--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Many people in this room have an Etsy…" description: "\"“Many people in this room have an Etsy store where they create unique, unreplicable artifacts or useful items to be sold on a small scale, in a common ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02d/catherynne-m-valente-375_blog_many-people-in-this-room-have-an-etsy-st_450875.jpg" --- # Many people in this room have an Etsy store where they… ![“Many people in this room have an Etsy store where they create unique, unreplicable artifacts or useful items to be sold on a small scale, in a common marketplace where their friends meet and barter. I and many of my friends own more than one spinning wheel. We grow our food again. We make pickles…” quote by Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02d/catherynne-m-valente-375_blog_many-people-in-this-room-have-an-etsy-st_450875.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02d/catherynne-m-valente-375_blog_many-people-in-this-room-have-an-etsy-st_450875.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/02d/catherynne-m-valente-375_blog_many-people-in-this-room-have-an-etsy-st_450875.jpg) > ““Many people in this room have an Etsy store where they create unique, unreplicable artifacts or useful items to be sold on a small scale, in a common marketplace where their friends meet and barter. I and many of my friends own more than one spinning wheel. We grow our food again. We make pickles and jams on private, individual scales, when many of our mothers forgot those skills if they ever knew them. We come to conventions, we create small communities of support and distributed skills--when one of us needs help, our village steps in. It’s only that our village is no longer physical, but connected by DSL instead of roads. But look at how we organize our tribes--bloggers preside over large estates, kings and queens whose spouses’ virtues are oft-lauded but whose faces are rarely seen. They have moderators to protect them, to be their knights, a nobility of active commenters and big name fans, a peasantry of regular readers, and vandals starting the occasional flame war just to watch the fields burn. Other villages are more commune-like, sharing out resources on forums or aggregate sites, providing wise women to be consulted, rabbis or priests to explain the world, makers and smiths to fashion magical objects. Groups of performers, acrobats and actors and singers of songs are traveling the roads once more, entertaining for a brief evening in a living room or a wheatfield, known by word of mouth and secret signal. Separate from official government, we create our own hierarchies, laws, and mores, as well as our own folklore and secret history. Even my own guilt about having failed as an academic is quite the crisis of filial piety--you see, my mother is a professor. I have not carried on the family trade. We dwell within a system so large and widespread, so disorganized and unconcerned for anyone but its most privileged and luxurious members, that our powerlessness, when we can summon up the courage to actually face it, is staggering. So we do not face it. We tell ourselves we are Achilles when we have much more in common with the cathedral-worker, laboring anonymously so that the next generation can see some incremental progress. We lack, of course, a Great Work to point to and say: my grandmother made that window; I worked upon the door. Though, I would submit that perhaps the Internet, as an object, as an aggregate entity, is the cathedral we build word by word and image by image, window by window and portal by portal, to stand taller for our children, if only by a little, than it does for us. For most of us are Lancelots, not Galahads. We may see the Grail of a good Classical life, but never touch it. That is for our sons, or their daughters, or further off. And if our villages are online, the real world becomes that dark wood on the edge of civilization, a place of danger and experience, of magic and blood, a place to make one’s name or find death by bear. And here, there be monsters.”” [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The passage describes modern digital communities as villages, sharing skills, resources, and culture, while highlighting feelings of powerlessness within larger systems. **In simple terms:** Online communities act like villages sharing skills and culture. Key Takeaway Build supportive networks and recognize collective power. Themes community building digital culture self-reliance skill sharing empowerment Mood hopeful critical Type reflective inspirational When to use this quote - online forums - craft fairs - local markets - virtual collaborations - skill exchanges Key Concepts digital anthropology network theory social capital Questions to Reflect On - How can you strengthen your digital village? - What systemic changes would empower these communities? A Different Perspective The narrative may romanticize community and overlook systemic barriers. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Blog](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blog/) [Community](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/community/) [Culture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/culture/) [Filial piety](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/filial-piety/) [Friendship](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/friendship/) [Internet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/internet/) [Living room](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/living-room/) [Next generation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/next-generation/) [Real world](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/real-world/) [Secret History](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/secret-history/) [Small communities](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/small-communities/) [Stand tall](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stand-tall/) [Truth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/truth/) [Village](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/village/) [Wise women](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wise-women/) [Word of mouth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/word-of-mouth/) ## Related quotes > [“...while epic fantasy is based on the fairy tale of the just war, that’s not one you’ll find in Grimm or Disney, and most…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/while-epic-fantasy-is-based-on-the-fairy-tale-of-the-just-war-that-s/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [I live with some of my best friends from high school, very commune-like, in my house. It's my hippie way of life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alanis-morissette/i-live-with-some-of-my-best-friends-from-high-school-very-commune/) [Alanis Morissette](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alanis-morissette/) > [Certainly