Originally Posted by
A Robot Bit Me
One thing I like about this is that the things I have received over the years are little intrusions of my private, secret, shameful TNL life into my material, real life. When I lug my well-thumbed copy of Middlemarch that Pineapple bought me in 2014 into a classroom or onto the beach as I have done so many times since (it was new then and it's falling apart now), I am bringing a well-thumbed Pineapple with me, too. It reminds me that secret internet life is part of my material, real life.
In a lot of ways, people clicking boxes next to some junk I want is impersonal and crass. But in more ways, it is intensely personal. These things puncture daily routine and snap me out of that trance of habit that turns hours into minutes and years into moments every time I see them. That's worth something.
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