bricolage

A piece in today’s New York Times challenges the notion that globalization is flattening our cultural horizons and making us homogeneous. Michael Kimmelman explains, “The common denominator of popular culture … seems to have just intensified the need people now feel to distinguish themselves from it. And global technology has made this easier by providing countless individuals, microcultures and larger groups and movements with cheap and convenient means to preserve and disseminate themselves.”

The handmade and vintage shopping website Etsy comes to mind: One-of-a-kind products from small-time designers/producers who sell in a global market to those eager to distinguish themselves outside of popular culture. The things we buy shouldn’t define us—I agree with Andy Crouch that consumption is a limited frame for “culture”—but our choices set us apart from the mainstream and help us construct a new identity and unique aesthetic.

Kimmelman gives an example: “When Mats Nilsson, a Swedish product-design strategist for Ikea, not long ago told The New York Times that he loves to browse for handmade baskets in Spain, bird cages in Portugal, brushes in Japan and hardware on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he was creating his own cultural identity out of the bric-a-brac of consumer choices made available by the globalizing forces of economic integration. Bricolage, it’s called. Anyone may now pick through the marketplace of global culture.”

Aside: The word “bricolage” made me think of the Ricola cough drop commercial. An odd etymology, no?

i'm hungry ... what's on TV?

Michael Pollan wrote an insightful article for The New York Times Magazine recently, exploring trends in food television and analyzing why we would rather watch someone cook than actually cook ourselves. As a former Food Network fan, I can sympathize with Pollan’s skepticism of its programs that highlight consumption and provide entertainment rather than actually showing people cooking. I’ve ditched cable and I now enjoy public TV (WETA’s “Create” channel) where “America’s Test Kitchen” and “Lidia’s Italy” actually teach recipes.

He says, “Today the average American spends a mere 27 minutes a day on food preparation (another four minutes cleaning up); that’s less than half the time that we spent cooking and cleaning up when Julia [Child] arrived on our television screens. It’s also less than half the time it takes to watch a single episode of ‘Top Chef’ or ‘Chopped’ or ‘The Next Food Network Star.’ What this suggests is that a great many Americans are spending considerably more time watching images of cooking on television than they are cooking themselves — an increasingly archaic activity they will tell you they no longer have the time for.”

Even if you’re completely uninterested in food TV, Pollan’s article is worth a read. He recalls growing up with Julia Child on the television, and explores how her commitment to excellent food actually ran alongside the feminist movement rather than contradicting it. By contrast, the Food Network’s evening lineup of grilling-fests and diner tours shows a concerted attempt to attract male viewers. (To be fair, they still host a number of cooking shows during the day.)

Also, this reflection by David Frum echoes some crunchy con themes, as he sees the conservative values in manifestoes like Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma.

workaholism: the way we live now

David Brooks wrote a great column today on the lifestyles of people like Sonia Sotomayor—people who exhibit the essence of success in a meritocracy. Even in the middle of recounting Sotomayor’s remarkable accomplishments, Brooks says, “Her biographers paint a picture of a life now that is frantically busy, fulfilling and often aloof … It’s the story of people in a meritocracy that gets more purified and competitive by the year, with the time demands growing more and more insistent.”

He goes on to say, “These profiles give an authentic glimpse of a style of life that hasn’t yet been captured by a novel or a movie—the subtle blend of high-achiever successes, trade-offs and deep commitments to others. In the profiles, you see the intoxicating lure of work, which provides an organizing purpose and identity.”

The column clearly describes what this whole town is about: work. And finding your identity in your work. Brooks seems concerned, but doesn’t offer an antidote or a deeper analysis about what workaholism means for society. (Maybe it was that darn word count limit!) And I’m curious about his contention that it hasn’t been “captured by a novel or a movie.” Are there movies and novels out there that do capture it? I’ll have to think about this one. It’s possible there isn’t … because showing a modern politician, businessperson, or journalist checking their Blackberry just isn’t that entertaining.

the "well-informed generalist"

Just finished another great article in byFaith magazine: an interview with Ken Myers of Mars Hill Audio, which is sort of like Books & Culture meets NPR. The interview included some great reflections on common grace, how evangelicals think about culture, and the right response to the "new and improved." The writer framed the piece around Myers' reputation as a "well-informed generalist" and how Mars Hill Audio provides rigorous content on a variety of ideas. I love it. One major reason I was an international relations major in college was because of its interdisciplinary nature; I wanted to take history, political theory, and languages all at the same time. My book club in Iowa City showed me how teachers, doctors, singers, and secretaries can all gather around African lit.