in Catholic countries, the peasantry have always found ways to integrate pagan things in a way that makes it a little bit easier…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-eggers/certainly-in-catholic-countries-the-peasantry-have-always-found-ways/) [Robert Eggers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-eggers/) > [“for after all, the British peasantry are the best taught, best mannered, most self-respecting of any in Europe:”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charlotte-bronte/for-after-all-the-british-peasantry-are-the-best-taught-best-mannered/) [Charlotte Brontë](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charlotte-bronte/) > [The dominant mood of contemporary American culture is the self-celebration of the peasantry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-a-henry-iii/the-dominant-mood-of-contemporary-american-culture-is-the-self/) [William A. Henry III](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-a-henry-iii/) > [It is not scholarship alone, but scholarship impregnated with religion, that tells on the great mass of society. We have no faith in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-chalmers/it-is-not-scholarship-alone-but-scholarship-impregnated-with-religion/) [Thomas Chalmers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-chalmers/) > [Having consolidated its power, and taking the lead of the peasantry, the proletariat of the victorious country can and must build a socialist society.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-stalin/having-consolidated-its-power-and-taking-the-lead-of-the-peasantry/) [Joseph Stalin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-stalin/) > [“The greatest hurdle one must overcome along the journey from peasantry to nobility is a commitment to reading and reflection. For nothing distinguishes the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vicar-sayeedi/the-greatest-hurdle-one-must-overcome-along-the-journey-from/) Vicar Sayeedi > [“The history of middle-class and working-class revolutions has shown that the bulk of the peasants often constitute a brake on the revolution. Generally in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-history-of-middle-class-and-working-class-revolutions-has-shown/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/f-scott-fitzgerald/americans-while-occasionally-willing-to-be-serfs-have-always-been/) [F. Scott Fitzgerald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/f-scott-fitzgerald/) > [There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-a-garfield/there-can-be-no-permanent-disfranchised-peasantry-in-the-united-states/) [James A. Garfield](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-a-garfield/) > [Don't spend your time in drilling soldiers, who may turn out hirelings after all, but give to undrilled peasantry a country to fight for.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/don-t-spend-your-time-in-drilling-soldiers-who-may-turn-out-hirelings/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [I'm not in sympathy with Communism except for populations which are in a state of peasantry, actually hungry and starving. The ideal state for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tennessee-williams/i-m-not-in-sympathy-with-communism-except-for-populations-which-are/) [Tennessee Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tennessee-williams/) > [Folks out in the country couldn't afford to pay for anybody else to make music. They had to make their own. So the peasantry…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pete-seeger/folks-out-in-the-country-couldn-t-afford-to-pay-for-anybody-else-to/) [Pete Seeger](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pete-seeger/) > [Three things are needed to educate the peasantry: schools, schools, and schools.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/three-things-are-needed-to-educate-the-peasantry-schools-schools-and/) [Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/) ## More by Catherynne M. Valente > [When I saw him I thought I could curl up inside him and go to sleep and never wake up." "Men are no good…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/when-i-saw-him-i-thought-i-could-curl-up-inside-him-and-go-to-sleep/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [We all just keep moving, September. We keep moving until we stop.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/we-all-just-keep-moving-september-we-keep-moving-until-we-stop/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [“You couldn't ever really fix a sad story. You could only make another. And another. And another, until you found the right one at…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/you-couldn-t-ever-really-fix-a-sad-story-you-could-only-make-another/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [“He considers it for a moment and spits out the seeds, which sprout, quickly, into tiny junkblossoms sizzling with recursive algorithms. The algorithms wriggle…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/he-considers-it-for-a-moment-and-spits-out-the-seeds-which-sprout/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [“Truly, Mallow yearned to know everything. Curiosity was part of her, like her short blond hair and bitten fingernails.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/truly-mallow-yearned-to-know-everything-curiosity-was-part-of-her/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [“The cicada lies in the earth for seventeen years. It is warm and dark there, it is soft and wet. Its little legs curl…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/the-cicada-lies-in-the-earth-for-seventeen-years-it-is-warm-and-dark/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say: lines on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/we-all-live-inside-the-terrible-engine-of-authority-and-it-grinds-and/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [Her heart was bruised by the kiss, smashed and surprised and unsettled by it. September thought kisses were all nice, sweet things asked for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/her-heart-was-bruised-by-the-kiss-smashed-and-surprised-and-unsettled/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [“September put her hand on the grip of the Rivet Gun. She’d only just gotten it, and she’d promised to take copious notes for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/september-put-her-hand-on-the-grip-of-the-rivet-gun-she-d-only-just/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/just-tell-yourself-a-story-that-ll-satisfy-you-and-pretend-he-told-it/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [“You see, the future is a kind of stew, a soup, a vichyssoise of the present and the past. That's how you get the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/you-see-the-future-is-a-kind-of-stew-a-soup-a-vichyssoise-of-the/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [Fairy tales have always been about getting through the worst of everything, the darkest and the deepest and the bloodiest of events. They are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/fairy-tales-have-always-been-about-getting-through-the-worst-of/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [“There is a place, September, oh, very far from Pandemonium. A place where it is always autumn, where there is always cider and pumpkin…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/there-is-a-place-september-oh-very-far-from-pandemonium-a-place-where/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [“I was happy, the sun was high. I had enough.