Blog – New Escapologist

There’s another nugget of interest in the article we discussed yesterday: Maybe we greyhairs could learn from younger people, tired of their own daily grind. A few years ago, Mika and Jesse, a millennial couple from Vancouver, moved to Japan and discovered, on the island of Shikoku, an abandoned house –or akiya — that they could move into for $300 [per year]. At least nine million akiya dot the Japanese countryside, the result of changing demographics and the mass exodus of young people to the…

There some depressing stuff in McLean’s magazine — Canada’s equivalent to Time or Newsweek — in a piece called Retirement is Dead. There’s a few ways to read that sentence. Maybe retirement is dead because the whole idea of conventional employment — the conveyor belt from school, to work, to grannification, to grave — is out of date. After all, if you bow out of the rat race with a relatively beefy escape fund while generating a small income through investment or by monetising your creative…

From The West Pier, part of Patrick Hamilton’s Gorse Trilogy: All Ryan wanted to do was escape at the earliest possible moment — to run for his life, in fact — and here was the chance. I like this. It reminds me of Hannibal Lecter seeing the glint of the tiny pin that will allow him to pick the lock of his cage and presumably to slice off the guard’s face to make a mask. Not that I’m saying Escapologists should aspire to be like Hannibal Lecter. Be like Ryan. Run for your life. * New…

RIP the People’s Parton. Workin’ 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin’ Barely gettin’ by, it’s all takin’ and no givin’ They just use your mind and you never get the credit It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it 9 to 5, yeah, they got you where they want you There’s a better life and you think about it, don’t you? It’s a rich man’s game no matter what they call it And you spend your life puttin’ money in his wallet 9 to 5, oh, what a way to make a livin’ Barely gettin’ by, it’s all takin’…

The reason I post so many quotes from literature is to show that the desire to escape is neither uncommon nor certifiable. On the contrary, it’s perfectly normal and has been with us since, oh, around the time of the industrial revolution. But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. Here are some diary entries from 1909, written when W. N. P. Barbellion was but 19 years old. He wanted to escape the career chosen for him by his father (“journalism,” which actually meant the transcribing of local…

From a history book I’m reading: He drew charcoal portraits for extra money, but talent didn’t save him from [unpleasant work in] the tannery. After work, he would lie down in a corner of the shirt factory where some apprentices slept. He would hide beneath a sheet and try to ignore the rats as they scurried over his face. In sleep he honed his talent for escape. * New Escapologist Issue 19 and the anniversary edition of Escape Everything! are both available now.

To send a letter to the editor, simply write in. You’ll get a reply and we’ll anonymise any blogged version. Reader A writes: Hi Robert, Firstly thanks for all you do for the escapologist movement, I’ve loved reading all your newsletters and magazines since I stumbled across a copy in a Hackney coffee shop. It struck a chord. My girlfriend and I had been asking ourselves if this (corporate London etc etc) is really all there is. We were pondering our own escapes but we didn’t have the words to…

did it even make sense to compose an anti-technology manifesto on an internet-connected device? Would I be able to resist the pull of email, news, and “research” in a time of unbearable stress? No, I needed to write my book the old way. I needed to prove it was still possible. The artist and writer August Lamm — who gave us a great interview in Issue 18 — lives and works without a computer or a smartphone. That’s what her forthcoming book is about and, obviously (or perhaps not), it was written…

I just read Black Bag by Luke Kennard. It is funny and good. Don’t let its Booker nomination put you off. Just give your hands a good wash after reading it and you’ll be fine. The book’s about an actor who must wear a black leather bag over his whole body (except for his feet) after precariat desperation leads him to take work as the subject of a psychological experiment. Anyway, these quotes aren’t particularly representative of the book, but they’re nice as Escapological moments: About a job…

Well then. I’ve just updated our lists of stockists (places you might be able to buy New Escapologist in the wild) and contributors (people who write or draw for us). This was a fiddly business and I probably made mistakes. If I’ve missed you out, misspelled your name, used the wrong link to your website, or listed you in the wrong section of the page, please just grab me roughly by the collar and scream the correction into my face.

