flâneur

A funny thing about curiosity - by Henrik Karlsson

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Yesterday, listening to Talking Heads while making meatballs with the kids, I realized I have forgotten how curiosity is supposed to feel. The last few months my desire to know and to learn has been tuned way down. I found Wittgenstein’s Brown and Blue Notebooks somewhat interesting in November, but after 41 pages, I couldn’t make myself go on. Everything has been like that. I thought my numbness was due to all the work I had to do in September, October, November: wrapping up at the art gallery, getting a heating system for the house, changing the roof. But no. Now a month has passed since I finished the work; I’m no longer tired—and I still can’t get curious about anything. Being curious is important to me. Not only because it is how I get ideas for essays. It feels to me like everyone has something unrepeatable to bring into the world. And we can manifest it by going in our direction of maximal interestingness. The pattern we make as our curiosity pulls us hither and thither, tail wa

The Green Apple, Georgia O’Keefe, 1922 Yesterday, listening to Talking Heads while making meatballs with the kids, I realized I have forgotten how curiosity is supposed to feel. The last few months my desire to know and to learn has been tuned way down. I found Wittgenstein’s Brown and Blue Notebooks somewhat interesting in November, but after 41 pages, I couldn’t make myself go on. Everything has been like that. I thought my numbness was due to all the work I had to do in September, October, November: wrapping up at the art gallery, getting a heating system for the house, changing the…

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