🧭 Cultural Compass #1

A round-up of culture influencing my navigation of life.

Welcome to the first post in the ‘Cultural Compass’ series of The Navigation, where each month I’ll be sharing a round-up of recently consumed culture (usually books, podcasts, articles; sometimes TV, and other miscellaneous items) that’s in some way had an impact on my thinking around navigating life.

Maybe something that’s caused me to reflect on an aspect of my life I want to change, something I want to strive for, a daily routine ‘hack’, or something that I just feel compelled to share, relating to the themes I’m thinking and writing about.

📑 Inside Book Twitter's Final(?) Days

First up, this recent Esquire report on the end of ‘Book Twitter’, which really opened my eyes to the importance of Twitter for so many writers - bestseller-fiction authors and unknown newbie essayists alike.

I’d previously had a sense of this, being an avid follower of a few authors on the platform and aware of a few related hashtags (such as Jami Attenberg’s #1000words of summer) but the importance of community really shines through in this piece.

We probably all have some mixed feelings about big conglomerate platforms and how they rule the world, and more recently an awareness of how one man’s fickle nature can so easily negate the fragile benefits of something so powerful. But regardless of what happens to Twitter, and even ‘Book Twitter’, this take on the industry made me want to search out and champion more authors - and also reflect more on community in this realm, and beyond.

Who is relying on Twitter to push their writing into the world, without the support of the ‘big five’ publishing houses? Who am I missing out on reading because they aren’t getting coverage in the media, or at least in the outlets I usually rely on? Who can I connect with - and how - to find encouragement and inspiration for my own writing? How can I ensure my current connections - with friends, colleagues, family - are both nourishing and durable, online and off?

These are some musings I’m still mulling over since reading the article, and I’d welcome your take on it too!

📖 Manifesto: On Never Giving Up

On a similar vein - though as mentioned in my last post, I promise not everything will revolve around writing - I recently finished Bernardine Evaristo’s first non-fiction book, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up.

It was an interesting read largely because I had somewhat expected an actual manifesto / how-to guide (which, I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for), but, without offering major spoilers, that’s more something that comes at the end, in the form of a summary, if you like, of all the lessons and key takeaways learned and highlighted throughout the book, which itself is much more autobiographical than self-help-y.

Evaristo has had a wildly varied life providing wonderful anecdotes, even if you aren’t interested in creative work, or haven’t engaged with any of her previous work. For any reader, her life is a great tale of grit and pursing your passion, whatever that may be, having your own success metrics, knowing what’s important to you before abiding by societal expectations, and having a laugh along the way.

Having only read Girl, Woman, Other before this, the infamous Booker-winner that also made it onto Barak Obama’s ‘favourite books’ list, it was also eye-opening to learn about the styles of her previous writing and how this has developed over the years.

I actively sought out this book at a time when I am wanting to pursue my interest in writing more prominently, am soon to start a new job, and, as I get ever-nearer to 30, am thinking about where my life is going. In offering re-assurance that being true to yourself is a key element guaranteed to help one along this journey of life, this book didn’t disappoint.

Tales from a fascinating life.

🖼 Pinterest

So, about 100 years behind the rest of civilisation, relatively recently I downloaded Pinterest. I don’t have Instagram, which is something that may change in time if I decide to promote my writing through that route, but generally my use of social media is pretty limited. Even with Twitter, I have the odd scroll during a work break, use it for news updates, and post if I have something exciting to share, but its not necessarily a platform I always check daily, let alone hourly.

My social media equivalent, I have often explained to friends, lies in the newsletters that come directly to my personal email inbox - a highly curated feed of writers / brands / general things I am interested in, that will be there whenever I want to read / scroll through them, and not swept away by an algorithm (or a techbro’s tantrum).

But, late last year when searching for inspiration on how to decorate a small apartment space for Christmas, Pinterest came highly recommended from a number of reliable sources.

I listened, downloaded, engaged, and now, I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed, but its definitely become an enjoyable pastime and I can see how one’s time can be lost to a few hours of scrolling…

I find the intensity of ads quite annoying - I just want to look at pretty pictures - but I guess that’s to be expected these days.

But what’s also annoying are the pesky algorithms. Handy in some respect - learning what I like and showing me more. But having searched a few outfit ideas for upcoming weddings and trips abroad, I started seeing a lot of the same types of images cropping up; those of white (though often heavily tanned) women with the same slim body type wearing slightly differing levels of skin revealing outfits. I understand this is partly on me, and I likely need to think about some search terms that will reflect a wider variety of people with different skin colour, body shape etc, but I didn’t think I was being intentionally exclusive when searching for ‘Italy trip outfit ideas’.

Don’t get me wrong, the images are gorgeous, and no-one is explicitly telling me these types of women are the only ones I should be aspiring to. But I’m already having to catch myself and remind my brain that I’m not here to focus on the washboard abs shown between a maxi skirt and cropped strapless top - I’m hear to look at the colour combo and style of said skirt and top and perhaps take some inspiration for new pairings from my own wardrobe that can help me feel fabulous while wandering the streets of Milan.

I won’t dwell on the perils of social media on mental health, and the pull of comparison culture - at least not here in this post today. But I just thought it was a musing worth sharing, that while I’m enjoying this new found source of inspiration (not only for outfits, but for styling my living room, setting up the ‘perfect’ relaxing bath, wanting to take the time to beautifully lay out breakfast) and admiring the photography (and maybe photo-shopping) skills, I sometimes need to make a concerted effort to leave a scrolling session on a high and excited about ideas I’ve taken from it, rather than on a low, thinking about what I don’t have or the person I don’t see myself as.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on Pinterest - and any recommended accounts to follow!

PS…

If you like what you’re reading, and want to help fuel more, you can now buy me a coffee through Ko-fi. While there may be paid subscription features for The Navigation in future, for now all is free to anyone who wants to muse and meander along with me, so this is a way to support my work in the meantime.