Essay h sjchz

Submitted By jeanieholic
Words: 534
Pages: 3

The main idea of Jonathan Franzen’s speech is to talk about love; love for people, love for things, love for places and what love is. He observed that consumer products nowadays are designed to be likable and he said that if you love somebody you should buy stuff that they like. He sees that liking is being a “commercial culture’s substitute for loving”, then he tried to consider that in human. He finds that as a human who is in despair to be liked, someone without integrity, without a center. “The simple fact of the matter is that trying to be perfectly likable is incompatible with loving relationships.” You can’t live on the illusion that everything you have will always be fair and attractive. Once you come to the unlikable surface, you’ll find yourself screaming and even saying things you don’t like to say. This brings us to the point where love already exposes the lie in technology, when you come already to the actual life. Someone has to accept the fact that you are not perfect. That’s what love is for Franzen. “Whereas, to love a specific person, and to identify with their struggles and joys as if they were your own, you have to surrender some of yourself.” Through his narrative about his broken marriage, he says that exposing your whole self, not just the likable surface and have it rejected is very painful. That is the reason why most people resist love and stay safely in the world of liking. Then he quoted: “But then a funny thing happened to me. It’s a long story, but basically I fell in love with birds.” His reasoning for birdwatching was not because for he resists love, but because it is uncool. He finds out that his anger, pain and despair about the planet made him to be more concern for the environment. Then, he tells the stories about the places he went. He went to Washington where he finds the current administration doing things that make him