"We can’t live without beliefs that are untestable, and so we keep clicking, filling out late-night quizzes, looking at a screen and mistaking it for the world."

Echoes of Narcissus

By Laura Tanenbaum (November 1, 2016)

"What is the value of these stories, these myths that feel true, in a world the that looks more and more to neuroscience and the watered-down, click-bait headlines? At their best they are little worlds we can explore – when have I mistaken my own face for that of another? When am I the heartbreaker and when does my heart break? Why do I continue to weep? They are little spaces that open up, the way Dombek’s own form, the essay does. The essay is tricky thing, neither wholeheartedly dedicated to argument or experience but to the inevitably impartial place where they collide. Its fundamental problem – how do we know what we know?- has its variants in all the humanities. It’s slippery ground and it’s why so many defenders of the humanities fall into platitudes about the beauty of the questions. We can’t live without beliefs that are untestable, and so we keep clicking, filling out late-night quizzes, looking at a screen and mistaking it for the world."