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🇸🇪 Sweden /Culture & Society

Swedish writer contrasts dog's relaxation with human performance pressure

From Svenska Dagbladet · () Swedish

Translated from Swedish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Swedish writer Horace Engdahl reflects on the difficulty of true relaxation, contrasting his own inability to achieve genuine idleness with his Labrador dog's effortless repose.
  • Engdahl explores the modern human tendency to turn even leisure into a performance, driven by societal pressures for productivity and achievement.
  • He posits that luxury serves as a legitimate revolt against self-imposed oppression and the internalized compulsion to constantly perform, viewing it as a human distinction from animals.

Swedish writer Horace Engdahl contemplates the elusive nature of true relaxation, finding himself outmatched in the art of idleness by his Labrador, Lucy. While Lucy rests with an unburdened, natural ease, Engdahl observes that modern humans often transform even downtime into a demanding performance.

The complete relaxation with which she rests in the grass on a sunny summer day is unattainable for a human being.

— Horace EngdahlComparing his Labrador's natural repose to the human struggle for genuine relaxation.

Engdahl contrasts Lucy's spontaneous repose with the forced stillness of fakirs, noting that her relaxation requires no asceticism or suppression of needs. It is, he suggests, the most natural state of being – doing nothing. He recalls his own youthful ability to lie in bed until noon, lost in hypothetical reasoning, but acknowledges this was not authentic laziness, especially since writing has since replaced it.

The author reflects on public perceptions of him, noting how newspapers portrayed him as either an irascible "choleric" or an undeservedly luxurious figure. He dismisses these characterizations, suggesting that luxury, far from being reprehensible, is a "legitimate revolt" against the internal pressures and societal "competence ideology" that compel constant performance.

Luxury is a rebellion against the oppression we impose on ourselves, the internalized compulsion, which means we have taken over the slave driver's task of forcing ourselves to work.

— Horace EngdahlDefining luxury as a form of resistance against societal and self-imposed pressures for constant productivity.

Engdahl argues that this drive for achievement, while appearing as self-assertion, is actually a subtle form of submission. Treating one's body and soul as a slave to gain approval, and viewing every minute as precious, creates an "unbearable terror." Embracing luxury, he concludes, is a way to push back against this self-imposed oppression and the internalized compulsion to constantly prove oneself.

Competence can look like self-assertion, but it is in fact a subtle form of submission. To win the approval of other people, we treat our own body and soul as a slave. We begin to regard every minute as precious – an unbearable terror.

— Horace EngdahlCritiquing the modern emphasis on achievement and productivity as a form of self-enslavement.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Svenska Dagbladet in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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