Chapter 7 Chapter 5 Consumption, Entertainment, Decoration (2)

【Sports Of course, taking part in sports, or even just being interested in it, raises the ranks.But not all sports, but some carefully selected ones.A pauper desiring to improve his class who wishes to know these sports clearly need only go into an upscale men's store--that is, an upper-middle class store--and examine John T. Molloy's suggested The various ties he invested in.The ties, like the sports themselves, taught him to judge the desirability of such sports.He'll notice, as Molloy puts it, ties that depict, "a little fish with a fly in its mouth, a tennis racket, a sailboat, a golf ball or a A bat, a horse or a polo club," may be your choice.But even so, there are some hidden difficulties in judging the level.You must know that freshwater fishing is more graded than saltwater fishing, such as salmon or frogfish (milkfish, black bass, etc.), and catfish is to be avoided at all costs.Salmon fishing is of course graded, as it is associated with Scotland.On the same principle, curling is also a graded sport. (Though games like bocce, being Mediterranean [Italian] in style and with a slight hint of mafia associations, are proletarian games of the gentry J Since the proliferation of free tennis courts in the cities, tennis has had a hierarchical status Declining. But tennis at its best still requires a nice, expensive uniform and equipment and expensive "tennis lessons," so it's at least good enough as an upper-middle-class sport. Know how to maneuver a boat Sailing is indispensable to maintaining the status of the middle and upper class, and even the quality of sailing skills is enough to mark the level of the level. Of course, sailing competitions are more high-level than just sailing. As a senior As a sport, golf is a bit out of favor today. You can even overhear the upper poor talking about their own experience of the game these days. But it still basically meets the requirements set by Alice Lully:

A high-level sport is, by definition, one that requires a lot of expensive equipment.Or expensive facilities, or a sport of both.Ideally, the campaign should be able to quickly consume items and various services.For example, golf requires many acres of valuable land that is not cultivated, built, or used for commercial purposes.A well-established golf course also requires frequent weeding.Water, mow, and roll the grass with expensive machines. It is nothing more than that.Another great example of Lully's high-level sport that consumes goods and services quickly: skeet shooting.In this sport, the measure of success in a round is the exact number of clay discs that hit the sky.Although skiing has slipped to middle class status or below today, it was really a class sport back then.Because skiing is expensive, extremely inconvenient, and only possible in remote mountainous areas.Add to that the fact that it was dangerous, which meant that, like sledges and mopeds today, it was a "white badge of honor"—a white cast that members of the upper class put on their legs and heels during the winter— — one of the sources.This white badge connotes height within a certain social range.Striking waste; in this world, there is no such thing as unpaid bills or absenteeism.White badges are also earned from accidents on horseback.Horseback riding, like yachting, is a class sport not because it is expensive, but because it is so old, and it allows you to look down on others.Lisa Bernbach has a fairly convincing formula for judging the classes of sports people play in high school and college: Upper-class sports generally use smaller balls than others.Thus, in terms of status, golf and tennis trump football, basketball, volleyball, and baseball.And of course, bowling.

Sailing is the most expensive sport, and it deserves to be the crown of all entertainments.It was also the performance art of upper-class self-display.But there are also some principles that cannot be violated.For example, driving an artificial sailboat is still more advanced than a motorized sailboat.That's partly because it's not enough to just turn the key in the ignition and steer the wheel, you have to have the necessary manners. (Probably the most popular sailboat you can own is the Chris-Craft, which is as equipped as a racing Mercedes-Benz).Sailboats should be of considerable length, at least thirty-five feet, and if you are going to buy a new boat, you should keep buying higher-end boats of their kind, not the other way around.According to a sailing broker, the class of sailboats increases in increments of five feet.Customers, he said, "increase five feet at a time until their boats are sixty or seventy feet long."

