Encounterism: The Neglected Joys of Being In Person

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From the hairdressers's chair to sitting with others in a car, and fleeting meetings while walking in the park, Field examines the nature, grace, and importance of everyday, face-to-face human interactions. A great mix of social commentary, experience of the self and some thoughtful insights into our ancestral past. Why auditoriums, theatres, cinemas (and the act of being-in-person) goes beyond the spatial and visual; and can even be chemical – ‘literally breathing each other in’. To him, our most ordinary sidewalk interactions can be imbued with “friction and possibility … anxiety and joy.

There are nine chapters with "Notes on Sources' at the end of the book that directs you to the articles read in preparation for this book. This attention to detail flourishes in other chapters too, such as the John Updike "Spring Rain" references or the euphoric nightclub leitmotif of "Your Love". From the history of the haircut to the mystery of The Jetsons, Andy Field is the freshest, most down-to-earth, most constantly surprising (and endearing) explorer of urban life I've read in a while. In an author’s note, Field says right up front that the idea for “Encounterism” came before the coronavirus pandemic, not in response to it, and that he wrote much of the book during “the caesura it created.A bit scattered in parts, the work weaves its way through the last 150-odd years pulling on examples of how interactions in various forms have forever changed the way we interact as a society in a sort of association game.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. To be clear, Field is not writing as some man-child, he is however an adult who hasn’t been worn down by the repetition and responsibilities of adulthood. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. To me, the word "encounter" brings back the groups in that I participated back in the 1970s, we spent a couple of hours each time sitting on bean bags in a circle.The light touch of a hairdresser's hands on one's scalp, the euphoric energy of a nightclub, huddling with strangers under a shelter in the rain, a spontaneous snowball fight in the street, a daily interaction with a homeless man--such mundane connections, when we closely inhabit the same space, and touch or are touched by others, were nearly lost to "social distancing. Ending the book, he lists some fun and hilarious ways to pay the book forward to a stranger, to ensure our own encounter, and asks that it be done with care. The light touch of a hairdresser’s hands on one’s scalp, the euphoric energy of a nightclub, huddling with strangers under a shelter in the rain, a spontaneous snowball fight in the street, a daily interaction with a homeless man―such mundane connections, when we closely inhabit the same space, and touch or are touched by others, were nearly lost to “social distancing.