Loners
Related: About this forumA book for loners, perhaps...
From a review of a new book about introverts:Why it's OK to be an introvert.
"According to the informal test found early in the pages of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking I am an introvert:
Id rather talk to single good friend than several acquaintances;
I wish all of my communication was in writing;
Im not driven by ideas of wealth and fame;
and I dont like small talk.
Sometimes, I even prefer books to people.
This does not bode well for me. According to Susan Cain, author of Quiet we live in a time when introversion is somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology.
Anyone who has been to a public school in the past twenty years (if not more) will probably agree.
The ideal person in our culture is extroverted; comfortable in front of crowds, and gregarious. Any deviation from extroversion is a sickness, and we should make it our lifes project to eradicate these traits from ourselves.
But Cain offers a reprieve to all oppressed introverts: not only is it OK to be introverted, sometimes its even advantageous.
Many of the most important cultural and technological advances in our culture have come from introverted people, from Newtons theories to stories of E.M. Forster.
Introverts are more careful; they have concentration necessary to develop expertise in a subject and they are more creative than extroverts.
Pure extroversion, on the other hand, is not necessarily an unmitigated good.
The financial crisis is an example of what can happen when the risk taking extroverts take control. For years traders who took the biggest risks and who were more adept at selling themselves and their ideas prevailed until finally the worst fears of the cautious introverts came to be. Extroverted behavior can be dangerous and even at times downright dishonest."
http://www.metro.us/newyork/life/article/1096823--why-it-s-ok-to-be-an-introvert
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)I think of extroverted behavior as essentially aggressive. Carried out to its most extreme variation, it winds up being violent. There are lots of advantages to having the kind of personality that resists all that.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,011 posts)BlueIris
(29,135 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,011 posts)RKP5637
(67,112 posts)catchnrelease
(2,014 posts)I have had it for a couple weeks, holding off until I finish what I'm currently reading. I keep glancing at the cover, wanting to dive in, but I should get to it by this next weekend. It looks good.
applegrove
(123,180 posts)Surprising Appeal of Living Alone" by Eric Klinenberg. Both books were in the 'books with a buzz' section of the bookstore. I haven't started either book but will let you guys know how good they are.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,011 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)http://www.amazon.com/Party-One-Manifesto-Anneli-Rufus/dp/1569245134
The Buddha. Rene Descartes. Emily Dickinson. Greta Garbo. Bobby Fischer. J. D. Salinger: Loners, allalong with as many as 25 percent of the world's population. Loners keep to themselves, and like it that way. Yet in the press, in films, in folklore, and nearly everywhere one looks, loners are tagged as losers and psychopaths, perverts and pity cases, ogres and mad bombers, elitists and wicked witches. Too often, loners buy into those messages and strive to change, making themselves miserable in the process by hiding their true natureand hiding from it. Loners as a group deserve to be reassessedto claim their rightful place, rather than be perceived as damaged goods that need to be "fixed." In Party of One Anneli Rufus -- a prize-winning, critically acclaimed writer with talent to burn -- has crafted a morally urgent, historically compelling tour de forcea long-overdue argument in defense of the loner, then and now. Marshalling a polymath's easy erudition to make her case, assembling evidence from every conceivable arena of culture as well as interviews with experts and loners worldwide and her own acutely calibrated analysis, Rufus rebuts the prevailing notion that aloneness is indistinguishable from loneliness, the fallacy that all of those who are alone don't want to be, and wouldn't be, if only they knew how.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,011 posts)About time.
Thanks for the heads up.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,011 posts)It all THEIR fault!
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)Myrina
(12,296 posts)Thanks for the recommendation.