tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post6320465859392532078..comments2024-03-27T23:28:20.274-04:00Comments on Face to Face: Interior decorating more popular in cocooning times, leading ultimately to greater alienationagnostichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-54700061357025738632013-07-24T23:49:30.272-04:002013-07-24T23:49:30.272-04:00Nothing wrong with it, just using it to show how t...Nothing wrong with it, just using it to show how the degree of thought that people give to the look of their homes reflects their cocooning vs. outgoing behavioral style.<br /><br />Too much of a design-y look at home can be bad, though, if it makes you complacent and not feel like leaving the house. Or appearing pretentious. Or heightening your level of self-consciousness and OCD -- does your home look the way you want it to? What are people going to think about it? And so on.<br /><br />A place that you have no control over, like a mall, you just visit and enjoy the experience -- someone else has given all the thought to the look and feel of it.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-14761799488917940972013-07-24T23:35:09.579-04:002013-07-24T23:35:09.579-04:00I don't get it. What is wrong with an interior...I don't get it. What is wrong with an interior designed house with conscious deliberation and perfect measurements? There are many different options for design. Modern and Modern Minimalist are not the only options and only have limited popularity. They just happen to be featured more in interior design magazines. I'm not sure why having an amazingly clean interior designed space automatically necessitates becoming a home body. Not sure where your drawing that line. Michaelnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-59015629501443302272013-07-24T20:17:17.975-04:002013-07-24T20:17:17.975-04:002 to 4 guests, I mean, so a half-dozen people.2 to 4 guests, I mean, so a half-dozen people.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-33553455633193579692013-07-24T20:11:07.502-04:002013-07-24T20:11:07.502-04:00"While my impression is that in the 1970s to ..."While my impression is that in the 1970s to 1980s, that stuff happened either more naturally and spontaneously, and as part of a large group, (rather than as an attempt to draw a few avoidant people in) or not at all."<br /><br />Yeah, that does seem to start in the later half of the '50s. Part of the first shedding of the cocooning mindset.<br /><br />And yeah, it was more spontaneous and took part in larger groups in the '70s and '80s. My mother says 2 to 4 people was the norm.<br /><br />BTW, what happened to the regular poker game? It was popular with college kids as well as middle-aged working men too.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-81782803841660184792013-07-24T20:01:04.636-04:002013-07-24T20:01:04.636-04:00"so were striving to make it a nice place to ..."so were striving to make it a nice place to hang?"<br /><br />Perhaps, but not with stuff from the Container Store, Target, IKEA, etc. On our floor, three of us bought cheap couches at the Salvation Army, and it took four of us to carry them back -- probably an hour each. Though one time I think we managed to score a flat-bed dolly.<br /><br />And we raised the couches onto our generic dressers provided by the school. Real Seventies-looking upholstery too, LOL.<br /><br />Working as a team to head off on a mission, scope out the selection, and then lug those suckers back to the dorms, was more of a bonding experience than just plopping down on an "affordable luxury" bean bag from Target.<br /><br />"but maybe there's like a dual motivation"<br /><br />College kids' rooms these days feel more like they're designed to be cocoons for the owner than hang-out places for others.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-1253427409153595022013-07-24T19:53:58.603-04:002013-07-24T19:53:58.603-04:00"Think there's anything to this?"
