'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy • Hacker News Board

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#181

Post by redisman » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:32 AM UTC

nickthemagicman wrote: post #138

schnevets wrote: post #56

I love my backyard garden (even though my Brussels Sprout experiment this year proved to be a huge waste of time). I also love the aesthetic that cottagecore is revitalizing. I love drinking at local wineries, buying stuff at my local farmer's market, brewing beer and swapping bottles with homebrew friends, etc... But holy shit am I repulsed by the influencer aspect that is growing with this "movement". Ways of Seein…

Van lifers feel your pain. The instagram influencer skinny young cute blonde girl with painted toenails and backdoors open to reveal the grand canyon is a far cry from the reality that's 90% pooping in a composting toilet in a walmart parking lot and spending your entire weekend trying to install a water tank to supply a shower.

I just don’t understand how that affects you van life? Just.. don’t hate-browse shitty social media?

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#182

Post by redisman » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:34 AM UTC

wonderwonder wrote: post #78

Its the result of complete burnout of a large portion of society. So many people feel they work too much and dream of just getting away to something simpler. I think its a reflection of so much going wrong currently with society and the way we live in general. But I'm just some guy on the internet; I am probably projecting :) Edit: I often think about buying a cheap old isolated house on a couple acres in Italy, fixi…

I feel like the have Stardew Valley either tapped into this or caused some of this trend.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#183

Post by asdff » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:34 AM UTC

7thaccount wrote: post #149

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So many people feel they work too much and dream of just getting away to something simpler. I agree that this the popular sentiment, but I think work is a smaller part of it than we like to think. I think people are simply overwhelmed with the always-on, always-connected lifestyles that fill our every waking moment with outrage-bait headlines and more entertainment media than we could possibly ever consume. Anyone…

You're right that surviving on a homestead sounds very... unromantic to me. I planted a bunch of apple trees, berry bushes..etc, over a year ago. I fertilize and water, but somehow blight took it all. It seems like nature is constantly trying to fight you on everything.

It seems like it's you fighting, but that's only from your relative perspective, it is a windmill you are fighting, like Don Quixote. In terms of the grand scale, ecology exists on an equilibrium. When you shift that equilibrium and create an abundance of resources that weren't there before, the system will respond and attempt to consume that newfound abundance. Pests will consume available food and pathogens will spread to available hosts, if these things are allowed to happen.

This has happened to me in my garden just this season with looper caterpillars, grasshoppers, aphids, spider mites, and rats. I've practically opened a grocery store for them so I can't blame them, but in knowing that my directed change of the local ecology leads to this localized response of more aphids or whatever, I am able to take preventative measures to make my crop less attractive to interlopers (neem oil and bt in my case), and combat the response that happens from me shifting the ecological equilibrium by growing all these tasty plants from all over the world in my garden in an area where they wouldn't normally be found naturally. Maybe in your case combating your blight pathogen in the future means work making sure the soil is free of spores, planting practices that might avoid blight to a degree, or selecting hardier varieties that are better suited to your local conditions or resistant to blight if such cultivars are available. The battle becomes less like a fruitless effort (pardon the pun) and more like a game of chess when you start studying this stuff a little bit.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#184

Post by mbg721 » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:38 AM UTC

redisman wrote: post #182

wonderwonder wrote: post #78

Its the result of complete burnout of a large portion of society. So many people feel they work too much and dream of just getting away to something simpler. I think its a reflection of so much going wrong currently with society and the way we live in general. But I'm just some guy on the internet; I am probably projecting :) Edit: I often think about buying a cheap old isolated house on a couple acres in Italy, fixi…

I feel like the have Stardew Valley either tapped into this or caused some of this trend.

Stardew Valley disturbs me, because it makes farming and even gardening seem too easy. There's too little substance between planting and harvest; playing it feels like eating candy for dinner for a week.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#185

Post by 7thaccount » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:39 AM UTC

asdff wrote: post #183

7thaccount wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right that surviving on a homestead sounds very... unromantic to me. I planted a bunch of apple trees, berry bushes..etc, over a year ago. I fertilize and water, but somehow blight took it all. It seems like nature is constantly trying to fight you on everything.

It seems like it's you fighting, but that's only from your relative perspective, it is a windmill you are fighting, like Don Quixote. In terms of the grand scale, ecology exists on an equilibrium. When you shift that equilibrium and create an abundance of resources that weren't there before, the system will respond and attempt to consume that newfound abundance. Pests will consume available food and pathogens will sp…

Thanks for the tips. I kinda just figured it would be easy lol. It certainly isn't. I've tried some Neem oil and fungicides that have helped, but it's a full time job.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#186

Post by 7thaccount » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:40 AM UTC

giantg2 wrote: post #153

7thaccount wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My great grandmother lived on a farm during the great depression. They had plenty to eat, but she said that what hurt them the most was the city folks couldn't buy their produce or eggs, so they lost their ability to largely make additional cash for odds and ends.

