I started off September pretty much the same way I ended August, reading all the things. As I mentioned over on Designing an MBA, I’m currently in a “gathering” phase, taking in lots of ideas so that I can begin working on a book proposal this fall.
What I didn’t mention in that post was what I’m planning on writing the book proposal about. It should come as no surprise, but I want to write a book on art. Not about the business of art, like I write about on Designing an MBA (though I wouldn’t complain about writing a book about that either) but rather about the power that art can have when we bring it into our everyday lives.
It was that line of thought that led me to the first two books I read this month, My Life with Things: The Consumer Diaries by Elizabeth Chin and Having and Being Had by Eula Biss. Both books explore our relationship to consumption and consumerism in our home lives. Having and Being Had actually references My Life with Things, which is really how you know you’ve honed in on a topic, when the books start referencing each other.
I learned about My Life with Things from the Decentering Whiteness in Design History Resource, which I think I learned about on Instagram. It’s an interesting book because Chin flips between an academic exploration of consumption, consumerism, and the practice of anthropology, and her own personal diaries about her consumer tendencies, interspersed with details of the consumption habits of Karl Marx. In a way, it almost feels like two different books, though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Having and Being Had, which was just released this month, also looks at consumption and capitalism, through the lens of the author purchasing her first house. Biss also weaves together her personal consumer experiences with deeper research, but in a way that that is more narrative and cohesive than My Life with Things. As a writer who identifies as an artist, Biss also brings art into the mix of her analysis of consumerism, which of course resonated with me.
If I had to tell you to read only one, I’d probably lean towards Having and Being Had, though ultimately I found them both valuable and interesting. And much of the conversation on labor and capitalism in Having and Being Had also related to many of the other books I’ve been reading recently. Like I said, I’m definitely circling around a few key topics as I think about putting together my own book proposal.
Leave a Reply