As the Internet's cabinet of curiosities continues to expand, the "winners" in the battle for our attention are those who find ways to connect different interests in new, revelatory ways. We recently connected with a writer inspired by seeing someone in a different way.
The "street-wise stylish" Yahdon Israel lives in New York; one day, riding the A train, he saw a young guy, "wearing Reebok Kamikaze IIs, camouflage pants, a flannel shirt tied around his waist, a black graphic tee and a pair of lime green headphones." The thing that stuck out most, though, was his book--To Kill a Mockingbird--and the way he was completely wrapped up in it. Israel snapped a photo of him, and shared it on Instagram because, as he puts it, "there was this paradox growing up where the kids who were cool didn't read and the kids who read weren't cool. A lot of this had to do with the fact that writing--and literary culture--isn't as glamorized as acting, sports, music and fashion. And for years I was told, 'Yahdon, it's just different.' But I always was curious as to why." He tagged the picture #literaryswag, in case he (or maybe a couple of other people) might want to post more pictures that blurred the line between fashion and reading.
Thousands of pictures later, #literaryswag has, as the saying goes, gone viral, to the point of spawning #myliteraryswag, a series of interviews with the likes of Junot Diaz, Roxane Gay, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Phillip Lopate, Maggie Nelson, Dinaw Mengestu and Phil Klay, engaging anyone interested in breaking down the ideas of "the type of person who reads." If that sounds like you, next time you're online (i.e., right now) do a search on Instagram for either of those hashtags--and start adding your own photos. --Matthew Tiffany, LCPC, writer for Condalmo and psychotherapist