The post that became an essay

I was working my way through this Substack.

If you’ve been reading, you know the drill:

Culture problem

Culture solution

Culture problem

Culture solution

I was sailing down the highway and, OMG, what was that?

There sitting right there in the middle of the road was … what?

I slowed the car.

I took a look.

Yes, it looked like an idea, alright.

But a little odd, a little little.

I couldn’t say what kind of idea it was.

Merely a metaphor? Or something more substantial?

It was kinda active.

It kept rushing around and pointing at things.

As if to say, “look, that’s me and that’s me, too! I am everywhere.”

Robust ideas like to claim they apply to everything.

The good ones are imperial.

This idea said our culture is transformed by a gravity well effect.

Things rush together and work together…as if in a gravity well.

A case in point.

Sneaker culture is a gravity well. It starts with a shoe worn by an athlete. Gradually and by stages, it draws together athletes, artists, graffiti artists, marketers, journalists, designers, artisans, retailers, painters, film makers, branders, musicians and celebrities. Worlds converge: hip hop, design, the art world, movies, streetwear, connoisseurship, fashion, luxury, spirits, public performance, graffiti, marketing, superheroes, comics, tattoos, brands. Modest objects once purchased $10 to a bag now house and sustain entire worlds. Some small part of our universe has fought off entropy.

Tilt your head. Squint your eyes. Right?

Sneaker culture made a lot of things come together.

Things come together. Then they go together. They build a gravitational field. And before you know it, many things are lining up for touch down.

More that that, these gravity wells look like a cause for optimism. This Substack is often a tale of woe, a cause for pessimism.

But the gravity well effect gives us islands of order. The Heracletian stream of change may continue to flood. But the wells hold and recruit.

I looked for more gravity wells…and found two.

• The Artisanal revolution

• Mr. Beast

I reached for a big picture.

Here’s what I came up with.

Picture this.

We are on a high precipice.

We are looking out over a vast plain.

It’s all darkness.

With a couple of beacons of light. Five or six.

Welcome to American culture.

Everywhere we look is chaotic and perplexing.

Here and there: pockets of clarity and order.

We will call these “gravity wells.”

I kept working on this idea and strictly speaking it should have been Culture Solution 013.

But the post grew and grew. Past my usual goal of a 1000 words.

Eventually it was 15,000 words.

Too long for a Substack entry.

But at 15,000 words, I thought it might make an extended essay.

So that’s how I wrote it.

Welcome to The Gravity Well Effect.

I decided to put it on Amazon.

You can find it here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPYVL5WS/ref=sr_1_2

Or click here.

For a couple of bucks, three actually, it’s all yours.

(If you can’t afford this, send me an email (grant27@gmail.com) and I will happily send you a copy for free!)

Have a look and let me know what you think.

Thanks again for reading this Substack.