Sailing boats should be less comfortable rowing boats, not the squat ones.Casual household type, the latter may imply that you live on a boat, and therefore imply the lack of your daily necessities.For this reason, family boats are the lowest level, just like trailer-type mobile homes, which are unconvincing in at least three aspects: first, if they are mobile, this kind of boat is driven by power, not manual driving; Multiple rooms, too comfortable; three, this boat is habitable.The small race yachts of the upper class are characterized by antiquity and internationalism.Because it is old and does not have local characteristics, the six-meter-long sailing rowing boat is very classy.

As far as hull materials are concerned, there are usually two main principles that work together, starting with material.The organism conveys the meaning of hierarchy in several aspects of advocating ancient times.A boat of natural materials has a class over a boat made of fiberglass, which is cheaper and more practical, because the natural material once had a life, and a boat made of it will have a real antique flavor, like an oriental rug.And when the hull needs to be repaired or replaced, the cost will be even higher.Wooden boats are worth a hundred times in the eyes of some vain owners.Brooklyn, Maine even publishes a magazine called The Wooden Boat, which regularly reminds them of the source of their superiority.

In indoor activities, bridge and fifteen are of course fairly high class games, Scrabble is middle class, it is like canasta (tower).Few people in the upper middle class play chess because it is too difficult.A game of pinball will not have a rating unless there is a fairly large billiard room that is used alone.And once the plate becomes a family dining table in an instant after the cover is replaced, it must be the upper poor.As long as the disk surface is smaller than the largest size, the conclusion is the same. The upper classes have yachts, but what do the poor have?bowling!Never, never bowl if you want to keep your top status.Once it gets on, your upper-middle-class status is instantly downgraded.There are many reasons why the poorer classes love bowling.One reason is that you can smoke and drink beer while you play.Another reason is that if you're on a company team, you wear a nice satin uniform shirt with woven letters on one pocket—your own name, of course.Another thing that appeals to the poor is that you don't have to wear tracksuits: you can enjoy the sport while decently covering up your poorer fat parts.

Over the years, there have been attempts to elevate the social status of bowling with euphemisms or polite language: "ball lanes" are now called "lanes," and the grooves that flank the lanes are now called "lanes."But it won't help, bowling is still a classic proletarian sport, and they can't play it much yet.You'll find the guy who picked up a bowler's prayer pin at the local religious supply store on a Saturday afternoon, resting comfortably in front of the TV with a fridge full of cans of Miller's.They must have been studying every move in Get Out the Dollar with their eyes glued to them.

Speaking of this, I can't help but talk about the level of sports fans and sports spectators.With English-style sports like cricket and polo hard to come by in this country, the out-of-the-ordinary majority is likely to turn to tennis, even in newly profligate—that is, modern— —A certain forest hill.Watching golf isn't bad, nor is American football in Newport, Rhode Island.Watching the game live is of course better than watching the TV broadcast, because that means a considerable amount of consumption.As for watching televised ball games, baseball ranks lower than golf, and football ranks lower, followed by ice hockey, boxing, ordinary racing, and bowling.Once a popular sport for advertisers.Like speed roller skating, the status is the lowest, because they finally found out that most of the audience of this sport are the lower class poor, even the abject poor, so that their painstaking efforts in TV advertisements are all in vain: these audiences can't afford any stuff, even detergent, anti-acid and beer.Since then, the audience of speed roller skating competitions has become famous in the advertising industry as "low effect and unacceptable target".And the sport that captivated them quickly faded from television screens.

