Links on Culture - October 2022
Restaurant reservations, preteen painters, cultural appropriation, and the end of the internet
Once a month I analyze the latest culture-related
The X of Generation X
Douglas Coupland's book Generation X ended up giving his demographic cohort a permanent name, but we shouldn'
Aesthetics are Everywhere... and They're Social Constructs
Virginia Postrel’s excellent The Substance of Style charts how aesthetics took over consumer society — but aesthetic conventions themselves always
Links on Culture for September
Beer cooler status symbols, wet putty cars, and how #oldmoney isn't very Old Money
The last few months
21st Century Culture: Boring or Static? (Or both?)
Whether the 21st century ecosystem of pop culture is suffering from stasis is a separate question from whether its output
My New Book: Status and Culture
A sneak peek into my new book that links individuals’ fundamental desire for social status to the formation of taste,
Notes on Our Tasteless Era
Recent journalism, criticism, and social media posts suggest a surge in bad taste across art, fashion, and media. What does
Vanilla, Peaches, and All the Other Lesser Smells
The scientific search for fundamental human taste preferences is commendable but our "evolutionary instincts" can't explain
The Sociology of John Mayer’s Outfit Guidance
John Mayer's "point-system" for balanced creative dress reveals a few key
realities about how culture works
Future Sounds: Cheap Gear and Easy Samples
Does the democratization of electronic music tools change how we hear the
sounds?
Like many others in the late 1990s,
