On Brain, Child this week I wrote about the way we treat new friends versus old friends, which relates to how we treat people very close to us (spouse, kids, other family members) versus how we treat friends in general. In other words, sometimes we’re jerks with those closest to us in ways we would NEVER be towards new friends. I tied this all to the sometimes overrated worship of “authenticity.” (It will all make more sense in the fleshed out post.)
And I found that all of these thoughts relate to a line from Great Expectations about impressing people we don’t even like–a line that I wrote down in my quote book in high school that still resonates with me.
By the way, I’d say this one sentence sums up the entire theme of Great Expectations, even though that is not the main purpose of this week’s essay at all. Just a fun opinion from one lit nerd. Also, is “meannesses” a word? According to Charles Dickens it is, so I say yes!
Hope you’ll join me at Brain, Child. New friends and old friends–all of you!
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