The Canon, pt 1

In which I talk about books I'm obsessed with

Inconspicious Consumption by Paul Lukas has been one of my favourite books for years. It confirms to me that a rampant fascination with random stuff is an asset rather than an affliction.

The book is a collection of essays on aspects of our material culture (trans. he talks about stuff). The subtitle is "An Obsessive Look at the Stuff We Take for Granted, from the Everyday to the Obscure." And Paul Lukas makes a good run at covering it all: crayons, obscure lifesaver flavours, corned mutton. He has a great eye for design and advertising and can really break down the all messages conveyed through packaging, industrial design and even the initial concept for a product. He can evoke nostalgia for thing that were never even part of my experience. Do I miss the uniformity and solidity of old pole-mounted USPS mailboxes? No, but he makes them sound really cool.

I love his total glee at finding both absurbity and beauty everywhere. What's strange about reading this book now is that it doesn't seem anywhere near as original and brilliant as it did when I first discovered Beer Frame (the zine upon which the book is based). I think this is because I've absorbed his viewpoint so totally into my own that it just seems normal. Does a cereal box warrant hours of careful analysis? Of course. Isn't everyone mesmerized by the sheer awfulness and absurdity of the products aimed at us? If not, why not?

Every once in a while I check around to see what Paul Lukas is up to now. He wrote a column for Core77, which they still advertise even though the last one was ages ago. He's also got some stuff on business sites, usually ripping apart yet another hopeless marketing decision. Just recently I found him on ESPN, writing a column about team uniforms. It's cool to see that he's parlayed his natural obsessiveness into a hugely successful career. Gives me hope.