So I was thinking about the old expression "Don't judge a book by its cover." I was thinking about this because I have a couple of... whatever the fuck they are nowadays kids. "Scenester" is the closest thing I can think of. I'm pretty sure it's not really indie or emo, and goth is like WAY out. Guys who wear girls' jeans as tight as they can get them and then brush their hair over into their faces and wear ironically brand-new Ramones t-shirts... kids who think the Used is the second coming of Christ... the current crop of conformity decriers. (Don't get me wrong, I'm all for individuality, but as Hamlet said, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks.") Anyway, book, cover, no judgey... But I got to thinking, I'm an avid reader and frequenter of bookstores. My major was based on books and the reading thereof. I think I'm decently qualified to make some generalizations about books to see how this metaphor holds up.

Classics, books that have sold a lot of copies over their existence, beloved books, books with the most interesting things to say are most often those with the simplest covers, usually ranging in meager attire from plain leatherbound to a painting or artistic rendering. Something understated, yet classy, usually. I mean there are books with eccentric covers, like The Unbearable Lightness of Being's floating hat, but nothing outrageous. Now let us consider the books with the flashy covers, the bright neon and the bizarre cover decorations... these are usually the beach reads, the horror for horror's sake novels, the young adult books... books with not a lot to say, books that have to do something other than just be themselves to draw a reader in... am I still talking about books here?

All I'm saying is that it seems to me that when a product isn't enough just being itself to sell it, that's when you have to dress up the packaging. The non-natural hair color, the outrageous (!) piercings (whatever), the socially inappropriate tattoos, the outlandish dress... and I can't fault my teen students for behaving this way, because they're newly minted people, and just experiencing peoplehood. The haven't accrued enough knowledge and experience (for the most part) to sell themselves as they are. But the real problem comes when older people, people my age and up continue to act this way. God, when I go downtown I see it all the time. When I go to parties I see it. When I go on crazy road trips with Ben I see it. I have always had a certain unjustifiable disdain for those people, and now I think I understand it. (My disdain, not their bizarre compulsion to be bizarre.)

posted by MAtt D. at 5:39 PM

 
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT - I am moving in with Alli. We got a fucking amazing place in University Heights in San Diego. You can check it out at your leisure. But only if you pronounce it "leh-zhure," like some poncey brit wanker. In all seriatude, it's a guest house behind this real house, apartment over the garage. it's 1000 square feet, brand new floors (dark cherry hardwood) with a washer and drier on-site and a dishwasher and a gigantic bathroom. Two bedrooms as well, so we'll have an office/guest bedroom. So... who wants to make a weekend trip to SD? I've got a guest room! Well, not yet. I'm not moving in 'til Labor Day weekend. Anybody want to help lug shit? Did I mention we get a two car garage? This is the most perfect rental on the face of the planet EVER.
posted by MAtt D. at 5:37 PM

 
So, being that I'm back in the saddle for drive-time talk radio, I was listening today and heard reference to an article entitled "How Bush Thinks: Intuition Over Intellect." Here's the link. I know, it's an op-ed piece, and therefore certainly not Gospel, but one man's opinion. But this man, Jonathan Chait, makes some good points. The bottom line is that our Butthead-in-chief consistantly forgoes reason in favor of how he feels. Even when faced with hard, irrefutable facts, he still goes with his gut. Look, I often bemoan pure reason's inability to reconcile the phenomona of faith and the necessity for faith in our inexplicable world. BUT when you have stuff that IS explicable, stuff that there IS hard evidence for and you still insist... argh. I realize that this puts my faith in jeopardy, because if anyone brought me hard evidence of the non-existance of God, then I would either have to accept it, or take the George W. route and just go with how I feel... But the things that Bush is presented with in the Times article aren't things like the existance of a higher power, they're things like this guy did or didn't do steroids or the fact that he did or didn't oppose children's healthcare. He lets his feelings dictate his grasp of reality past, present, and future. And this is why we went into Iraq without strong reason, and this is why despite whatever he said about firing whoever outed CIA deep-cover operative it's not going to happen because it's one of his closest friends that outed her. I guess the fact that he follows his feelings entirely and ignores reason and logic isn't as disconcerting as the fact that his feelings never change. He always feels like he's right. There's no learning going on there. No change occurs, he just goes on grinning and allowing people to die at home and abroad. The 'W' stands for 'Widowmaker.'
posted by MAtt D. at 8:27 PM