Two motivations drive middle- and poorer-class fans to their sports.One is that they need to identify with the winners as losers, they need to put up their index fingers and dance and scream "We're number one!" Said one baseball player, "The whole point of a game that the poor people love is to To win. That's what we sell. We sell winning to a lot of people who simply can't win in their regular lives. They associate themselves with 'their' team — a winning team." In addition to this experience gained from victories of all kinds, there is another reason for the enthusiasm of the middle and poor classes for sports: sports encourage the classes usually associated with "decision-making", "management" or "public opinion" The showmanship, dogmatic dogma, record keeping, secret witty knowledge, and all kinds of fake learning, the World Series every fall and the annual Super Bowl give everyone a chance to play the learned annoying Journalists and pedantic bar-room talkers, for brief seasons, voiced their opinions and delivered news in imitation of the authority peculiar to the upper classes.That is to say, the above two seasons are opportunities twice a year without any side effects-it seems to be out of nature's ingenuity, which is very bizarre. They start at the extremes of winter and summer respectively, so that ordinary people can also gain some self-esteem.They are therefore as indispensable as democratic holy days and ceremonies.If a member of the poorer classes knows nothing about what might have caused a famous alliance to move up or down, he, as a connoisseur of "clutch points," can pretend to understand why the "War Horses" or "Dodgers" "Will win, and in doing so, it satisfies a certain powerful need.The barroom or living room debates that these events sparked were a pauper version of the high-level debates on Capitol Hill and in the courtrooms.And the shrewd weighing of the evidence, the deliberate inferences of every kind, imitates the necessary steps of the meetings and seminars of the highest intelligentsia.In addition, the sarcasm and attacks suffered by the opposition were as sharp and eloquent as the best book and drama critics.

【Product mail order The exercise of such intellectual authority is one of the ways in which the middle and poor classes assert their worth.Another way is to shop, especially through mail order catalogs.These directories, addressed to "residents," fill mailboxes throughout the year.In the three months or so leading up to the national holidays associated with "gift giving," it's even more overwhelming.Apart from the occasional complaint about spam, residents secretly love receiving such directories, because it clearly implies that someone somewhere believes that they have money and have the right to choose. The middle class and the poor class welcome such directories, Because if you do your own mail order instead of going to the store to buy the goods, you can save yourself the trouble of being humiliated by ignorant salesmen.As for what you're buying, no one, not even the postman, will know, for those insecure.Extremely sensitive and unstable in social status.For people who need to collect merchandise to support themselves, mail order is the best way to do it.What is purchased is unimportant—indeed, almost everything in these catalogs is clearly not necessary, except as a means of self-maintenance.King Lear, who sighed "Oh, need is no reason", must have understood what was going on.Tocqueville would understand too. In 1845, after a long and serious observation of the American scene, he wrote: "In democracies desire is burning and enduring. But the object of desire is not always noble , life is usually squandered in an impatient craving for the little things that are within reach." Sure, he meant "small goals," but his exposition does work—you just have to think Think of the little chrome ice tongs, the five-pointed figurines, and the faux-silver bookmarks engraved with "Books by Dan Bliss."

