“Fatigue is the new small talk, a subject so shared that it unites us in the same way as the last snowfall”, writes Véronique Grenier in the introduction to the essay. On the run. An exploration of our ordinary fatigues (Workshop 10).
I was immediately seduced by the title, which sounds like the anthem of an era. But the subject attracted me moderately a priori. Especially in December, after almost three years of pandemic, when so many things tire us, the days are too short and our to do listsalways too long.
So I began to read a little backwards, fearing that this “odyssey of fatigue” to which the author invites us would necessarily be exhausting, like the subject matter.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This 82-page essay which meticulously dissects our collective exhaustion is strangely soothing. By taking inventory of our ordinary fatigue – that of everyday life, that of our digital lives, that of information, that of parenthood and others yet –, Véronique Grenier skilfully navigates at the confluence of the anecdote and the ‘to analyse. Far from being a long lament, his very dense essay, punctuated by lighter interludes, offers us an empathetic reflection on our time “on the edge”.
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Véronique Grenier, who is a college philosophy professor and mother of two children, assumed that she was not alone in feeling “at the end of it”.
“If I wanted to write about fatigue, it’s because I’ve been tired since I was 10 and now, when I ask someone how they’re doing, everyone tells me that ‘he is tired ! she tells me.
She therefore knew from the outset that she was putting her finger on something that went beyond her simple personal experience. But she was far from imagining that so many people would recognize themselves in it.
I hoped it touched people. But that it does it to this point, it overwhelmed me! I had a line at the Montreal Book Fair for two hours. It had never happened to me!
Véronique Grenier, author of the essay On the run. An exploration of our ordinary fatigues
The comments she receives from readers affect her just as much. “People tell me it’s like I’m in their head and naming exactly how they feel. In others, who had not necessarily experienced all the fatigue that I am discussing, there was an effect of empathy that I also hoped to be able to seek out. »
By wondering why we are so exhausted and what to do with all our fatigue, Véronique Grenier holds up a mirror to readers.
By examining the fatigue of our digital lives, she addresses the crisis of attention specific to our time when we can scroller to infinity the news feed of our social networks. She talks about all that we lose in our world of endless connectivity. Less and less watertight borders between private and public, leisure and work.
It’s all exhausting. And for good reason. “Spaces of complete solitude, boredom, or those in which almost nothing happens are less and less common, but are necessary for rest,” she writes.
Constantly overstimulated, we are immersed in an overabundance of information of all kinds. A 2011 study published in Science revealed that at the time we were already receiving the equivalent of 174 newspapers a day. Paradoxically, while it is more important than ever to be able to read texts in all their complexity, it is increasingly difficult to concentrate and read in depth.
I jumped when I read, for example, that 27% of university graduates in Quebec are considered functionally illiterate.1. The statistics struck me as frightening. “What is especially frightening is that if you don’t read enough, you can unlearn how to read well,” says Véronique Grenier, quoting Paul Bélanger, professor emeritus in the department of specialized education and training at UQAM. .
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While exploring the paradoxes of our overworked lives, On the edge is not a practical or moralizing guide to overcoming fatigue and its harmful effects in ten easy steps. You won’t find new injunctions to do yoga, to turn off your cell phone forever or to cut yourself off from too depressing news.
Fatigue testifies to “our porosity”, notes Véronique Grenier. In a world in crisis, if nothing stresses us or prevents us from sleeping, if everything indifferent to us, it is not necessarily a good sign.
“I have few certainties in life, but it seems clear to me that if nothing reaches us, moves us or shocks us, we are less drained. If we can listen to the news without feeling sad or see injustices without getting sucked in, we probably have more energy left, but then we are deprived of the pulse of existence,” she writes.
This is no reason to celebrate the tiredness of the days. But it makes it possible to understand it – and to understand ourselves – a little better.