Myers says, "I'm convinced that one of the reasons the church has been culturally inert is because we don't have a lot of laymen who are interested in the whole big ecosystem of culture and all its inter-related aspects. Culture is the way our humanity in all of its forms and expressions is lived out, so understanding culture is necessarily interdisciplinary. You can't do it in a piecemeal way."

So, keep the book club going. Read a friend's magazines. Learn about the joys and difficulties of someone else's profession. And contemplate ideas for their own sake.

Update: The article is now posted online.

on writing on trends

Do you ever read something and say aloud, “Only in America?” It’s one of my favorite phrases (thanks Mom), and I muttered it after reading about this yoga trend in The New York Times “Style” section. I love this part of the paper; it so perfectly encapsulates a certain kind of city lifestyle by noting various “trends” which do not occur anywhere else. As I read, I like to pretend it’s really an Onion-esque commentary on the faux-urbane. But the articles are actually serious.

After I read that article, I asked my husband: “Guess what you’ll only see in America?” Without missing a beat he said, “dog yoga.”

not-so-new calvinism: so hot right now

An acquaintance from my college newspaper days has also remarked on the recent media attention given to all things Calvinist. His post has more substantial points to consider. If you are a film fan, you may also benefit from his extensive list of reviews and other thoughtful blog offerings.

speaking of faith

One of my favorite NPR/APM shows is “Speaking of Faith.” Krista Tippett hosts a lot of interesting guests and approaches the issue of “faith” from unusual and varied angles. As an interviewer, she rarely seems forced, dogmatic, or aggressive to guests with whom she might disagree. Even better, she also avoids the other extreme—common among politically-correct society—of benign approval.

“Speaking of Faith” has a done a couple different episodes/events on Reinhold Niebuhr recently. I’m behind the curve on him and his thought (despite the best intentions of a certain college professor) and I enjoyed this “Niebuhr Rediscovered” compilation episode.

Here’s a great excerpt from Jean Bethke Elshtain, speaking about Neibuhr on reality and the morality of war: “What comes to mind is a person of great seriousness of purpose who ongoingly engaged the struggles of his time, didn't retreat from them, immersed himself fully in them without becoming entirely reconciled to them. So I think that insistence that we confront the harsh realities of our time, that we think seriously about them as Christians, that insistence is really the heart of the matter. And I would add here also the recognition that human beings are finite, incomplete, frail creatures, and that the politics that we create is bound to be marked by our own finitude.”

Another episode, focusing on Niebuhr and Obama, stems from a live interview with E.J. Dionne and David Brooks … I need to listen again!

not-so-new calvinism

A friend from our church fellowship group sent an interesting article from TIME. Apparently “The New Calvinism” is one of the “10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now.” I took a look at the rest of the list, and the other nine things had to do with globalization, environmental challenges, and other broad-based ideas. This Calvinism thing stood alone as the only religion-related item, and seemingly a niche one at that. The New York Times did an edgy, mostly fair portrait of Mark Driscoll a while back. What are we to make of this heightened interest in what certain Christians believe—and not just how they vote? With an increasingly fragmented evangelical political scene, are religion-beat editors and journalists looking for the Next Big Christian Caricature? Or are they genuinely interested in what these Christians believe about God?

“The New Calvinism” gets it mostly right, in terms of quickly sweeping over the evangelical Reformed scene. The last line was really interesting, suggesting “… more Christians searching for security will submit their wills to the austerely demanding God of their country's infancy.” Is the writer recognizing that we’ve abandoned those religio-moral beliefs that made our country great? (Usually J. Edwards and the Founding Fathers get pounded for being so austere!)

ends and means

I check in on Rod Dreher’s blog almost daily for news and thoughts about religion, current events, and where conservatism is heading (or not heading) in this country. He brought this recent William Saletan article (on Slate.com) to my attention, right when I was so discouraged about the truncated media coverage of stem cell research. It’s nice to see that opinion-ators on both sides of the spectrum see the danger in adapting an “ends justify the means” approach to science.

GetReligion.org has some helpful analysis of the media coverage.