C..."Think there's anything to this?"<br /><br />Could be, although you sound like you know more about the history of tea and coffee culture. Coffee seems like it was a decent part of the drive-in and diner culture of the mid-century.<br /><br />Like, "How 'bout a nice hot cuppa joe?" -- when is that phrase from? David Lynch is obsessed with ordering coffee, that it makes me suspect it's a Fifties / early '60s thing.<br /><br />Definitely was not very big during the '60s, '70s, and '80s...<br /><br />I'm not too sure about the 1900 to early '30s period. Doesn't seem like it was a cultural phenomenon.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-7615869234135172072013-07-24T16:11:21.642-04:002013-07-24T16:11:21.642-04:00agnostic, off topic, but I was thinking about the ...agnostic, off topic, but I was thinking about the rationalist / introversion / violence falling vs romantic / extraversion / violence rising period dichotomy you raise, and how it relates to preferences for stimulant and stabilising drugs vs depressant / psychoactive and de-stabilising drugs, and how this relates to caffeine and tea and coffee, specifically.<br /><br />Looking at history, the Rationalist Enlightenment was associated with meetings in coffee houses and the spread of coffee, the Victorian period with large increases in the consumption of tea (in England at least), and our age with the rise of Starbucks, coffee shops and "energy drinks". I.e. falling violence created Starbucks and Red Bull (by creating the opportunity for them to grow as brands). I don't know about the mid-century. Think there's anything to this?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-35560809449616132982013-07-24T15:40:31.053-04:002013-07-24T15:40:31.053-04:00Sometime during the '90s, that began to change...<i>Sometime during the '90s, that began to change. I remember arriving for freshman year in the fall of '99 with a good load of junk from the Container Store etc. to make the dorm room more attractive and functional... when I could've cared less and wanted more to hang out and shoot the bull in other people's rooms or at the common eating spots outside the building.</i><br /><br />Seems kind of harsh on yourself. <br /><br />Maybe some of your motivation was more to invite people, who you were dimly aware were getting more averse to leaving their own rooms, into yours, so were striving to make it a nice place to hang?<br /><br />You touch on this a bit but maybe there's like a dual motivation - both people are less willing to leave their space, so there's more of an incentive for them to do it up nice, and also people are harder to draw into your space, so there's a motivation to amp up the creature comforts (which is probably less against the grain of the times than trying to draw them in by amping up your level of enthusiasm, openness and positive feeling).<br /><br />One of my images of the '50s (but sort of straddling that '50s - '60s) period is all that stuff where some avuncular and genial guy is like all "Say, Walt, why don't you come over to my place and the missus'll fix us up a couple of real nice steaks and we'll drink some single malt and smoke some cuban cigars?" in a way calculated to offer creature comforts.<br /><br />While my impression is that in the 1970s to 1980s, that stuff happened either more naturally and spontaneously, and as part of a large group, (rather than as an attempt to draw a few avoidant people in) or not at all.<br /><br />That might be more typical of the Midcentury where the national solidarity through World Wars and Fighting Communism and a relative lack of narcissism and superiority complex through lower inequality at least gave the Greatest and Silents some backup humanity and desire to connect.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-51378961853579805602013-07-24T13:16:32.843-04:002013-07-24T13:16:32.843-04:00one thing i've noticed is someone getting a fi...one thing i've noticed is someone getting a fishbowl in their living-room. that type of thing seems like it would be more common in rising-crime than falling-crime times.<br /><br />-CurtisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-63701416797202913152013-07-24T13:07:56.317-04:002013-07-24T13:07:56.317-04:00I've noticed lots of people being friendlier i...I've noticed lots of people being friendlier in public, though it can vary day-to-day(I'm thinking more and more that the crime rate trends are effected by the weather). There have been other signs, like guys running in the park with their shirts off, and other stuff like that. I'll think harder about this later.<br /><br />I also don't think you give yourself enough credit, as your blog is certainly informing more people than you think.<br /><br />-CurtisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-45675552338915688662013-07-23T22:05:10.766-04:002013-07-23T22:05:10.766-04:00Who's "we," kemo sabe? Two random gu...Who's "we," kemo sabe? Two random guys on the internet? The average American isn't talking about it, coming to recognize how wasteful their lives have been for the past two decades. They're even more intent on tunneling away in their domestic nuclear unit.<br /><br />Just to pick one important barometer -- hovering physically over children. Now it's escalated to holding their hands. I've even seen parents pick up their kids and carry them off when they ventured "too far" from their parents, i.e. 10 feet away.<br /><br />I hadn't seen hand-holding or carrying before (except for infants, with those baby-sling thingies).<br /><br />Really, what's next? -- carrying them around in a pet taxi?agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-58441118529496304692013-07-23T21:36:21.328-04:002013-07-23T21:36:21.328-04:00"No, if anything I see it getting worse than ..."No, if anything I see it getting worse than two or three years ago."<br /><br />I refuse to believe that if its true, I think that we are talking about it means we're over the worst hump.<br /><br />-CurtisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-49798824054705334072013-07-23T21:33:07.570-04:002013-07-23T21:33:07.570-04:00have you examined the idea that the crime rate may...have you examined the idea that the crime rate may be related to trends in the weather?<br /><br />-CurtisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-43172535736238468522013-07-23T18:03:00.957-04:002013-07-23T18:03:00.957-04:00'Fellow praised my chairs! Damned cheek!'
