I really value “realness” although I too am not sure what it is, exactly. Some thoughts:
I cannot stand fake wood or brick or anything fake really, because it feels like it is trying to trick me. It’s “lying,” in sort of the same way I feel like people lie when they say they are doing something because it helps climate change or whatever, when really it seems clear that they are doing it for social approval or something of that nature.
Moss feels very real to me, also, as do silky spider webs, or any slice of nature, really, when I’m in it. I think it’s because the moss is not pretending to be something else, not to me anyways, it’s just there.
Homes can be real-seeming to me, like how warm, cozy fireplaces with the wind whipping past the window and redwood walls make spaces seem inviting and true. But I think they can also be very not real. Many household things feel kind of “fake” to me, in the sense of trickery, like my microwave. It’s not really deceiving me in the sense that it is lying about itself—it will heat up my food if I press some buttons, but it’s like… asking something of me? Trying to get me to use it on its terms. Food containers with words on them also feel kind of like this… trying to get me to read them, to consume them, and so on…
“Trying for real” is an especially interesting one to me because it feels so important and I don’t know quite what it is. At least part of it seems related to trickery, like how “actually trying” to answer a question looks like not giving up until you have a satisfying-to-your-curiosity answer and “not really trying” looks more like getting a good-enough-to-pass-another-person’s-test answer, or not really believing it’ll work, or something like that. Where the “actually trying” bit seems much more fundamentally related to the thing the trying is about, hence “real,” the not-trying bit seems more related to something else entirely and that disconnect feels “fake” to me.
I really value “realness” although I too am not sure what it is, exactly. Some thoughts:
I cannot stand fake wood or brick or anything fake really, because it feels like it is trying to trick me. It’s “lying,” in sort of the same way I feel like people lie when they say they are doing something because it helps climate change or whatever, when really it seems clear that they are doing it for social approval or something of that nature.
Moss feels very real to me, also, as do silky spider webs, or any slice of nature, really, when I’m in it. I think it’s because the moss is not pretending to be something else, not to me anyways, it’s just there.
Homes can be real-seeming to me, like how warm, cozy fireplaces with the wind whipping past the window and redwood walls make spaces seem inviting and true. But I think they can also be very not real. Many household things feel kind of “fake” to me, in the sense of trickery, like my microwave. It’s not really deceiving me in the sense that it is lying about itself—it will heat up my food if I press some buttons, but it’s like… asking something of me? Trying to get me to use it on its terms. Food containers with words on them also feel kind of like this… trying to get me to read them, to consume them, and so on…
“Trying for real” is an especially interesting one to me because it feels so important and I don’t know quite what it is. At least part of it seems related to trickery, like how “actually trying” to answer a question looks like not giving up until you have a satisfying-to-your-curiosity answer and “not really trying” looks more like getting a good-enough-to-pass-another-person’s-test answer, or not really believing it’ll work, or something like that. Where the “actually trying” bit seems much more fundamentally related to the thing the trying is about, hence “real,” the not-trying bit seems more related to something else entirely and that disconnect feels “fake” to me.