Jon Ogden

Thanks for sharing about your block party. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and reading about your experience renews my desire to do it!

Thanks for this, Elle — so much interesting data here!

I'm curious how things will play out long-term for Substack on this front. Currently I'm okay with being a financial supporter for a handful of publications (including yours, which is totally worthwhile!), but I sense that I'll eventually hit a cap since I don't imagine I'll be able to sustain a Substack budget of $50+ a month. Maybe this is where a bundle model ($9.99 a month) will come into play?

I like what you're pointing to here, and I'm a big fan of humanism and humanist thought.

I also think it's worth noting that *secular* humanism has had a poor track record when it comes to instituting religion in a traditional sense. Efforts like the religion of humanity from Auguste Comte or the church of humanity from Richard Congreve swiftly failed in the 1800s. And contemporary efforts like Sunday Assembly or Oasis have had lackluster results. To my knowledge, there's not a secular organization that has managed to replicate the communal strength of religion, especially when it comes to offerings for kids.

This isn't to say that secular humanism is wrong. It's just to say that spirituality and mythology seem like essential components when it comes to forming the types of communities that religions represent.

Herland is now on my reading list — sounds amazing!

I'm struck by the first quote you cite from the book where the character talks about why she doesn't respect the past. On the one hand, I agree: We shouldn't be shackled by the past and should move beyond it. (Hopefully our ancestors would urge us to do just that!) On the other hand, I wonder if Charlotte Perkins Gilman could have written Herland without being widely read herself. I'll need to learn more about her (having only read "The Yellow Wallpaper"), but this line from her Wikipedia entry gave me pause: "Although she lived a childhood of isolated, impoverished loneliness, she unknowingly prepared herself for the life that lay ahead by frequently visiting the public library and studying ancient civilizations on her own."