The middle class is the main customer of such items.The merchandise purchased from the mail-order catalog confirmed their worth and encouraged their aspirations.When they opened the lid of the music box, a song "Impossible Dreams" wafted out, which filled them with joy, because it meant that dreams could be realized as long as they hoped; Class invites to spend the summer with McCannick Island, or possible admission to NARU Law School.Some merchandise was advertised in a style that suggested that buyers were already on their way to the upper-middle class, since the phrases "discriminative" and "well-bred" were common in such ads.So it's no surprise that the ad invites you to heed this type of investment: "Six assorted hand-blown crystal wine glasses to satisfy your carefully selected passion." "Gold" utensils—cutlery, kitchen knives—are in great demand.Of course, they don't want to fool anyone, but that's what they do.King Lear must have easily understood the interest in gilded dice "in imitation buckskin pouches."Ordering a canvas embroidered with "Your Alma Mater's Crest" shows your one-time affiliation with a ranked institution, touching that this example refers not to the University of Delaware but to Harvard in the imagination . For the upwardly mobile middle class, the great totem of rank is 'Mother England', as is the case for certain merchandise signs ("It's some [legionary stripe] tie [tie] that binds us to 'Mother England' ]").The cover of many catalogs has displayed the flag of the United Kingdom, directly going straight to the theme of Chongying.One catalog first proclaims: 'We are unabashedly Anglophile' before associating Britain with outright inorganic materials such as imitation wool and faux leather.From this company, not only can you buy a cavalry sword, but you can also get a "matched" copy of Churchill's "My Early Life" ($17.50).Another catalog sold silver Chongying bookmarks in the form of portraits of three great Englishmen—Shakespeare, Churchill, and Sherlock Holmes.Clearly, no commodity is so ugly and ludicrous that it would fail to sell without a quasi-British name.But there is one unfortunate brass wax stick and extinguisher hybrid that would never have succeeded if it had been called "Candle: Hankensack, NJ" and it was called "Kensington Extinguisher." Candles" (Kensington, referring to Kensington Palace, one of the British royal palaces, located on the north side of Hyde Park. A translator's note), and described as "a small ornament with a cover, adding a ray of light to your home Elegant English charm." Similarly, an advert for an imitation silver bread tray: "From King George's Court".Good, but which King George?I, II, III, IV, V, or VI?It doesn't matter how many lifetimes - the word "king" will suffice.Perhaps it's no surprise that one of the most snobby mail-order catalog companies specializing in multi-level British merchandise is based in Laptop, Arizona. (Tempe, originally refers to the knee than the ancient Greek. -Translator's Note) Catalogs aimed at the middle class seem to assume that only customers who imagine themselves to be of 'British' descent are entitled to appreciate goods emblazoned with heraldry ("Is your [Anglo-Saxon] name on it? The sheepskin is beautifully embossed with your family's coat of arms").Because the middle-class need for a reputable (that is, British) family background is so ingrained, all business dealings with this class are careful to avoid any rude approach, such as certain catalogs offering readers a set of two Fourteen goblets: there will be "embossed" (I'm quoting)—"your own family name and coat of arms." Then a few lines in tiny letters: Yamamori Ornamentation will select from our records and reference books an emblem that appears to have been used by an ancestor in your family at one time, or a proper name variation.In no way is the emblem chosen to imply or imply a genealogical relationship between your family and the original user. Subsequent sales messages also sadly suggest to viewers of the scam that you can get the shot glass and accompanying documentation "for $5.99 a month