Oh, this is wonderful. Reader K writes to us: On reading your June 19th email exploring the lives of back-to-back cruiseniks, I was reminded of these passages from “The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst”, which elegantly combines Escapological ideas with the desire to live differently. Moitessier — a contestant in the 1968 race to single-handedly circumnavigate the globe — writes in his logbook why he’s decided to give up the contest and remain at sea: * New Escapologist Issue 19 and the…

Heather Delaney of the Dirtbag Dao has a great piece about US “vanlife” in the in Issue 18 and a great review of a classic 1982 text on the subject, Blue Highways, in Issue 19). Check out these pics taken by Heather. They make a decent case for it. * New Escapologist

Further to yesterday’s post, here’s Dickon Edwards (in his diaries) on work: I’ve tried Normal Life on so many occasions. By which I mean, doing a job you utterly feel at odds with purely for the money. It seems to work for many people, and I admire them immensely. But for me it’s living a lie to the point of nausea. I feel a trespasser. A fraud. The World Of Work doesn’t like me very much. It brings out all my most useless qualities, though they make for quite good reading in a diary. It’s my…

A gem from Dickon Edwards’ diaries: A frequently asked question: Why don’t you just get a job? Answer: Because I’ve got too much else to do. Answer: Because I’m too busy to get a job. Answer: Being unemployed is a full-time job in itself, involving skills and time in order to survive. So I do have a job. It’s just atrociously paid. Answer: Because I’ve never lasted in the many Wage Slave-type jobs I’ve had in the past. It’s only a matter of time before I’m dismissed, or have to leave to avoid…

Friend J, who is travelling in Kyoto, sends this with the single sentence, “saw this and thought of you.” * New Escapologist Issue 19 and the anniversary edition of Escape Everything! are both available now.

A moment from a brilliant sitcom called Such Brave Girls. Mum: Good morning! Time for work. Josie: I don’t think I’m up for it. I’m just not creatively fulfilled in retail. Mum: Josie, we’ve talked about this. Work isn’t about fulfilment. It’s about making money to buy stuff that will make you feel fulfilled. Josie: I think… Mum: No, stop. Too much thinking. * New Escapologist Issue 19 and the anniversary edition of Escape Everything! are both available now.

This comes from Étienne de La Boétie, boyfriend of the essayist Montaigne: You can deliver yourselves if you try, not by taking action, but merely by willing to be free. Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces. From The Discourse of Voluntary…

A piece of reader correspondence in the Washington Post*: My mom used to get really upset at what she perceived as my half-assing. I’m 48 now, have a PhD and a thriving an influential career, and I still think there’s very little that’s worthy of applying my whole entire ass. I’m not interested in burning myself [out] by whole-assing stuff that will be fine if I half- or quarter-ass it. Being able to achieve maximum efficiency of ass is an important adult skill. *via Oliver Burkeman’s recent…

Thanks to New Escapologist contributor Michael Crossland (of the excellent Journal Club column) for pointing out that Escapological values made the front page of this morning’s Guardian: At its core is the concept of sufficiency – the idea that people can enjoy a prosperous, healthy life without constantly striving to consume or accumulate more material possessions that degrade the natural world on which all life depends. To achieve this, the authors envisage […] more than halving average…

It’s here. The tenth anniversary edition of seminal text Escape Everything! I’ll spend the next few days gradually shipping the copies ordered through the Kickstarter campaign. I should have some extra copies though, so if you’d like one here’s where to get it. The main idea behind bringing the book back into print is to push it into bookshops to hopefully reach some new people in a nice, old-fashioned analogue way. This means copies available on our website will be limited for now (though I’m…

