The Evocative Power Of Thing Cracken Analysis
Response Paper #1
In the chapter named, The Evocative Power of Things by anthropologist and prolific blogger Grant McCracken in his book called Culture and Consumption, McCracken is concerned with the development of hopes and ideals that manifest themselves into displaced meanings which can take the form of consumer goods or actual locations in time and space (Pg. 104). A culture creates displaced meaning for its hopes and ideals in order to keep them safe from the harsh truths of reality as a way to lessen the gap between the “ideal” and “reality”. He looks at the power of these inanimate objects as physical manifestations or “bridges” to our hopes and ideals and what they can communicate in regard to our individual or cultural values …show more content…
When they reach The Beach they are introduced to the mini society that has made their home there and the culture and rules they live by. They see that the society is so focused on maintaining their happiness they are even willing to exile an injured member just to get away from the negativity. Due to a series of unfortunate events the society is forced to leave their paradise and face the real world once again. It is here we can make a parallel to McCracken’s idea that, “The recovery of displaced meaning has brought tragedy and despair to virtually every culture…”(Pg.108). When Richard asks why the man who gave him the map left he was told, “Daffy left because he felt that in coming to paradise we had inevitably destroyed it.” A purist idea but inevitably true. As soon as the trio had reached their desired paradise, their dreams were eventually ruined by the truth of The Beach. Once one obtains what they thought they wanted and it no longer embodies the ideas and hopes they desired to be realized in this attainment, it destroys that location of displaced meaning, they can no longer say, “if I could just spend my days living on a beach, it would be paradise, then…” (Pg. 113). This is why McCracken states that the attainment of these ultimate representations of displaced meaning is dangerous. In coming to The Beach, the trio put their hopes and ideals “to empirical test”, bringing their fantasyland to the “here and now”, which failed to live up to their expectations
In the chapter named, The Evocative Power of Things by anthropologist and prolific blogger Grant McCracken in his book called Culture and Consumption, McCracken is concerned with the development of hopes and ideals that manifest themselves into displaced meanings which can take the form of consumer goods or actual locations in time and space (Pg. 104). A culture creates displaced meaning for its hopes and ideals in order to keep them safe from the harsh truths of reality as a way to lessen the gap between the “ideal” and “reality”. He looks at the power of these inanimate objects as physical manifestations or “bridges” to our hopes and ideals and what they can communicate in regard to our individual or cultural values …show more content…
When they reach The Beach they are introduced to the mini society that has made their home there and the culture and rules they live by. They see that the society is so focused on maintaining their happiness they are even willing to exile an injured member just to get away from the negativity. Due to a series of unfortunate events the society is forced to leave their paradise and face the real world once again. It is here we can make a parallel to McCracken’s idea that, “The recovery of displaced meaning has brought tragedy and despair to virtually every culture…”(Pg.108). When Richard asks why the man who gave him the map left he was told, “Daffy left because he felt that in coming to paradise we had inevitably destroyed it.” A purist idea but inevitably true. As soon as the trio had reached their desired paradise, their dreams were eventually ruined by the truth of The Beach. Once one obtains what they thought they wanted and it no longer embodies the ideas and hopes they desired to be realized in this attainment, it destroys that location of displaced meaning, they can no longer say, “if I could just spend my days living on a beach, it would be paradise, then…” (Pg. 113). This is why McCracken states that the attainment of these ultimate representations of displaced meaning is dangerous. In coming to The Beach, the trio put their hopes and ideals “to empirical test”, bringing their fantasyland to the “here and now”, which failed to live up to their expectations