Friends of mine who do patreon and the like report the first of the month can be an issue because people's debit/credit cards expire and they don't realize until they get an email that payment didn't go through that they have to update with their new card info.
Also, thanks for your post on Monday. I've luckily never had mental health issues so severe I needed to go to the hospital, but I've had depression well more than half my life now, and each time I relapse there's that inevitable "I'm too sick to get myself help" --> "Okay, I feel a little better, let me make an appointment" --> "Huh now that I feel better I kinda feel silly about asking for help" --> "haha, sorry for wasting your time, doc, it was probably just insomnia or something" cycle, which you illustrated in very relatable fashion. Learning to assert for yourself when you have this niggling doubt that maybe the problem isn't real is hard. Mental illnesses really warp your perception of what happened; it's hard for me to remember what it's like to not be depressed when I'm depressed, and vice versa.
I subscribe to four Substacks- Angela Nagle, Yasha Levine, The Turbonic Method, and yours, and I will tell you that your columns constitute the majority of the word count that this site sends me any given week. I don’t think that any of your avid readers, who stayed loyal through those years you were offline getting your head right, would blame you one bit if you shaved a few hours off your work schedule. I appreciate everything you do man, I’m glad another 40 year old communist can finally afford to hire movers instead of fucking his back up AGAIN.
I understand what you mean but I think that your being able to afford movers (and to then complain about it) is not a sign of privilege, it is just a sign of being able to afford movers and the fact that moving is incredibly tiring. And this brings up something that has been bothering me a long time: It makes no sense to attack the middle class for their privilege, or the working class whites for their white privilege. In truth, the privileged are the rich and the upper middle class, not the rest of us working stiffs or the working poor or the unemployed. And besides, all any of the people who are attacking people for their privilege have to do is go to another country where they will immediately discover that they have an American privilege ingrained in them. I always loved James Baldwin's discover upon moving to France that his primary identity there wasn't a black man but an American. And Richard Pryor, too, when he went to Africa. He wasn't black but American. The truth is that it is just fate as to where and when and to whom we are born. Each of us starts where we are and when we are with what we have and go from there. My birth situation was better than many and worse than many others. The damage to my psyche and health was worse than many but not as bad as a great many others. One of the best things that happened to me from going into group therapy when i was in my twenties is to find out that, in comparison, it really wasn't as bad as I'd thought. At least my mother didn't put me into the oven and try to burn the devils out of me. (yes, a true story.) So, from what I do know of your story Freddie (and I realize it is only a tiny bit) I can't in any way use the word privilege in relation to your having movers and feeling exhausted from the process. I am just glad you can afford them and that you found love again and that things are getting better for you. Every single one of us will in one way or another find ourselves in the position you were in after your meltdown. Been there, done that myself. It is what happens after that is important. Do we become a better person, a better man, more honorable, more willing to expose our limits and vulnerabilities? I admire you because within my frame, you took the honorable road.
I am always pleased to see Wodehouse recommended. The man did not write sophisticated literature, had about 10 plots over 90 books, but I struggle to think of anyone who had such mastery of the English language. His sentences dance and scintillate; I can only wish I had a quarter his talent.
I've meant to ask you about Wodehouse for years - I'm glad to see my sloth has been rewarded. He might be the greatest wordsmith in the English language - not plot, not characterization, not deep art, but I don't know of anyone who comes close in terms of prose poetry.
"A certain critic - for such men, I may regret to say, do exist - made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained ‘all the old Wodehouse characters under different names’. He has probably now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy."
The Come Apart post was brutal and insightful in a way that I love you for.
HOWEVER, I believe you gave away sufficient info to identify your psychiatrist. Also, working in a (admittedly Canadian) pharmacy myself, I get nervous when I see un-redacted Rx numbers, barcodes and pharmacy locations….
Probably best to modify that picture unless you just don’t give a shit.
Friends of mine who do patreon and the like report the first of the month can be an issue because people's debit/credit cards expire and they don't realize until they get an email that payment didn't go through that they have to update with their new card info.