...'Fellow praised my chairs! Damned cheek!'<br /><br />Paul Fussell's 'Class', upper-class Englishman ejecting some wombat.biffnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-76651604721850784792013-07-23T13:37:23.515-04:002013-07-23T13:37:23.515-04:00"any signs that things are changing? maybe ma..."any signs that things are changing? maybe make an article about them?"<br /><br />No, if anything I see it getting worse than two or three years ago.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-82289296078685329832013-07-23T13:36:23.417-04:002013-07-23T13:36:23.417-04:00You know, the same shift in attitudes has happened...You know, the same shift in attitudes has happened on college campuses as well. In the '80s, nobody cared how thoughtfully and purposefully designed their dorm room or campus-area apartment looked.<br /><br />Sometime during the '90s, that began to change. I remember arriving for freshman year in the fall of '99 with a good load of junk from the Container Store etc. to make the dorm room more attractive and functional... when I could've cared less and wanted more to hang out and shoot the bull in other people's rooms or at the common eating spots outside the building.<br /><br />By now, college kids' dorm rooms get the full OCD treatment that their parents show toward the home. If their kids are going to stay locked in their dorm room, it had better look appealing. Otherwise they might feel like leaving their room, unsupervised.<br /><br />http://akinokure.blogspot.com/2012/09/obligatory-dorm-room-makeovers.htmlagnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-21332003153562552872013-07-23T13:30:36.831-04:002013-07-23T13:30:36.831-04:00"I feel like the Housing Bubble also had some..."I feel like the Housing Bubble also had some link in with the recent changes."<br /><br />Definitely during the housing bubble euphoria of the mid-2000s, but if anything people are more obsessed with interior decorating than they were before, well after the housing market blew up and the recession had set in.<br /><br />And it got going well before the widespread belief that the home was a miracle investment. The housing bubble euphoria didn't extend back into the 1990s, even though there was a general feeling that every middle class person was suddenly a wise investor, and that prosperity was rising (which it was).<br /><br />I remember our family's first pilgrimage to IKEA around 1993 or '94, no later than '95. We'd never made a design pilgrimage before, and I'd never seen so many pilgrims all packed into one great big sprawling store like that. It must have taken over an hour to get there.<br /><br />Strange how few specific shopping trips you remember, but that was a big one. I remember complaining about why we needed to go so far away, and once there, why we needed to spend so much time and get so many new things.<br /><br />I don't remember the exact words, but it wasn't just needing new things -- something more like "I don't like the way our house looks" that covered the entire style of the interior. We needed to trek out on a pilgrimage as a costly and honest sign of our design contrition ("cheesy / tacky '80s furniture"), seek guidance from our spiritual superiors and experts, and after being broken down, to return home transformed with our new Scandinavia minimalist stuff.<br /><br />It didn't matter if you were rich or not -- it's not as though we transformed our entire house overnight. But getting enough new things to start the redemption process, and making semi-regular pilgrimages back to IKEA (or wherever) to further along the design-y look of our home.agnostichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12967177967469961883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-38851610850646810072013-07-23T12:57:22.436-04:002013-07-23T12:57:22.436-04:00any signs that things are changing? maybe make an...any signs that things are changing? maybe make an article about them?<br /><br />-CurtisAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19346366.post-28802069303877759302013-07-23T03:15:57.629-04:002013-07-23T03:15:57.629-04:00I feel like the Housing Bubble also had some link ...I feel like the Housing Bubble also had some link in with the recent changes. People were trying to maximize their property's value - that seems to be the recurring theme on all the interior design TV shows.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com