for ten months, plus the necessary fees," Similarly, those Scots who feel downgraded by their families emigrating to the country receive another catalog of old-fashioned self-respect, such as 'clan' wall plaques, and a considerable amount of money from 'yours'. Items made of tartan, such as the "tartan tie" of an unknown brand.There are also some small Scottish men's caps worn by people in southern Tweedshire, you will definitely look like a complete fool in it Department. A translator's note).All these "decorations" and "family" accessories indicate the stigma of the middle class and the root of its troubles - self-conscious insignificance.How deep and sad this feeling is. "They feel like they're living in an era of big decisions," says C. Wright Mills, but "they understand that they can't make any decisions." That's why there is an organization called "Royal Americans" in the United States .Only then did we realize that the duke and princess created by Mark Twain are utterly American. Catalogs were also a way of acknowledging the middle-class need to prove their deep, if not potentially ancient roots: by offering them the opportunity to amass a valuable "collection" to be left as a family heirloom for future generations.This imagining implies that everyone is Huntington, Frick, or Morgan (all are famous antique collectors. One translator’s note). Of course, the start is a bit late, but at least it has started, and it must have investment and family value. favorites.The tendency to cater to greed is clear: "The increasingly hard-to-find Victorian toast rack is an ideal investment for collectors." Indeed, the business of peddling "collectibles" to the middle class and lower is now a A pure art.Take a look at the $20 Norman.Rockwell (American illustrator, 1894-1978. Famous for newspaper cover paintings, his poster "Four Freedoms" was widely distributed in World War II and won the "Presidential Medal of Freedom. A translator's note") illustrations, it is said that it will Doubling in value (!) because this is a "limited version" born out of "a hundred days of war"; obviously thousands of terrible events could have happened in that time. Such "possible "Collection" items are invariably ugly, of questionable value, and expensive--yet mass-produced, such as the $15.50 Beatrex Potter figurines and the $42 porcelain hazelnuts. Mill figures, a British jug for $52.05, and a Royal Doulton pottery figurine of the perfect English style (“our discounted price, $122.50”). No matter how ugly an item may be, Worthless, as long as they are priced high enough, they can jump to the "Favorites" list of catalogs. A certain middle-class catalog promotes a set of six "Collector's Wine Glasses", which is characterized by metamorphosis. Testimonials: Small ceramic statuettes on the tangs of a man, a woman, a priest, and the like, with gilded glass rims. A novice who buys these six truly horrific wine glasses for "investment" purposes will have to pay $125. 【"collect" Imagine you are an upper-middle-class visitor being shown around a middle-class "home".Everything that pops into view is fine, clean and tidy.But there is one thing that confuses you: against the wall stands a tall, shallow display case made of wood veneer, and a clear acrylic glass from the front separates dozens of long lattices from the outside world. open.You've never seen anything like this.When you get closer to inspect the display inside, you find yourself more and more confused: hundreds of "new needle hoops" are crowded into several winding rows one after another. "What is this?" you ask. "This is my needle hoop collection." "Your what?" "My collection of needle hoops." "Um... where did you - huh - find all this?" "Mail order catalog." "where?" "Mail order catalog." You're kind enough to stop asking "why" because they're a study: here's the 'gravel pin hoop', the royal wedding hoop, and the ''pope' episcopal crown pin hoop: Pope John Paul II at Miniature bisque-fired facsimile of the bishop's tiara worn at Mass in the United States in 1979," with ceramic pins with painted pastoral scenes and instructive text, and a gold-plated leaf from the real "Vienna Woods" At.It dawned on you that this country must have gathered a lot of middle-class collectors of novelty pin hoops.And the sweet thing about this sweet lady showing you her collection is that she not only thinks the cause is interesting, but believes it to be extremely valuable. 