Livia Polanyi

30 Oct 2021 02:15 - 16 Dec 2022 12:22
Open in Logseq
    • This book made an impression on me because it focuses on an area where I am painfully cognizant: the artificiality of people's daily, casual, self-narration. She opens with a story from her own life: how she went to Sweden (I think) as a visiting academic, and noticed glitches in her own social interactions with the natives. They would ask the anodyne question of how she happened to be in Sweden, and would be shocked or just not accept her straightforward answer that it was a work opportunity.
    • They thought that demonstrated character deficiencies, because a Swede would never leave home for such a narrow, self-interested reason. Or more precisely, they might do that, but they wouldn't admit it in conversation because it violates some standard of Swedish life-stories.