True. My grandpa worked in the mines and a quarry to help make money in addition to the farm. I think some farmers were lucky enough to have the government pay for food (or even the destruction of food) so that they could distribute the food and drive up prices for the people who did have money.

I had no idea they were destroying food. Sounds so wrong to be doing that, but I believe you!

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#187

Post by asdff » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:42 AM UTC

knownjorbist wrote: post #48

mothsonasloth wrote: post #38

Just another manifestation of people realising their life of metropolitan decadence is wrong, lacks meaning and is damaging to the human spirit.

...while ignoring the reasons people headed in that direction in the first place.

Which was to have labor close to the factory and then the office, which now exists on zoom.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#188

Post by strken » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:46 AM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #130

wonderwonder wrote: post #78

Its the result of complete burnout of a large portion of society. So many people feel they work too much and dream of just getting away to something simpler. I think its a reflection of so much going wrong currently with society and the way we live in general. But I'm just some guy on the internet; I am probably projecting :) Edit: I often think about buying a cheap old isolated house on a couple acres in Italy, fixi…

> So many people feel they work too much and dream of just getting away to something simpler. I agree that this the popular sentiment, but I think work is a smaller part of it than we like to think. I think people are simply overwhelmed with the always-on, always-connected lifestyles that fill our every waking moment with outrage-bait headlines and more entertainment media than we could possibly ever consume. Anyone…

I grew up on a 10 acre block in the country, most of which we rented to a local farmer who put cattle on it, and it was great. It's interesting to compare and contrast with cottagecore, which emphasises cosiness, because the thing I liked most was having space.

Want to make a desk? All it takes is asking your dad if you can tidy up the garage a bit and finding some cheap wood. Want to plant some apricots? There's space out back near the veggie garden. Want to learn to drive? You've got a big paddock and the farmer you rent it to doesn't mind as long as you take care near his cattle. Want to build a hut and take photos for a school project? Sure, go down to the windbreak and look for sticks, just take a snakebite bandage with you.

The labour involved in keeping a modern rural property going isn't impossible to sustain, and there are a lot of tangible benefits, particularly if you've got kids. You can even pick a few old-timey hobbies like spinning or making jam if you want. You don't have to go all-in on living at an 1800s technology level.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#189

Post by asdff » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:54 AM UTC

tibbydudeza wrote: post #8

Dealing with septic tanks - rotting uneven floors , shitty no pun intended plumbing and electrics - broadband from the copper era. No thanks - much prefer my modern sterile IKEA isocube.

I've lived in cities all my life and had pretty similar experiences to be honest. I thought it was from opting to live in older buildings with 'character,' so one lease i went with the isocube and that was hell. My one neighbor played drum and bass music all day and it went right through the walls like paper. The other neighbor would sit there for hours every day on the balcony calling everyone they know and airing out the latest drama of the day on speakerphone. You could hear everything from the hall right through the front door, every door slam, every step, every dog bark, every time the elevator went ding. I even tried sealing the doorjam at one point with new weather strip when I was particularly desperate but it was no use. I thought maybe this was a lemon apartment so I asked all my friends in similar new construction looking places, and it was the same story with the thin walls and doors and borderline evil property management companies. Ended up lucking out with a new place where I don't have anyone above me, no shared heavily trafficked hallway outside my door, and the neighbors are churchmice. Don't think I'm gonna be stepping back into the unknown for a while.

Re: 'Cottagecore' and the rise of the modern rural fantasy

#190

Post by asdff » Fri, Oct 01, 2021, 4:59 AM UTC

LAC-Tech wrote: post #82

tibbydudeza wrote: post #8

Dealing with septic tanks - rotting uneven floors , shitty no pun intended plumbing and electrics - broadband from the copper era. No thanks - much prefer my modern sterile IKEA isocube.

As of writing, I live on a farm an hours drive from the nearest grocery store. It's still a first world country, but people have a lot less disposable income than the states. The floor boards do suck, and the electricity gets cut more often. But I get 58.6Mbps down, 21.4Mbps up. Ground to ground satellite.

If its first world and not the united states, the people there probably have a lot more disposable income to be fair. 40% of Americans can't come up with $400 in an emergency without taking on debt to do so.