【Adornment for readability I feel so sorry for this lady.Her image pops up all the time in such bourgeois catalogs, especially when the items are related to kitchen work.Some sort of hanging plaque, for instance, for those who suspect that they are nothing more than a poor drudge housewife after all, with the following line inscribed on it, which not only cheers her spirits, but wins the sympathy of others. Please bless this kitchen, I work here. Please bless every moment in this little corner. let the joy and laughter with spices and frying pan and my broom, Share this space together. let love and health bless me and my all, So I won't ask for more. (I personally think that the poem's middle three lines have a distinctly sentimental, seemingly loving, slavishness to the narrator.) The counterpart to this type of plaque, which deliberately presents misfortune as an advantage, is an "Irish Tote Bag" offered by another catalog.Printed in green shamrock-embellished letters, the canvas tote reads, "It's a grace to be Irish." This rhetorical device—we might call it "unemphatic"—is the same as "I Love New York." The advertising slogan of the company is somewhat similar. A category of catalogs that offered middle-class goods that failed to properly apprehend the lamentable spiritual needs of the buyers, such as a four-inch-high cymbal standing on a wooden stand: "Status" in capitals one inch high Cymbals".There's a similar pillow ($25) that says: upstart penniless better The "re-corked champagne" offered by Harmajer Schlemmer pretty much implies everything one should know about the state of mind of the middle class.The catalog states: "This chic stopper is capable of maintaining the lightness and sparkle of the 'foam' long after the corkage ceremony." That's it, two contradictions that call for gorgeous luxury and budgetary prudence at the same time. The motives of this war are constantly at war among those unfortunate enough to be trapped in the middle class. 【Catalogue of Class Products On the other hand, judging from the catalogs prepared for the upper class, the members of this class are largely excluded from at least such inner battles, read Talbois, L. L． Upper-middle-class readers of Bean and Dallas-based The Horchow CollectiOn's catalog know what they're looking for: expensive disposables, that is, primarily for people who have everything in their lives. supplies.According to this catalog designed for the upper class, you can order silver ice cream cone tongs, silver candle extinguishers, automatic bottle openers, gold or silver lavaliers (uncanny, because apparently there is nothing for shoppers). Useless, they always wear Oxford collared button-down shirts), a set of small brass cowboy boots (for digging out cigarette butts in ashtrays), brass heaters for brandy glasses and small spirit lamps.Questions of asserting ego or personal aspirations are almost unheard of for people who buy such items because their ego is never a rock and their aspirations are never on their minds. Faced with a catalog that is both upper-middle and upper-class, how do you tell the difference?For one thing, if there were a color photo of a bread basket or bread warmer, it wouldn't be bagels, muffins, or similar pasta that would fill the frame—it would be French puff pastry.These catalogs also again and again offer a disproportionate number of Chinese artefacts (such as "ginger pots"), which symbolize a close connection with the "old" East: the American colonization.preach.The ancient East where education was provided, patronized and plundered.Moreover, if a catalog is promoting $2,450 metal armor—complete with sword—you