drupagliassotti @ August 17, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Yesterday I mentioned that commodification is a form of sympathetic magic. That is, telling someone that if they buy designer clothes they will be considered as desirable as the celebrities who normally sport the stuff is akin to telling someone that if they put on a wolfskin belt by the light of the moon they’ll [...]
drupagliassotti @ August 16, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Unclutterer wryly pointed out the commodification of voluntary simplicity going on in tandem with the release of the movie Eat Pray Love. I appreciated this post, because I’ve talked about the power of the consumerist ideology in a few of my classes ever since the release of the magazine Real Simple ten years ago. Real [...]
drupagliassotti @ July 22, 2010 # One Comment
Today I ran across this video on the New York Times about the “Six Items or Less” challenge. I was fascinated from both a minimalism and masochism (the “could I stand this?” attitude they describe in the video) point of view. Although I find clothing interesting in the abstract — I wrote my dissertation about [...]
drupagliassotti @ April 26, 2010 # No Comment Yet
The other day, a minimalist I read regularly wrote “screw the people who criticize counting things” with a link over to my post, “Why I’m Wary of 100-Thing Minimalism.” I find myself in good company. He expressed similar sentiments to a number of his readers earlier this month. What struck me as interesting about that [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 27, 2010 # 3 Comments
Apartment Therapy recently ran a post about minimalism in interior design. The comments are more interesting than the post — they address minimalism as aesthetic, which is the aspect of minimalism that I think many minimalist bloggers forget when they discuss it as a lifestyle. “Minimalism works best when the pieces that exist and their [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 24, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Minimalism is not necessarily…. 1. Cheap. People often equate minimalism with the “college dorm room” look; particleboard and plastic. But you could be a minimalist who buys only objects of the very highest quality that reflect your exquisitely refined taste. 2. Frugal. Minimalism is often cited as a great way to save money. However, you [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 23, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Three or four years ago I spent a lot of time and money creating a series of scrapbooks that combined photos, art, and artefacts to describe my life. Last weekend I ripped them all into pieces. Most of the pages and photos were thrown away. The rest will be scanned and then thrown away. Minimizing [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 22, 2010 # No Comment Yet
Yesterday I blogged about why I’m wary of 100-thing minimalism. Despite my skepticism about the “100-thing” practice, however, I still believe it’s beneficial to avoid clutter and overconsumption. I agree with the voluntary simplicity guideline that you should strive to own only those items you (a) love, (b) use on a regular basis, or (c) [...]
drupagliassotti @ February 21, 2010 # 6 Comments
I’m 43; I’ve been practicing voluntary simplicity since 2000, with varying levels of successes and setbacks. This isn’t a minimalist blog, and I’m not claiming to be a minimalism expert. (4/26/10: Welcome, readers from Far Beyond the Stars; if you want my response to the post that sent you here, it’s over here. But please [...]
drupagliassotti @ December 7, 2008 # No Comment Yet
CNN’s usage of “begging the question” in this paragraph is incorrect. “Begging the question” is not a fancy way of saying “raising the question.” To beg the question is to put forward an argument that uses faulty premises and/or circular reasoning as “support.” For example, let’s take this argument: Because about two-thirds of the U.S. [...]