I don't claim to be an intellectual (though I'm a pretty smart guy), but I had to chuckle at this story, found in Yahoo! News:
It's the Thoughts That Count
People are buying stuff that they don't even necessarily understand, much less appreciate, just to appear "cerebral."
Apparently books aren't things to be read any more -- they're sold by the foot to fill your shelves for interior decoration.
And come on -- why would you want skeletons or bugs if you have no interest in them? Just get stuff that you like. Don't try to be something you're clearly not. What do you do when someone who actually is interested and knowledgeable about that stuff visits and wants to talk about it?
Where have all the truly smart people gone? Apparently many of them work for Taschen, publisher of several of these oversized (overpriced?) books.
Very few (if any) of them came into the store today. I think it was a crew of the least observant, least articulate people I have ever encountered.
Customer 1: "Do you have that chocolate?"
Me: "..." *blank stare*
Customer 1: "...the kind, you know. Comes in a bag."
Me: "A little more specific?"
Customer 1: "Shaped like coins."
Me: "Ah. Yes, we have tons of those."
(later)
Customer 2: "Do you have shortbread?"
Me: "Like the stuff right next to you?"
Customer 2: "Yeah! Thanks!"
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4 comments:
Books by the foot. Good lord. If you need me, I'll be over here drowning my dismay in a gallon of gin.
Though, I guess the up side of this is that at least people are showing some level of respect for intellectualism, even if they are doing it in a decidedly unintellectual fashion. I'd rather have people want to appear smarter than they are than the whole recent anti-Gore, Proud to Be Uneducated movement.
"Recent" anti-Gore movement? When Tipper went after Dee Snider in the 80's, the Gores were forever lost to me. Losing the debate didn't help.
Good post, Paulie.
As I see it, you need to look like a slob if you want to look "smart." How many college profs look put together? I had a history prof who wore the same faded "Mexico" shirt every day of the week. Another one bought her clothes by the pound at the consignment shop and had sex with a greasy bisexual 8th year senior.
Outside of college, I dare you to find an engineering or c.sci. degree holding "intellectual" who has anything other than white walls or the previous owner's wallpaper in their home. Or a monster pile of potato chip crumbs and Fanta stains near their desktop computer. No bookshelves filled with Tolstoy, or displays of dead bugs.
The English major intellectuals have every single book they were forced to buy in college, including "My Antonia" only because it looks smart, and not because it will ever, ever be read again. If it was even fully read in the first place.
Of course, this article wasn't about the "middle class" intellectuals, but rather about rich people who want to be perceived as smart. I guess the friction lies in the fact that middle class intellectuals feel too smart for their jobs, and entitled to employment commensurate with their astounding intellect.
The rich want to make sure they seem every bit as smart as their bank balance, as opposed to having dumb luck, and hence need a little help refining their taste.
As for me, I was lucky enough to marry into intelligence -and- good taste, so I didn't need to replace my shelves of B movies with out of date biology textbooks.
this has nothing to do with the actual post, just the humping storm trooper... can we get something else out there?
Something else as in "replace," or something else as in "in addition to" the humping stormtrooper?
I mean, the stormtrooper is solid. Not sure what could possibly replace it.
But anyway, if readers wish to petition for changes to the blog, I expect signatures, people! And no, no one is named "Anonymous."
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