own relationship with time.
"Boredom - the word itself hardly existed 150 years ago - is a modern invention." This sentence really made me stop and think. 'I'm bored' is a term I have heard with increasing frequency each year. I only have to think back to when I was a child, and how the more technology developed and the less time we spent outdoors, the more bored we got, and to look at my young cousins now who are glued to their DS's which once the battery dies have absolutely no idea how to amuse themselves. It seems we have all forgotten how to slow down and simply be alive rather than constantly trying to maintain a state of hyper stimulation.
"Thanks to speed we live in the age of rage."
This rang truer for me than I would like to admit. I'm embarrassed to think of all the times I have huffed and puffed and gotten angry just by getting stuck in traffic or if I have to line up somewhere for more than a minute, not to mention if my Internet is lagging, having obviously completely forgotten what it was like when the first modem came out...When I think back on all the times I have gotten angry, most of it has been over nothing. Really. What does it matter if you have to wait a few minutes? After reading this I changed my ways. I know longer mind waiting. Instead I do some deep breathing, day dream about the newest hunk on True Blood or simply have a gander at what is going on in the world around me - birds finding twigs, children playing games, a leaf dancing on the wind etc. Slowing down has made me happier and calmer.
What I didn't like about this book was the chapter on music; it dragged on far too long and was very repetitive. Some chapters too suffered from repetition.
I also lost respect for the author on the chapter of Tantric sex. It might be a personal bias, but I could not understand how he could go back to the second class WITHOUT HIS WIFE. He went on to say, that although he performed the night's exercises with another woman (including touching her in places to see how pleasurable it was for her etc) it was all completely innocent. I mean honestly, he couldn't skip one night and wait until the next to go back with his wife to experience non-sex-induced orgasms??
After that I didn't really enjoy hearing his personal slant on everything and would have preferred he stay neutral and merely inform me of the different fields of the Slow Movement.