Also, thanks for your post on Monday. I've luckily never had mental health issues so severe I needed to go to the hospital, but I've had depression well more than half my life now, and each time I relapse there's that inevitable "I'm too sick to get myself help" --> "Okay, I feel a little better, let me make an appointment" --> "Huh now that I feel better I kinda feel silly about asking for help" --> "haha, sorry for wasting your time, doc, it was probably just insomnia or something" cycle, which you illustrated in very relatable fashion. Learning to assert for yourself when you have this niggling doubt that maybe the problem isn't real is hard. Mental illnesses really warp your perception of what happened; it's hard for me to remember what it's like to not be depressed when I'm depressed, and vice versa.
I subscribe to four Substacks- Angela Nagle, Yasha Levine, The Turbonic Method, and yours, and I will tell you that your columns constitute the majority of the word count that this site sends me any given week. I don’t think that any of your avid readers, who stayed loyal through those years you were offline getting your head right, would blame you one bit if you shaved a few hours off your work schedule. I appreciate everything you do man, I’m glad another 40 year old communist can finally afford to hire movers instead of fucking his back up AGAIN.
I understand what you mean but I think that your being able to afford movers (and to then complain about it) is not a sign of privilege, it is just a sign of being able to afford movers and the fact that moving is incredibly tiring. And this brings up something that has been bothering me a long time: It makes no sense to attack the middle class for their privilege, or the working class whites for their white privilege. In truth, the privileged are the rich and the upper middle class, not the rest of us working stiffs or the working poor or the unemployed. And besides, all any of the people who are attacking people for their privilege have to do is go to another country where they will immediately discover that they have an American privilege ingrained in them. I always loved James Baldwin's discover upon moving to France that his primary identity there wasn't a black man but an American. And Richard Pryor, too, when he went to Africa. He wasn't black but American. The truth is that it is just fate as to where and when and to whom we are born. Each of us starts where we are and when we are with what we have and go from there. My birth situation was better than many and worse than many others. The damage to my psyche and health was worse than many but not as bad as a great many others. One of the best things that happened to me from going into group therapy when i was in my twenties is to find out that, in comparison, it really wasn't as bad as I'd thought. At least my mother didn't put me into the oven and try to burn the devils out of me. (yes, a true story.) So, from what I do know of your story Freddie (and I realize it is only a tiny bit) I can't in any way use the word privilege in relation to your having movers and feeling exhausted from the process. I am just glad you can afford them and that you found love again and that things are getting better for you. Every single one of us will in one way or another find ourselves in the position you were in after your meltdown. Been there, done that myself. It is what happens after that is important. Do we become a better person, a better man, more honorable, more willing to expose our limits and vulnerabilities? I admire you because within my frame, you took the honorable road.
I am always pleased to see Wodehouse recommended. The man did not write sophisticated literature, had about 10 plots over 90 books, but I struggle to think of anyone who had such mastery of the English language. His sentences dance and scintillate; I can only wish I had a quarter his talent.
I've meant to ask you about Wodehouse for years - I'm glad to see my sloth has been rewarded. He might be the greatest wordsmith in the English language - not plot, not characterization, not deep art, but I don't know of anyone who comes close in terms of prose poetry.
"A certain critic - for such men, I may regret to say, do exist - made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained ‘all the old Wodehouse characters under different names’. He has probably now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have outgeneralled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy."
How can you not love it.
Freddie, I repeat: I read this for your honesty. Pretty blank rare these days. (And I love Wodehouse!)
The Come Apart post was brutal and insightful in a way that I love you for.
HOWEVER, I believe you gave away sufficient info to identify your psychiatrist. Also, working in a (admittedly Canadian) pharmacy myself, I get nervous when I see un-redacted Rx numbers, barcodes and pharmacy locations….
Probably best to modify that picture unless you just don’t give a shit.
I don't get the title joke ... been a long time since I took an English lit class ...