Douglas Holt and James Twitchell
Jim,
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StumbleUponYes, you're definitely onto something here. The pages of the bourgie press--New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harper's, New Yorker, Salon Slate?--are increasingly filled with titillating exotica from the margins of consumer culture. And it works! Look at these strange folks down thar in Skullbonia, says Holt. Seems to be a hot new market for journalism. After all of the celebrities' homes have been toured, there are always some strange dudes out there somewhere having fun.
And then, of course, there's the third node on the consumption circuit, as the readers of Slate consume us consuming Skullbonia as another genre of exotica: full-of-themselves professors getting paid (by taxpayers in your case!) to spit out trite nothings rather than marching out into the world and having a go of it themselves. (I did tour the Slate comments early on and did note the term "prancing" directed our way.) So, hopefully, this is fun for all. But to complete the circuit, seems like we need to get those Skullbonians involved in these proceedings, so the readers of Slate could feel the glare of the consumer spotlight as well.
Anyway, prancing around the titillation factor: What's happening in Skullbonia happens all the time in mainstream brand marketing, though usually more subtly. Brands feed off politics. Take the recent Miller (High Life?) ads, which play on fantasies of men conquering those ever-slutty women. When brands grab hold of societal tensions on what sociologists like to call "axes of social difference"--gender (Miller), race (Skullbonia), class (all those fussy brands you study), sexuality, nation, etc.--through consumption, they transform the world we live in. The net result, I think, is that we end up relying less on political systems and community interactions to resolve such tensions. Instead, we "act out" through consuming. Interestingly, the social movements that attack these issues--the Greens, Act Up, anti-free traders, simple livers--increasingly voice their politics through consumption (e.g., the "jamming" of Nike's customized shoe design feature on their Web site, as reported in the Village Voice a few months ago).
All adds up to one of the strangest modes of political organization in world history.
Really,
Doug
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Reader Comments From The Fray
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[Notes from the Fray Editor: Let's talk about coffee. Joseph Britt., below, was just one of many--follow the thread, and consider the question of tipping the barista. He still had time to discuss milk, here, too. And Brendan Herlihy took on ice-cream here. Neill Hamilton is looking for more "dissent, anger, blood feuds... I want the people writing in the Breakfast Table to open up life long vendettas" here (he always is, he's the Breakfast Table's official trouble-maker), but Richard Walrath enjoyed the banter: "it's almost like being there with the third cup of coffee."]
We're really talking about two different things here, aren't we? Coffee, and then all the froofy coffee-influenced liquid dessert-style beverages that take up most of the space on coffee house menus. I have nothing against the latter (because making fun of them is always a good time), but coffee is a really serious subject. If you're going to drink something nearly every day, it might as well be good. This is why I've never understood all the sneering condescension directed at Starbucks. Pre-Starbucks, most coffee served in public places was awful--you were ahead of the game if you ordered came out hot, caffeinated and with no taste at all. OK, most coffee served in public places is still awful, but with Starbucks you at least have the choice of having a good cup of coffee.
I confess I think Starbucks is slipping, based on extensive research I've done at the Minneapolis Airport. They used to offer a rotation of different coffees--Sumatra, Mocha Java, even New Guinea--but now seem to mostly serve up a couple of blends with names like "European" and "Christmas." Talk about your brand marketing. Also they routinely serve the coffee so hot you wonder if there is something wrong with the water they're using.
--Joseph Britt
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Maybe the students in Mr. Twitchell's anecdote couldn't tell good poetry from bad without guidance, but this doesn't strike me as being universally true. Poetry isn't my thing, but music is, and I have no trouble separating the good from the bad using only my own ears. If there wasn't something intrinsic in good art, we wouldn't, over time, have come to a general agreement about the relative worth of, say, Mozart vs. Salieri.
--Chloe Pajerek
(To reply, click here.)
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