can bet it's for the upper classes. "All the crotch areas are fully movable, as is the visor." You can display this suit on a shelf or wear it to a party (although it weighs 75 pounds), and the visor The drink was poured into the helmet. The main sign of a catalog's high-level status is selling clothes.If something came in that didn't fit or looked right, the rich didn't care to pass it on to the Salvation Army or servants.The poorer classes cannot afford to take such risks in their consumption.Even if they do buy clothes from mail-order catalogs, the risk is minimal because the clothes they buy don't come in sizes.Equalizing this style is his or her cotton jersey T-shirt pajamas with a camouflage pattern (Why? Why?), or a men's shirt with "Bell, I'm cold" on the matching pocket. Pajamas (red or red stripes).If the middle-class people shop to refresh themselves, the upper-class shoppers shop for a meal, and the poor-class shoppers can be understood as paying homage to technology and art.Space science electronic watches (with musical timers) are very popular among the poor.Of course, the same is true for cameras, and the more complex they are, the better they are. What about stereos and color TVs?As mentioned, the mail to the poorer classes is never disparaging because the pocket computer is too pretentious, and then there are some objects with artistic temperament: a ceramic egg depicting the birth of St. John in bas-relief; "Musical Gondola... Elegantly intricate in brass embossing. Hinged gold and silver box that opens to reveal a tasteful red velvet interior." Moreover.There are also dark glasses with heart-shaped lenses, an acrylic wall hanging the size of a blanket with a stallion galloping towards the viewer; mural) of a horse looking out from a door (every house is a stable); "Hand-painted Your Pets on Embroidered Canvas: Please Send Us a Color Photograph That Will Work;" on the border (again) a car license plate that reads "Happiness is being a grandfather"; cutlery with a colored photo of your dog ("You'll treasure [it] for years to come...for an additional $4.50, make For adults only, twenty-five letters are limited). Some accessories of the poor class do not have much artistic flavor, but are smart and small, and are simple to make, such as the classic sea hairpin. Others are sentimental and full of "traditional flavor" , such as the old England style rolls of toilet paper, each with the words "Merry Christmas" ("as a wonderful little present") printed on each sheet. It is worth mentioning that the popular poor class catalogue, really Gone are the new piggy banks (piggy banks). That is to say, the kind that pre-inflation would make the act of "saving" look like a cruel joke; you used to stuff coins into it, ready to Pay for education, or take a fantastic trip someday. The emphasis on the Christian tradition was a permanent imprint on the catalog of the poorer classes.One example bills itself as "a catalog for Christian households," and offers the reader dozens of self-congratulatory aphorisms engraved on small faux-wood plaques.For example, "Lord, please help me to rest assured that nothing will happen today that you and I can't solve together." Or, "When you help someone climb a mountain, you're one step closer to the top." Or, " You've touched me, I've grown." A middle-class housewife's exclusive plaque reassures her that her drudgery is worthwhile.Such plaques firmly reiterate God's love for the poorer classes, and there is no doubt that God's old man does, although it seems unnecessary to always repeat the same old tune. Another feature of the Proletariat catalog is that there is always a unicorn for sale, and nothing else, the animal appears with extreme frequency.We get to meet plush unicorns, pewter unicorns, brass unicorns, “twirling ceramic musical unicorns”—every unicorn imaginable.As one catalog proclaimed, “The moment is unicorns.” I spent six months trying to figure out exactly why.In the end it was still puzzling.The reason is perhaps kind of understated.But it must