The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness
by Virginia Postrel
Published by HarperCollins (September 2003)
256 pages, $24.95
ISBN: 0060186321

We have undoubtedly entered the Age of Aesthetics. Now that quality and functionality are taken for granted, we search for products that please our senses and effectively symbolize our personalities and relationships with the world. Form, color, tactile qualities, smell - and yes, names too! - contribute to our product and service experience and have a profound impact on our buying decisions.

In the thought-provoking book, “The Substance of Style,” Virginia Postrel posits that design and form do have meaning; “surface” itself has genuine value, and the “look and feel” of things, people and places are more important than we are prepared to admit. It’s time to recognize that we, humans, are less rational than some intellectuals would like us to be.

The aesthetics contribution to products’ and companies’ success is, unfortunately, very hard to measure. But the value is clearly there. Postrel cites Motorola’s decision to release a bright green pager in the early 1990’s, which sold for $15 more than the standard-issue black pager, even though the new gadget offered no technological improvements, and the plastic itself cost almost nothing. According to Postrel, “Sensory pleasure works to commercial and personal advantage because aesthetics has intrinsic values.”

Aesthetics was - and still is in some circles - seen as an attempt to create superficial distinctions, aid social rivalry and to deceive consumers. This view fails to recognize the innate human need for adornment and beauty. The impulses that influence our buying decisions today drove us to paint caves 25,000 years ago. “The paradox of aesthetics,” she writes, “is that it is at once trivial and eternal.” If you are tempted to think that it’s all trivial and meaningless, remember that the opposite is also true; after all, there is nothing left of what “mattered most” in Ancient Egypt, Mayan Empire or Medieval Europe - what remains is the artifacts, the “superficial” - design and some stories.

“The Substance of Style” offers fascinating insights into human behavior and is a captivating portrait of our culture at the beginning of the 21st century.

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Who came up with the word “cookie”? Who named spam “spam”? Did you know that the term “booting a computer” was inspired by the story of Baron Munchhausen?

Check out the list of computer terms in the Wikipedia.

The Oxford English Dictionary Online contains more than half a million words and definitions and adds at least 1,000 more every three months. Science and technology have contributed a large portion to the new English vocabulary, specially in recent years. We are all aware of the creativity and genius at the root of the great technological innovation, but how often do we pause to appreciate the creativity that goes into crafting the language we need in order to ba able to describe this brave new world?

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“This seems to me to be the old Reggie Perrin fantasy of faking suicide, leaving your clothes on the beach and emerging with a new identity to begin again, unencumbered by the past - and who doesn’t feel that way sometimes?

You wouldn’t even need to have a nervous breakdown: you could just do it because you felt like it, because you had nothing to lose except your past and your underpants. As you were peeling off the clothes, you would be telling yourself that life isn’t a tram track; it’s a motorway, and you’re entitled to change lanes whenever you like. And as you walk away from the pathetic bundle of clothes that was your life, the best part would be renaming yourself, rebranding yourself, just like you were a freshly born baby, slick with promise, unmarked by regret or shame.”

Barbara Ellen, A name, a new identity, a new you, The Observer Magazine (UK), October 17, 2004

Paul Gascoigne is a British football player who wants to change his name - to what, he hasn’t said. He claims he’s a different person from what he used to be and wants a new name to reflect this. It didn’t really work for Reginald Perrin, though; he ended up in pretty much the same place with the same people and had to escape all over again.

More on this at the BBC, and you can even submit name options for him at the Times. How about Homer Simpson? Max Power? I wonder if he needs the exact .com domain name.

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As I so modestly pointed out in the newsletter, I am presenting a paper at the meeting of the American Names Society in January (held in conjunction with the formidable Linguistic Society of America). The schedule of events is up and you can see it here. The first day’s events (Jan 6) include the following:

Queer Names of Stage, Screen, and Fiction
Chair: Ronald R. Butters (Duke U)
Ronald R. Butters (Duke U) - Fay Etrange of Kuntzville: Names in queer novels before Stonewall
Phillip Carter (NC SU) - The social meaning of drag queen names
Rebecca Childs (U GA) - Drag kings: Creating a name in a more socially conscious performance space
Arnold Zwicky (Stanford U) - How to name a porn star

(My paper is on Saturday morning. It’s titled “Cheddar is from Cheddar, except when it is not: Renaming geographical indicators”.)

A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

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“…At its heart, the Law on Personal Names is designed to protect Denmark’s innocents - the children who are undeservedly, some would say cruelly, burdened by preposterous or silly names. It is the state’s view that children should not suffer ridicule and abuse because of their parents’ lapses in judgment or their misguided attempts to be hip. Denmark, like much of Scandinavia, prizes sameness, not uniqueness, just as it values usefulness, not frivolousness…

…People expecting children can choose a pre-approved name from a government list of 7,000 mostly Western European and English names - 3,000 for boys, 4,000 for girls. A few ethnic names, like Ali and Hassan, have recently been added. But those wishing to deviate from the official list must seek permission at their local parish church, where all newborns’ names are registered. A request for an unapproved name triggers a review at Copenhagen University’s Names Investigation Department and at the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, which has the ultimate authority. The law only applies if one of the parents is Danish…

…In some cases, Mr. Nielsen says, he believes he is performing a vital public service. He advised the Ministry that Anus and Pluto be rejected, for example. He also vetoed Monkey. “That’s not a personal name, ” Mr. Nielsen explained. “It’s an animal. I have to protect the children from ridicule.”

Leica, however, has been approved, as has Benji, Jiminico and Fee.

“People’s names have become part of their identities now,” Mr. Nielsen [assistant professor for the Department of Name Research at Copenhagen University] said. “And people change their names the way you change your clothes or your apartment. It has become more common.” “Jens and Vita, but Molli? Danes Favor Common Names, by Lizette Alvarez, Oct. 10, 2004 in the Copenhagen Journal (here via the NY Times; login: catchword7, pwd: catchword)

Hooray from protecting children from ridicule! But can you imagine trying to do this in the US? People would be rioting in the streets. There would be a Naming Rights lobby group, and people would have bumper stickers saying things like “When names are outlawed, only outlaws will have names”.

As someone who has a slightly unusual name, I say: please don’t name your kids something trendy. They will suffer their entire lives for it. I love my name, but if I had a nickel for every time someone got it wrong…I can only imagine what life is like for all the thousands of McKennas, MyKennas, MacHennas, etc. out there.

On the other hand, I’d love to work at the Department of Name Research. That would be cool.

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“Perhaps it was not by chance that it was a woman who asked the president, at the town hall debate last Friday, to list three instances in which he had made wrong decisions since taking office. If women react to Mr. Bush’s made-no-mistake tactic the way they react to it when it is used by men in their lives, a majority may well be more angered than reassured. That’s because it drives many women nuts when men won’t say they made a mistake and apologize if they do something wrong. I’m reminded of a woman who was angry at her husband because she had given him an important letter to mail and he’d assured her he’d mail it, then told her the next day, “I forgot to mail your letter,” and stopped there. She waited in vain for the sentence to continue, “I’m sorry.” In the end, she was angry not about the letter but about the missing apology.” Deborah Tannen, “Being President Means Never Having to Say He’s Sorry”, Oct 12, 2004, in the NY Times (after it goes to the archives you can log in as catchword7, pwd: catchword)

Nice to see so many linguists weighing in on the election. Sociolinguistics in particular is a crucial part of the media surrounding politics; it’s all about the words and who gets to decide what they mean. I really hope that the useful and descriptive phrase “changing one’s mind” does not get replaced by “flip-flopping” in the common discourse.

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