Do you have Ikigai? I feel that I do. I’d like to simmer it down into a single simple sentence — just a few words for clarity — though. For me, it involves seeking a sense of flow while engaging in cultural production (though maybe that’s more the process than the mission), leaking a few counterintuitive ideas into the culture, and staying on the front foot. Hmm. I’ll have to work on phrasing it better than that. I do seem to spend a lot of brainpower churning over things in my life and trying…

I recently read a short book about the Japanese concept of Ikigai. It hails from a time when publishers were scrambling to find the new Hygge. The book is okay but a bit dashed-off and unfocussed. The key concept, however, is worth some thought. Ikigai is about the search for a personal meaning — a raison d’etre — in life. The diagram above (oft-used when explaining Ikigai online) makes it look more complicated than it is. The authors claim that healthy, long-lived people (including those in…

To send a letter to the editor, simply write in. You’ll get a reply and we’ll anonymise any blogged version. Reader B writes: I purchased a used copy of Escape Everything! and am devouring it. It’s remarkable how much I can read once my time and attention are not being sucked into The Trap. I have also ordered copies for my parents — for them to acquire the understanding and vocabulary your work establishes — and for my classmate who is taking a “mini-retirement,” and whom I think would really…

Here’s some more from that Murakami book: However, there isn’t just one reality. Reality is something you have to choose by yourself, out of several possible alternatives. He’s talking about a mysterious semi-fictional town that appears in his latest novel. But he’s also talking about free will. Every choice you make creates, in a way, a new reality. Escapologists are keen to choose one of the myriad paths into a reality of self-directed fun and to avoid one of the myriad paths back into The…

This couple — who met on a cruise ship and later got married on one — sold their homes and possessions to book fifty back-to-back cruises. Neither of our families thought it was strange that we were now living full-time on cruise ships. With our savings we were able to fund our life onboard, which, thanks to loyalty discounts and the rising cost of living, is cheaper than our life on land. One cruise sounds like a nightmare to me, never mind fifty. But it’s amazing to know this could be done.…

Here’s a nice description of a Tokyo job quit from Haruki Murakami’s latest novel, The City and its Uncertain Walls: And then one morning I handed my boss a letter of resignation. I couldn’t go on doing this job. I had to remove my body and mind from the track I’d been on — even if I hadn’t found a new track to try. My boss was surprised by my sudden request. Up until that moment, I’d given no indication that I was unhappy. He thought I’d been recruited by a rival company. I tried to explain as…

Here’s the author Elif Shafak on Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing (2021), a book we also liked and reviewed at length in New Escapologist Issue 16. It is a fascinating take on how and why we need to resist the relentless demands of our hyper-information society. It reminds us that our value as human beings is not dependent on our productivity levels or amount of consumption on any given day. It recognises that solitude, compassion, friendship, introspection, contemplation – all these universal…

In the news: An “anxious generation” of young people is struggling to adapt to the outdated world of work, according to the government’s jobs adviser. Alan Milburn, a former Labour health secretary, will say this week in a report that businesses must adapt by offering more flexibility and mental health support for young people to stave off an “economic catastrophe.” It’s interesting. We’ve finally been heard. It has taken generations of objecting to work but Gen Z might have finally broken…

The more we engage with real things the more we can remember that we are not machines. The machine does not want you to have the full set of stimuli or emotions. Real life has such a rich variety of experience. Thus spake blogger Alastair Johnston who, in a rage against the machine, says some beautiful things about his dog, Benson. The dog lovers amongst you will be able to deduce that he’s a Whippet from his photograph. You can recognise his breed by his bony shape, long legs, pointy head and…

I’ve always been a traveller. Not full time or all the time, but every ten years or so my feet start itching and I want to quit the job, flat and place I’m in and head off somewhere entirely new. This comes from Fergie, someone I used to work with in real life. We sometimes snuck off for forbidden pints at lunchtime, and she was the one person in the office I could talk to about escape. We were both heavily depressed, I think, but at least we’d both seen other parts of the world. You could hold…