Taking Things Seriously: 75 Objects with Unexpected Significance
by Joshua Glenn, Carol Hayes
On This Page
Description
We all have something in our lives that while not obviously valuable, is displayed as though it were a precious and irreplaceable artifact. Inquire about the object's provenance and you'll likely be treated to a lively anecdote about how it came into your host's possession. Keep digging, and you might even crack the code of what the thingreally means. Taking Things Seriously is a wonder cabinet of seventy-five unlikely thingamajigs that have been invested with significance and transformed show more into totems, talismans, charms, relics, and fetishes: scraps of movie posters scavenged from the streets of New York byLow Life author Luc Sante; the World War I helmet that inoculated social critic Thomas Frank against jingoism; the trash-picked, robot-shaped hairdo machine described by its owner as a chick magnet; the bagelburned by actor Christopher Walken, moonlighting as a short-order cook. The owners of these objects convey their excitement in short, often poignant essays that invite readers to participate in the enjoyable act of interpreting things. You'll never look at the bric-a-brac on your shelves the same way again. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Essays about objects and their meanings, written by various people. I love this sort of thing, and I'm biased because one of the contributors, Rex Doane, is my husband's cousin. He writes about a plaster statue of a religious martyr that he bought in Mexico (on a trip with Pat.)
Everyone seems to have 1 bizarre piece of crap that they just can't part with for reasons meaningful only to them. I love that.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
The Hermenautic Bookshelf
111 works; 6 members
Bull Tongue
319 works; 2 members
Author Information
21+ Works 688 Members
6+ Works 146 Members
Carol Hayes has Worked in early years for the last 40 years as a teacher and tutor. She worked at Staffordshire University six years as a principal lecturer and academic group leader, where she helped to develop a thriving early childhood studies department with programmes from foundation degrees to Masters in early childhood. Her specialist show more arenas are cognitive development, language, literacy and communication and her main research interests are dyslexia, communication difficulties and the role of graduate teaching assistants in the workforce. show less
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 124
- Popularity
- 264,169
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.18)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
- ASINs
- 1
