(no subject)

[psocoptera]

Having cut somewhat short a conversation with saxifrage and trysha to go talk to irilyth, aka the dread pirate Pegtooth, am now mulling leftover thoughts instead of going to sleep like a good tech. Specifically "consumerist", a word that came up a couple times. On the first pass, I'm all in favor - I think it's exciting when I get to purchase nice things, I like "unnecessary" products that offer convenience or efficiency, I think trade is fundamentally superior to theft or bullying or depending on the kindness of others.

But then, I recall my reaction to (Meech, don't read this part) my cousin's house, and my mental invocation of a perhaps related concept, "object fetishism"... it was the total triumph of display over usage. A kitchen of glass-fronted cabinets filled with carefully arranged stood-up-on-end colorful plates and bowls and fancy wine glasses, and I'm in there trying to figure out, where the heck do they keep their food? Why are they wasting all this space? Upstairs on the bookshelf, "classic" board games from the 50s and 60s by the look - are these the games they most liked to *play*? No, they were stood up, one to a shelf, carefully set at the same diagonal... as *decorations*. I don't even know if they still had the pieces in them or if they were merely the gutted shells of games now used in a carefully-contrived "nostalgia" motif. The whole living room/dining room was similarly fake in this ghastly "themed" and "coordinated" sort of way.

From this I take several lessons. One, that the urge to *stand functional objects up on end* is the end of having your stuff in a room and the beginning of *decorating* it, and must be resisted. But two, that I am more sympathetic than I might realize to a certain strand of anti-consumerism that finds distasteful an emphasis on possession and inert display of prestigious objects over utility and enjoyment of things in an active, involved sort of way. Which is weird - as a fan of variety, I should be glad some people are into that sort of thing, and as a fan of art, that's probably why we have art, so I should appreciate it, and as a good, I suppose, consumerist, however people choose to express themselves through the purchase and use (or lack of use) of goods is a matter of personal preference but in general a good thing. So I guess it's just a matter of taste. But ugh! Not at all to my taste.

Comments

[creed-of-hubris.livejournal.com]

I've got a similar dilemma; I resolve it by going shopping for things other than books and food maybe once every two or three months. Not having a car makes it easy to live austerely.

There's a line in _High Fidelity_ about how it's not longer what you think that's important; it's what you like. If you like certain things ('50s and '60s board games, for instance), then you're acceptable/datable. I find that disturbing.

A term that may be helpul to you in classifying your distaste is "conspicuous consumption". An oldie but goodie, though it does have socialist-intellectual provenance (Thorstein Veblen). _The Theory of the Leisure Class_ is still quite readable.

From the loopy right wing there's also David Brooks' _Bobos in Paradise_, which combines spot-on analysis of modern affluence (including a look at Wayne, PA, not far from Swat), with odd religious nostalgia.

Reading material for your copious free time :-)

[cereph.livejournal.com]

heh, i must admit, your reaction to her house is much what i would have expected you to think of it. ;)