Mary Gaitskill: evaluation

Transcript context

…What have you most learned about yourself, your own writing, from having started a Substack? I have learned something, but I’m not sure I can articulate it quickly: that it’s refreshing. It’s been refreshing to me to be in a writing situation where I’m not so careful about what I say. I go over it sometimes and see I’ve made ridiculous mistakes in terms of dropped words or incorrect grammar, but it’s worth it because it’s freeing to have that uninhibited flow with people. I don’t know if I can say exactly what I’ve learned, but it’s definitely been something. Also, it’s been interesting for me to see how social media can be very positive in some ways because I’ve always been extremely wary of it. It’s the first time I’ve been on anything like social media, but people — there’s politeness to it. The thing about social media that everybody knows is, it allows people to be really awful in a way they wouldn’t in person because it’s easy to be really insulting and gross if you don’t even have to look at the person’s reaction or deal with the fact they may want to punch you in the face. But there’s another thing I’ve learned: that people can also be much more polite for exactly that reason. You don’t really know who you’re talking to, so you don’t want to quickly assume something about what they’re saying. If I’m with the person, and they say something, one, I feel like I have to respond quickly. Two, I may jump to conclusions based on old habits or old ideas about the type of person I’m looking at. But if I don’t have any of those cues — it’s just something they’re typing — first, I don’t have to respond quickly, and two, I’ve sometimes started to be really sarcastic in my responses to people. Then I’ve looked at it and realized I don’t know if this person is meaning to be sarcastic to me. I don’t know if this person is joking. Somebody said something, and I almost typed, “I hope you’re joking. You’re joking, right?” Then I looked at it again and realized I don’t know that he is. I want to clarify, so I’ll ask a question first before I come in with an immediate response. I’ve noticed most people are very polite, maybe for the same reason. That’s been really interesting. Why did you recently pause your Substack?…

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