Rather, it’s this: what gives an object its worth? Is it simply the cold calculus of market value? Or is it the irrational, talismanic properties with which we humans sometimes imbue our most random inanimate possessions? How much would you pay for a nutcracker James Dean used - precisely how, we can’t guess - to pleasure himself? Or a cow-shaped creamer that once belonged to Norman Rockwell during a particularly dark period of his life? Neither of those things exists, actually. (It’s called advertising.) But what about objects that are undesirable? That are poorly made, useless or ugly? Can they ever become valuable or sellable? To those who don’t believe in the transcendent power of a good story … behold: the Significant Objects project. Already desirable or at least useful objects … can obviously have their value increased through a robust back story. It’s an idea that writers adore: the notion that a good story can impart value to an insignificant object. This time proceeds will be donated to 826 National, a non-profit that tutors young people in writing and storytelling. So for the second volume, they have “decided to do something useful with the information,” Walker says. The first volume of “Significant Objects”, which debuted over the summer, swiftly proved Messrs Walker and Glenn’s theory that stories add immeasurable value to objects. What a thrill to be the nominal owner of a tale told by a favourite author, and to possess the very thing that inspired them - even if that significant object is too darned ugly for any sensible person’s mantelpiece. Significant Objects combines one of the oldest of all media - the near-improvised short story - with the reinvigorated writer-reader relationship afforded by Web 2.0. If this is a cynical marketeer’s scam, rather than a mildly romantic social experiment, then consider me conned. And a red wooden mallet, which sold for $71 (not to me), is no longer just another red wooden mallet.Ĭouch Surfer (The Independent of London): Indeed, a few days after I spoke with Walker he e-mailed to mention that the better known his project is becoming, “the more valuable, in theory, any object that was part of it might become.” In other words, the fabrication of a story about the object becomes a part of the story we tell. It tells us that stories add value even when we know the story is manufactured. The idea, dreamed up by, is simple: invite several dozen authors to make up interesting stories about random objects picked up at thrift shops, post them on eBay, and let consumer fetishism take it from there. Looking for a nice literary artifact? Edith Wharton’s letters - a packet sold at auction for more than $180,000 last month - may be out of reach, but collectors willing to settle for Lydia Millett’s chili cat figurine or Kurt Andersen’s Santa nutcracker will find plenty of bargains over at the new Web site Significant Objects. “Brain Food” columnist Aditya Chakrabortty Rob Walker and Josh Glenn were able to conduct one of the most life-affirmingly cheeky studies I have seen for ages… This wasn’t a scientific experiment, although it would be astonishing if some goateed PhD student wasn’t even now imitating the study in lab conditions with a proper control - and thereby sucking all the blood out of this particular orange.
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