Inquiry into the Power of Signifying Objects
Here’s a question: What is the worth of that horse-and-rider necktie your grandma gave you when you were four? That mix tape that doesn’t work anymore that your first boyfriend made for you (he drew on the plastic tape case with glitter markers)? The Sanka ashtray that you took from your dad’s home office after he left you and your mom?
Who can say? In the zany world where economics, human sentimentality and hunger for meaning meet, there is no such thing as objective. But there is Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn’s fascinating Significant Objects project, which has been written up in The New Yorker’s books blog and BoingBoing. A Doug Dorst story attached to a bedraggled tsotchke figurine recently sold for $193.00!
Which brings me to the penguin creamer.
My assignment turned out to be not a Slavic totem or a Sanka ashtray or a Chili cat. Yes, I too have tried my hand at Inventing an Object’s Significance. I was a bit daunted by the other storytellers involved in this project—Lydia Millet, Luc Sante, Lucinda Rosenfeld, Doug Dorst, and Curtis Sittenfeld to name a few—but I mediated on my humble object and a story emerged for me. You can read it here. I hope you find it of interest; perhaps even of significance?
You can read more about the Significant Objects project here and follow it on Twitter.
Who can say? In the zany world where economics, human sentimentality and hunger for meaning meet, there is no such thing as objective. But there is Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn’s fascinating Significant Objects project, which has been written up in The New Yorker’s books blog and BoingBoing. A Doug Dorst story attached to a bedraggled tsotchke figurine recently sold for $193.00!
Which brings me to the penguin creamer.
My assignment turned out to be not a Slavic totem or a Sanka ashtray or a Chili cat. Yes, I too have tried my hand at Inventing an Object’s Significance. I was a bit daunted by the other storytellers involved in this project—Lydia Millet, Luc Sante, Lucinda Rosenfeld, Doug Dorst, and Curtis Sittenfeld to name a few—but I mediated on my humble object and a story emerged for me. You can read it here. I hope you find it of interest; perhaps even of significance?
You can read more about the Significant Objects project here and follow it on Twitter.
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