Sheila Heti writes: ‘There is something threatening about a woman who is not occupied with children. There is something at-loose-ends feeling about such a woman. What is she going to do instead? What sort of trouble will she make?’
The threat of the idle woman. I wonder where that came from. But I’m more curious to know who she is. Who or what is she a threat to exactly?
A threat to bureaucracy? Because she’s not doing something pointless and since most bureaucracy is an ouroboric means to its own ends?
Three-coin toss: two or three heads for yes, two or three tails for no.
Is an idle woman a threat to bureaucracy?
No.
Growing children must be the opposite of this kind of work. Not only is it unpaid, it’s quite important.
Is growing children the opposite to bureaucracy?
No.
Is growing children the same kind of work as being an artist?
No.
‘Studies of children’s play, for example, inevitably discover that children playing imaginary games spend at least as much time arguing about the rules than they do actually playing them. Such arguments become a form of play in themselves.’
Doesn’t that sound a lot like politics?
Yes.
Douglas Adams wrote a lot of funny things about bureaucracy. He imagined a whole alien race who just love to push paper around and create problems for each other to solve. There’s much commentary in popular culture on the ‘bullshit jobs’ David Graeber writes about. In Catch-22, Milo sells eggs to himself in order that the syndicate make a profit, transferring them secretly from Sicily to Malta: ‘Why do people come to Malta for eggs when they’re so expensive there?’ Yossarian asks. ‘Because they’ve always done it that way.’ That episode of Black Books where Fran gets a desk job and spends a week not knowing what her job is while excelling in the performance of it.
Is the performance of a job the most important thing?
Yes.
Is the performance of being an artist the most important thing about being an artist?
Yes.
Endurance is a solitaire game of Antarctic survival designed by Amabel Holland. It’s based on the 1909 Shackleton expedition that went to Antarctica. The expedition had hoped to be the first to reach the South Pole. They didn’t reach the Pole, but against seriously unfavourable odds, no one died.
Was it very likely that the expedition failed?
Yes.
By failed, do you mean not reaching the South Pole?
No.
Do you mean returning alive?
Yes.
Was it nearly impossible that they all came back alive?
No.
Was it actually impossible?
Yes.
Is Endurance the game more realistic than the historical events?
Yes.
When you said that it was impossible that the whole crew returned alive, do you mean that some of them returned in a state not so alive?
Yes.
Did some of them return as zombies?
No.
Of course not, don’t be silly. Is creating a board game an example of a bullshit job?
Yes.
Is it art?
Yes.
Is it a bullshit job because it has rules like bureaucracy?
Yes.
Heti reasons that it’s okay not to be a mother if you’re an artist—the universe excuses you for this alternative form of creation and motherhood.
The vessel that the expedition set out in was named Nimrod. Nimrod (c. 2000 BCE) was a Biblical figure, known to be a mighty hunter. Nimrod (c. 1990s) as an insult, is a name for someone you believe to be an idiot. At the time of the ship’s christening, Nimrod had strength and courage at its core.
In an interview, Holland questions the assumption that games must be ‘fun.’ After going to a few NZIFF screenings, I realised that movies aren’t required to make you feel good or even feel a particular way—they don’t owe you a resolution or conclusion to be host to a good story. Endurance is a game towards failure, a journey in futility. Why would you presume a happy ending or even an historical one, except out of habit?
Is it habit alone that makes us expect a happy ending?
Yes.
Really.
Yes.
Does a fear of play lie behind the appeal of bureaucracy?
No.
Graeber describes the difference between games and play, a game being bounded by rules, and play being ‘more cosmic’ and open-ended. By the aforementioned logic of children’s play being the creation of rules and bureaucracy being a rejection of play, bureaucracy must be a game and the writers of the rules are at play.
Are the ‘writers of the rules’ politicians?
No.
Are there indeed any writers of the rules of bureaucracy?
Yes.
Are they children?
No.
No, of course not. I was trying to catch you out and you knew it. Does bureaucracy write its own rules?
Yes.
Is it therefore a form of play, by Graeber’s logic?
Yes.
Meaning bureaucracy doesn’t have fear of play at the heart of it?
Yes.
Bureaucracy has fear of play at the heart of it?
No.
Because it is play?
Yes.
So Graeber is wrong about this?
No.
Because what Graeber actually said was ‘What ultimately lies behind the appeal of bureaucracy is fear of play.’ So bureaucracy is play, and what lies behind the appeal of it is not a fear of play?
Yes.
Graeber continues, and proposes that a belief in destiny and fate is an example of gambling; ‘this was the dominant view throughout the ancient world, where human beings were the playthings of destiny and fate.’
Yes.
No.
Yes.
No.
Yes.
No.
I overheard someone talking about the recent $50 million Lotto jackpot. He shared how he’d looked up the most common winning numbers. 1 is the most common apparently. I had not the heart nor the words to tell him.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
If I get nine yeses in a row, will the next one also be a yes?
No.
Is what lies behind the appeal of bureaucracy a fear of gambling?
Yes.
The use of nimrod as an insult came from its use in a satirical way, the way someone might refer ironically to someone as a genius, when they are not. Used in this way, until the word became dislocated from its Biblical origins, nimrod is now synonymous with idiot. Having said that, I am probably underestimating the number of Christians who know who Nimrod is.
At the time when the crew boarded the Nimrod, they were brave and commanded respect yet they were setting out on an improbable and therefore foolish quest.
Is an idle woman not a threat to bureaucracy because she is at play?
No.
Is an idle woman not a threat at all?
Yes.
Hang on ... Is an idle woman a threat?
No.
References and notes:
Sheila Heti, Motherhood, (Harvill Secker: London, 2022)
Throughout the book Motherhood by Sheila Heti, she consults a coin toss and has entertaining and sometimes spiritual conversations.
David Graeber, ‘IV. The Utopia of Rules’, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy, 2015. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-the-utopia-of-rules#toc11
Graeber quotes the Indian philosopher of science, Shiv Visvanathan:
‘A game is a bounded, specific way of problem solving. Play is more cosmic and open-ended. Gods play, but man unfortunately is a gaming individual. A game has a predictable resolution, play may not. Play allows for emergence, novelty, surprise.’
Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, (Pan Books: London, 1979)
‘Vogons. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious, and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the ravenous Bug-Blatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, lost, found, queried, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighter.’
David Graeber, ‘On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant’, Strike! Magazine, Issue 3, August 2013 https://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/
Joseph Heller, Catch-22, (Vintage: London, 2011)
Ken Zurski, ‘The Nimrod Effect: How a Cartoon Bunny Changed The Meaning of a Word Forever’, Unremembered History, 2017 (updated 2021) https://unrememberedhistory.com/tag/nimrod-ship/
‘Most children didn’t get the reference to Nimrod in biblical terms and the sarcasm went way over their heads. So the word became synonymous with a bumbling fool, like Fudd’s character.’
Beyond Solitaire podcast 97: Amabel Holland on Endurance, 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXpMfHNNcl4
The Players’ Aid podcast: Review of Endurance by Hollandspiele, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DBQK2TRqeY