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Comment by scandox | Hacker News Reader

I like the ambiguous Ballardian language of reverence towards the mall and its staff. It's charming and also a little creepy.

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I thought that was a little odd too, his saccharine descriptions of the security staff and the mall were a little off putting and I couldn't tell if they were genuine or just trying to shape a narrative.

I'm pretty sure it's sarcastic, at least in places:

> It is important to me that you know that I have a great deal of respect for the work you do and I am very sorry that I wasted some of your valuable time today. This project is in no way a critique on security or what defines safety in contemporary society.

Though I think there's also an undercurrent of fellow-feeling for the actual in-the-flesh human beings who do that job, who don't exactly bear the blame for 'what defines safety in contemporary society' or anything like that. (In that, you know, the policeman is playing a part precisely as much as the prisoner is.)

I get the sense he may be a bit mentally unsure of the line he's drawing between respecting the workers and disrespecting their work.

I think we was trying to avoid getting the security staff in trouble for failing to find his secret apartment under their noses for four years.

It may make more sense in the context of his successful attempt to avoid going to prison or otherwise get a severe punishment.

I don't think it's sarcastic exactly, or feigned, I think he genuinely respected the working people on the security staff, and didn't mean them or the mall any harm. (I'm not sure I believe he genuinely respected the mall and its owners in an unfeigned way). But, yeah, the choice to emphasize that in his narrative seems probably affected by his hope to avoid going to jail.

You might be subconsciously picking up on the fact that it's actually really creepy to build an apartment in a building you don't own.

Someone owning a space that they will never ever set eyes on, that someone else could make use of without disrupting -- or even notifying -- anyone else, especially perhaps the "owner," certainly calls into question the entire concept of "owning a space."

If they were legally able to rent out that space, I'm pretty sure they would. So I don't think it "calls into question the concept of owning a space", so much as it calls into question the wisdom of legislating a 'minimum quality' for dwellings.

Specifically, it should force us to ask whether such laws (a) drive up the quality of properties, or rather (b) merely make it impossible to rent a property in the price range someone might pay for this mall apartment.

I can't see how any serious-minded person could ask "Is the entire concept of property a bad idea, because someone can't rent a dingy apartment in a Rhode Island mall?". Of course the answer to that question is 'no'.

Not that "owning a space shouldn't exist," but we should clarify and question "owning a space," because we casually and colloquially believe/accept "property" incorrectly.

Our minds just generally go to the 3 year old's conception of property, "Its mine and I can do whatever I want."

But, of course, no. "Property" for grownups is a jumble of rights AND responsibilities.

It's good to question those, especially when it gets to what might be absurdities, e.g. Ted Turner owning a literal U.S. state's worth of land.

I suspect the artist comes from the r/antiwork fringe, who would say it's equally creepy to build an apartment in a building you do own.

(I don't know how I feel about all that, really. I don't regard myself as a capitalist drone who thinks that someone like Elon Musk deserves to be richer than a heart surgeon. Jeff Bezos maybe, but, well, suffice it to say I understand the market is not perfect. But I also can't bring myself to think that it's more entitled - in the character-trait sense - to claim ownership to something I built myself, than to claim ownership to the fruit of other people's work, which latter claim is pretty much what the r/antiwork crowd are making. It's a messy argument to say the least...)

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