have been the work of highly critical British snobbery that lured the unicorn out of the Royal Army and forgot about the lion Lions are more hierarchical animals, you might think.Perhaps Tolkien's popularity (but not among the poor, sure?) has spurred interest in all, and any, "mystery animals."Or perhaps the exoticism of the unicorn (the animal was said to be rare and therefore valuable) stimulated the imagination of the poorer classes.It is also perhaps not to be overlooked that, unlike dragons, unicorns are entirely benign and benevolent mythical animals, unlike the real animals that are considered sacred by the poorer classes—whales, dolphins, pandas, koala bears— very similar.And in the eyes of the educated poor, unicorns may have had a vague association with sex - vaguely reminiscent of virginity or unicorn genital worship.etc.Whatever the reasons for the popularity of unicorns among the poor, the motive exemplifies the slur once used by literary critics: pseudo-reference.This motive seems to ominously refer to something more concrete than the reference itself.In front of me is a pretentious painting of the poorer classes that at first glance seems to have a lot of meaning: a unicorn emerging from an eggshell intact, with a rainbow in the background and a "zodiac" Starry sky.And this animal, he (she?) himself is covered with stars.meaning?Moot, I'm afraid, but there seems to be a kind of proletarian complacency that indulges a double desire for strange portents and ambiguous dodges. 【Personalized accessories Both the poor and the middle class are happy to come up with names for themselves and draw confidence from them.It seems to imply that using names to express themselves makes them feel less fluid and changeable than society is.So, people in both classes are eager to make their mail order catalog "personal".This need is common among young children who gain confidence in their own identity and worth in the same way. "Here's my shoe bag," "Here's my cup and saucer," and so on.So, through the bourgeois catalog, you can order watches for 'his' and 'hers'. "His" has "John" written on it, and "her" has "Mary".由于这一特色，每当你抬腕看时间时，都会感到一种欢悦，这感觉每天重复无数次：一瞥之间就能目睹自己的名字——这真让人欣慰，你终于成为了一个人物。不难辨别，与那些用涂鸦污染地铁车厢并且不忘写上自己姓名和地址的赤贫阶层“艺术家”兼不法分子的做法相比，二者的动机相差不远。至于那些消费着臭名昭着的、大批生产的商品的人们的精神困境，我们也可以从贫民和中产阶级的这种需要中发现端倪——他们需要通过商品目录购买一种贴在汽车仪表板上的小型仿铜牌匾，上面镌着： 根据（某人的名字）的要求制造瓦尔特·惠特曼一定理解这个小牌子的全部意义。他早就敏锐地意识到，美国人对“全体”的津津乐道已经威胁到了“自我”的概念。 通过目录购买的商品，几乎无一例外地都可以进行个人化加工处理。你可以买到个人化的、标有三个姓名首写字母的鲁希特餐巾环；你为壁炉添置的帆布原木提袋上会印有你的“签名式”（“我家专用”，跟着是醒目的藏青色姓名首写字母）；你可以买到用来盛口香糖的仿金金属盒。上面刻着你的姓名首写字母，以及“盛在一个刻字的。金色调的金属盒内的口香糖会更有风趣。”某类目录为一种汽车前座坐垫作广告，说明不但你的全名会用三英寸高的字体书写，而且还会用引号标注——正与贫民阶层的用法巧合。或者，这样一块摆设在壁炉前的防火地毯怎么样：藏青色，在七颗隔开的星星下方，一只金鹰的上方，哥特式字体描绘出你的姓氏，“联邦”风格？这样的风格当然会有助于澄清来访者头脑中的悬疑：我究竟走进了谁家的客厅？ 我不打算过多解释这种反复强调自我的作法中引人怜悯的因素，但毫无疑问，在自家客厅的时钟前方放一张“自己的”黄铜、青铜或玻璃名片，或者在办公桌上摆设一张小巧精致的标有“自己”姓名的牌子，这种需要当中确实有些让人心动的东西。就事实本身来说，桌前的姓名牌是惹人哀怜的。只有汽车销售商、军官、还有其他一些对自己的地位满腹狐疑，甚至不敢确定自己有无资格拥有一张办公桌的人们，才会心仪这种摆设。也不妨考虑一下那种对“个人专用藏书章”的需要吧。在每本属于你的书上印下你的名字和首写字母。书的主人是谁当然毋庸置疑。它标明的是，“某某的图书馆”。自然，拥有一家“图书馆”满足了某种精神需要。这就像拥有一间“酒窖”或一一套房屋固定装置（炉子。水槽、水管）所暗示的一样。正因为这个原因，你才可能邮购到标有“某某府第家酒”字样的卡拉夫酒瓶（字体力法文，空格供填写“您的姓氏”)。或者是“为两个人准备的”酒具，除了个人专用饮料瓶外，另附两只分别铭刻夫妇二人名字的酒杯。如果不时总有什么在悄声告诫你，随时展示你的姓名不见得是真正有等级的作法，你仍然可以一意孤行，只需稍敛锋芒。这正像中上阶层人士的做法，他们把姓名首写字母刻在旅行车车门上，或让它们隐现在游艇的信号旗上。你可以订购一种图但卡蒙风格的银质涡卷饰，姓名字母已经拼写出来了，但却是“象形文字”——适于佩戴在项链上：“让它使你更有生气，因为它可能暗示一位埃及君王。”把饰板摆设在厨房里充当抚慰剂的家庭主妇们，则可以投资一种石质馅饼托盘，上面写着“凯伦的手工馅饼”（任何名字都可以）。有人可能要流泪了。顺便提一句，如果你想知道中产阶级认为孩子取什么名字才显得有地位，只消观察一下孩子们铅笔上印的名字，你的知识就会大有长进，它们让你想起英国“浪漫派”文学里的旋律。女孩儿们可以叫丝苔西或金菠莉；男孩儿们则可以叫布莱恩。杰森或马修。《权威预科生手册》通常极少出错，但也有瑕疵。它竟然建议，无论你用任何方式处理姓名首写字母和签名式都是有等级的作法（也许本意其实是讽刺，不过我可不这样认为）。无论哪个等级的人们展示签名式，其人自身的重要性多少就开始像暗纹一样有待用心辨别，而他想吸引观众注意力的需要倒是凸显无疑。其实，如果你确实是位中上阶级人士，你的签名式只应该出现在支票簿上！（无法辨认的）亲笔签名下方使用的是打印体。 如果对美国人来说，个人专用化并非绝对必不可少，通过商品目录购物则似乎拥有这一地位。并不是因为他们需要这些商品，而是因为他们需要用购买这类商品的方式来实践有关选择的幻梦。根据商品目录邮购货物释放了有关权力的幻梦，你元须冒险与那些可能会质疑你的权力的人碰面。邮购不需要的物品这一举动，隐秘地重新实践了范伯伦所谓的“明显是为了挥霍和出于敬意的消费，却带来精神上的收益。”在特定的情绪中，当我们们心自问自己想做什么和我们的价值是什么的时候，我们都是在仿效“朝圣者比利”（库尔特·冯尼格特的同名小说里的主人公。－译者注)的母亲。“跟大多的美国人一样”，库尔特·冯尼格特说，“她一直在尝试建立一种生活，那就是，为她在礼品店找到的每一样东西发现意义”。