Poshlust.
I just started Reading Lolita in Tehran. I am already in love with it. As the title suggests, the author writes about what Lolita means to her and the small group of other Iranian women she meets with to discuss literature, and how they learn from authors such as Nabokov. In the first few pages of the book, I've already learned a great deal about him - for instance he had a form of synesthesia that added color to letters, which leads you to imagine that he painted as much as wrote his novels - enough to know he deserves far more attention than I've yet given him.
He wrote that "poshlust is not only the obviously trashy, but mainly the falsely important, the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive." To rephrase, the painfully banal dressed up, disguised to appear significant, relevant, enticing, to lure whoever can't tell the difference between real and feigned substance.
From Urban Dictionary:
Jeopardy Contestant-- "I'll take words from Russia for $600, Alex."
Alex Trebek-- "The answer is: Support Our Troops stickers on an SUV, $300 jeans made to look old, and Paris Hilton trying to be like Common People."
Winning Contestant-- "What is poshlust?"
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Thursday, January 3, 2008
New Years resolutions?
Anybody have one? or five? or sixty five?
I used to make new years resolutions, about a dozen every year, and I'd fail to follow through on any of them. So last year for the first time I abstained from this ritual. Thus, I had nothing to feel guilty about when I made no progress on any of my latent personal improvement goals. (As an aside, although I doubt I will ever feel that there is nothing at all about me that warrants improvement, I would like to cultivate a sense that I am good enough just the way I am, improvement is ok, but not necessary. This turns out to be a way of thinking that is far more unusual than I thought.)
What about this year?
Well, if you've read my previous blog posts, you know I am supposed to be following a monthly self-improvement plan. And you know that for the last couple months I haven't said anything at all about how that is going, which you are smart enough to realize most likely means I've fallen off the wagon.
So, I don't have a New Year's Resolution per se. I am just going to start up my monthly goals again. The first is to restart my first two goals - go to the gym regularly and bring food to work frequently.
Speaking of goals, I came across an interesting site for monitoring progress toward your goals. I might give it a try.
I used to make new years resolutions, about a dozen every year, and I'd fail to follow through on any of them. So last year for the first time I abstained from this ritual. Thus, I had nothing to feel guilty about when I made no progress on any of my latent personal improvement goals. (As an aside, although I doubt I will ever feel that there is nothing at all about me that warrants improvement, I would like to cultivate a sense that I am good enough just the way I am, improvement is ok, but not necessary. This turns out to be a way of thinking that is far more unusual than I thought.)
What about this year?
Well, if you've read my previous blog posts, you know I am supposed to be following a monthly self-improvement plan. And you know that for the last couple months I haven't said anything at all about how that is going, which you are smart enough to realize most likely means I've fallen off the wagon.
So, I don't have a New Year's Resolution per se. I am just going to start up my monthly goals again. The first is to restart my first two goals - go to the gym regularly and bring food to work frequently.
Speaking of goals, I came across an interesting site for monitoring progress toward your goals. I might give it a try.
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