(no subject)

[proximoception]

I wonder how much of the appeal of noir objects is primed by our curiosity about our parents' possessions, in childhood. I remember finding them endlessly fascinating in proportion to how little I understood them - their history, use, significance to my parents, three related but distinct mysteries. At friends' houses I was too scared to inspect things closely, having no idea what the limits of trouble might be for transgressing or breaking. But at home you're safe, or better know how to make yourself safe, and investigate these relics of various overlapping orders beyond you: the grownup world, the past, your parents' personhood. Probably some transgression here too, or anyway danger of making dismaying realizations about sex, ageing and death, to which most adult household objects ultimately relate.

Comments

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

I couldn't agree more.

[mendaciloquent.livejournal.com]

Quite a bit. It's odd now to have music and fashion which fetishizes the aesthetics of the types of objects I grew up with -- there is an unavoidable tug even where disinterest or repulsion exists for all aspects of the content. Doubly-odd given that some of the objects we grew up with were themselves recapitulations of a style already dead (e.g., 50s nostalgia during the 80s).

I sometimes wonder what the heir will think of all the accumulated shit in our house when he gets older. I think he'll probably be forced to ignore it, simply due to the sheer volume of arcane garbage we've accumulated.

[tdaschel.livejournal.com]

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