Since your reference to William Gibson's Zero History a week or two ago I
bought a copy. M'mm . . . I don't think that Gibson has latched onto
branding for the same reasons that I do (that it's built upon status
ranking) but as a byproduct of excessive prosperity and individualization.
I came across all sorts of interesting cross-references and resonances but
I think they were accidental and I doubt that Gibson has read much
anthropology. Also he's almost certainly not aware of the latest thinking
about rank ordering in biology (that it's a higher order method of quality
control in a species than natural selection -- the female always tending to
partner with as high ranking a male as possible, the more inept males
tending to be left childless and thus their impairments becoming
extinguished from the genetic pool).
Gibson's an interesting writer, though!
Keith
At 17:38 26/12/2010 -0400, Mike Spencer wrote:
Keith wrote:
> One of the greatest economists of the last two centuries,
> Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832) said that full employment and growing
> prosperity for all is inevitable so long as desirable products
> continue to be innovated and put on the market. But this chain of
> consumer goods has also broken down in the last 30 years. We have only
> had improvements (e.g. mobile phones), fashionable versions
> (e.g. kitchen make-overs) or amalgamations (e.g. personal computers)
> of products that were initially created anything from 50-200 years
> ago.
I'm not totally sold on Keith's premise but I'm thinking about it and
it's alerted me to look for relevant info or ideas.
Here's one:
http://www.viceland.com/blogs/en/2010/09/03/william-gibson/
Interview with William Gibson about his most recent novel, _Zero
History_.
Interviewer:
....You get into the concept of secret brands in Zero
History. What do you see as being the appeal of a secret brand?
Gibson:
I think that the Japanese probably pioneered this. They understand
it. It's about a world in which you can buy almost anything. If
you wanted to go and buy some really expensive status apparel, you
could probably do it in Kansas City, or somewhere in Nebraska. You
just have to find a mall that has a big enough flagship store, and
you can go in and get that stuff. And if you can't get it there,
you can get it on the web and have it sent to your door. So we
have a situation where the devious idea of luxury goods has been
undercut by its own total ubiquity. When you get a bunch of people
displaying those goods in a pressure cooker like Tokyo, what they
start to notice is that they're all wearing the same shit. They
may be differentiated by their ability to spend the price of a
small car on a pair of pants, but they're all wearing the same
pair of pants. So the original idea of exclusivity has gone out
the window. The secret brands idea says, "You've got a lot of
money, but you can't have this shit because you don't have the
right information." It suddenly becomes exclusive again. And it
doesn't necessarily have to be about very expensive luxury
goods. It works because it gives people a powerful sense of
individual involvement.
Of course, you should also read the book itself. :-)
Enjoying, as I am, the effects of a modest holiday over-indulgence in
sugar and alcohol, I don't recall if I posted this before or not. But
is does hint that the marketers are struggling with the very thing
that Keith avers.
Oddly enough, I have a garment of the sort that could , more or less,
play the McGuffin in Gibson's novel. Having worn out (years ago) a
work vest bought on end-of-line sale, I've had it custom recreated, A
couple of times by one person whose work was okay to good, but more
recently by another, a neighbor who produced an exceptionally fine
piece of work with better fabrics. If I were to rip out her own label
and replace it with something iconic but "quasi occulti", my vest
could do a walk-on in _Zero History_.
- Mike
--
Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
/V\
[email protected] /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
<http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2010/12/>http://allisstatus.wordpress.com/2010/12/
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