December 2010 Archives

Entry 1: Welcome

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Hi all:

Welcome to the blog for Writing 109SS for the winter quarter 2011.

I will be asking you to post to this blog frequently.  The posts will be used for class discussion and as a collection point for ideas and quotations for your papers.

PLEASE NOTE:  This blog is in public space. Anyone can look at it.  If you are concerned for your privacy, please do not use your real name here.  Create something else and let me know what it is.

Your post will not necessarily appear right after you write it.  I look through them to make sure the posts are appropriate for our purposes.

Again:  Welcome.

Nick
Hi all:

For this entry, read "The True Cost of Gadgets."

Find a quotation from the article that interests you, or seems most important, or you have a question about.

Type it into the comment box and then add a few lines saying why you picked this quotation.

For me the Suzuki article is important because it helps me remember how much things have changed in the last two decade and also points to the broader ecological and environmental consequences of consumerism.

It's pretty easy to read.
Hi all:

For this entry, first read "The Emergence of Consumerism," and, as with the previous entry, pick a quotation (it could be a number of lines long), paste it into the comment box and then comment on the quotation: why you picked it, why important, what does it mean.

As this article suggests consumerism has been around for a while; it's basic outlines were present in the 18th century.

It started in Europe, but I think we can argue that it was pretty much perfected here in the USA.

This is not a hard read.  But think a bit about the link between consumerism and the felt need for non-essential items. Sugar, for example.

Nick

Entry 4: Setting the Course

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Hi all:

Please read "Setting the Course," pages 15 to 30 in the Reader.

This is an historical piece taken from the best history of the development of consumer society that I have yet to find.

You will find a lot of historical facts.  Don't worry about that.  You don't have to memorize them.  Instead let your imagination work on the examples.  See if you can begin to feel what it was like to shop, say, in the 19th century, and how that differs from shopping today.  And pay attention to the ideas or assertions Cross throws out about the nature of the consumer society, how for example it functioned in a democracy of goods against class conflict.

When you are finished reading, pick a quotation you think important and write a few lines about why you picked it.  Or paraphrase one of Cross's ideas or examples and write about that and why you find it important.

Thank you.

Nick
Hi all:

"Why the Self is Empty" is an academic article.  It's too long, the print is too small, its full of citations and names you won't (and don't have to) know.

Forget that stuff and read for the main idea.  Cushman is trying to talk about how consumerism shaped identity as older and more traditional forms of identity formation slipped away.

Do as you did with the last blog comment.  Either pick a quotation, type it in, and then write a few lines saying why you think it important or, more generally, try to paraphrase the main point of the article in a paragraph or so.


Thank you.

Nick
Hi all:

This article is by Zygmunt Bauman.  I have never had any heroes (except maybe for Micky Mantle and Bob Dylan).  But now Bauman is my hero, not so much for what he has to say about consumer society, but because he is still saying lively, interesting stuff at 85 years of age.  I can only hope my brain works as well as his at 85.

He is a pretty astute observer of consumer society.  Formerly an academic sociologist, he is widely read in sociology and other stuff.  In this article he brings up Nietzsche.  Not the usual sociological stuff.

You have to take time with his writing.  It's not fast food; you can't just swallow it down on the go.  You have to sit down and chew a little.

Again, as with previous posts to the blog, pick an interesting quotation, type it in, and write a few lines about why you picked it.  Or try to paraphrase his line of thinking.  You can of course include a quotation in this too.

I think this is a pretty interesting article.  We all want to be happy, I guess, and Bauman talks about the difficulties of finding happiness in a consumer society.

Nick

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