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/i-was-happy-the-sun-was-high-i-had-enough/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [Who are you?" "I am Death," said the creature. "I thought that was obvious." "But you're so small!" "Only because you are small. You…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/who-are-you-i-am-death-said-the-creature-i-thought-that-was-obvious/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) [Explore all 621 Catherynne M. Valente quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) ## More Blog quotes > [Very informative blog article.Thanks Again. Really Great.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/social/very-informative-blog-article-thanks-again-really-great/) Social > [Vo5C0y Muchos Gracias for your article.Really looking forward to read more. Really Cool.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/serivce/vo5c0y-muchos-gracias-for-your-article-really-looking-forward-to-read/) Serivce > [Really informative blog post.Thanks Again. Great.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/notebook-review/really-informative-blog-post-thanks-again-great/) Notebook Review > [“Take care of your costume and your confidence will take care of itself.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amit-kalantri/take-care-of-your-costume-and-your-confidence-will-take-care-of-itself/) [Amit Kalantri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amit-kalantri/) > [Im obliged for the post.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/social/im-obliged-for-the-post/) Social > [Really enjoyed this blog article. Want more.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/social/really-enjoyed-this-blog-article-want-more/) Social > [OGhy5r This is one awesome article post.Much thanks again. 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Really Cool.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cheap/very-good-post-really-looking-forward-to-read-more-really-cool/) [Cheap](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cheap/) > [NTvLne I really enjoy the blog article.Really thank you!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cheap-oem-software/ntvlne-i-really-enjoy-the-blog-article-really-thank-you/) Cheap Oem Software > [“In general, poor is polite and rich is rude.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amit-kalantri/in-general-poor-is-polite-and-rich-is-rude/) [Amit Kalantri](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amit-kalantri/) > [OWA2ku I think this is a real great article post.Really looking forward to read more. Want more.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/social/owa2ku-i-think-this-is-a-real-great-article-post-really-looking/) Social > [I cannot thank you enough for the article post.Really thank you! Want more.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bookmarking/i-cannot-thank-you-enough-for-the-article-post-really-thank-you-want/) Bookmarking > [I think this is a real great article. Want more.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/serivce/i-think-this-is-a-real-great-article-want-more/) Serivce [Browse all 1,451 Blog quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blog/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Many people in this room have an Etsy store where they create unique, unreplicable artifacts or useful items to be sold on a small scale, in a common marketplace where their friends meet and barter. I and many of my friends own more than one spinning wheel. We grow our food again. We make pickles and jams on private, individual scales, when many of our mothers forgot those skills if they ever knew them. We come to conventions, we create small communities of support and distributed skills--when one of us needs help, our village steps in. It’s only that our village is no longer physical, but connected by DSL instead of roads. But look at how we organize our tribes--bloggers preside over large estates, kings and queens whose spouses’ virtues are oft-lauded but whose faces are rarely seen. They have moderators to protect them, to be their knights, a nobility of active commenters and big name fans, a peasantry of regular readers, and vandals starting the occasional flame war just to watch the fields burn. Other villages are more commune-like, sharing out resources on forums or aggregate sites, providing wise women to be consulted, rabbis or priests to explain the world, makers and smiths to fashion magical objects. Groups of performers, acrobats and actors and singers of songs are traveling the roads once more, entertaining for a brief evening in a living room or a wheatfield, known by word of mouth and secret signal. Separate from official government, we create our own hierarchies, laws, and mores, as well as our own folklore and secret history. Even my own guilt about having failed as an academic is quite the crisis of filial piety--you see, my mother is a professor. I have not carried on the family trade. We dwell within a system so large and widespread, so disorganized and unconcerned for anyone but its most privileged and luxurious members, that our powerlessness, when we can summon up the courage to actually face it, is staggering. So we do not face it. We tell ourselves we are Achilles when we have much more in common with the cathedral-worker, laboring anonymously so that the next generation can see some incremental progress. We lack, of course, a Great Work to point to and say: my grandmother made that window; I worked upon the door. Though, I would submit that perhaps the Internet, as an object, as an aggregate entity, is the cathedral we build word by word and image by image, window by window and portal by portal, to stand taller for our children, if only by a little, than it does for us. For most of us are Lancelots, not Galahads. We may see the Grail of a good Classical life, but never touch it. That is for our sons, or their daughters, or further off. And if our villages are online, the real world becomes that dark wood on the edge of civilization, a place of danger and experience, of magic and blood, a place to make one’s name or find death by bear. And here, there be monsters.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Catherynne M. 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