This book, one I picked up out of vague random interest from the bargain bin at a charity shop, was, I'm sorry to say, Margaret Visser, the least memorable reading experience I've had in years. It wasn't quite boring but it was by no means interesting either. It was like reading an enormous compilation of those inane little thinkpieces written by contributors to the Readers' Digest. It's the kind of book that retired accountants probably keep in the toilet for a colourful treat - albeit under the book of crossword puzzles, which they do prefer as at least then they get to engage their brain somewhat.
I'm being harsh. (I think part of my not-entirely-warranted disparagement of this book stems from the absurd foreword, in which John Fraser coins the term 'visserism'*.) Margaret Visser's collection of sixty four(ish)-page mini-essays on a range of topics did actually make me say "hmm" in a passively interested way at least two dozen times, but then, it did also make me say "this book is so dull oh my goodness" in an amusedly stupefied way at least seven times. She claims to be an 'anthropologist of everyday life', taking relatively benign topics (of a some-horribly-vague yet some-horribly-specific width of variety) and dissecting them, historically, sociologically, psychologically, economically, through culture and tradition and observation and mostly just facts that she's read about something somewhere, to reveal something unusual or interesting about their origin and practice. Apart from she largely doesn't. To be fair to her it looks like a lot of thought and reading went into each one, but in the way that it goes into a year 8 assignment for which one is aiming for a B at best. There are no overarching themes, no profoundly interesting or insightful points (she comes tantalisingly close to making some, then leaves off to spew out another random nugget of thought or information on topic X), and although there are plenty, a great deal in fact, of moments where she strikes upon something in such a way or with such a fact as to mildly realign one's perspective on it, she does so with so little aplomb, and the topics are so random anyway, as to have little effect on the reader. I still quite enjoyed reading it, and will be keeping it for a future next-to-lavatory-bookcase. It amused me in much the same way that watching Qi occasionally amuses me, through sheer persistent banality.
With basically nothing left to say about this book, I will proceed to list the topics of her short essays; after an introduction (on the general unnoticed interestingness of everyday objects, practices, or concepts, which she promises to explore), Margaret Visser discusses:
- air hostesses
- initiations
- offal
- sunbathing
- conspicuous competence
- Thanksgiving turkey
- Santa
- high heels
- baked beans
- lobster blushing
- Spoonerisms
- greetings
- beards
- avocados
- tipping
- vacations
- English spelling
- umbrellas
- street parades
- physical reactions to embarassment
- bells
- Valentines
- caviar
- professionals
- the left hand
- wedding cake
- showering
- crossword puzzles
- sitting down on things
- gloves
- fireplaces
- spitting
- wigs
- knitting
- the unpopularity of wine in America
- swimsuits
- menus
- wearing blue
- pumpkins
- Christmas trees
- stripes
- the Easter Bunny
- filler words
- vinegar
- mahogany
- jelly
- synaesthesia
- stockings
- Christmas pudding
- hearts
- fasting
- looking emotionless
- eating squirrels
- tap-dancing
- broad beans
- chewing gum
- forgetting people's names
- uses of the colour red
- Eskimo words for snow
- soup
* I jest not. "n. 1. a concise socio-anthropological insight arrived at by comparing current human behaviour with various alternative models... 2. an entertainment in which points are made by identifying and skewering absurdities. 3. any observation, esp. on contemporary manners, that provokes shocked laughter; a sly dig. 4. Archaic or literary. the doctrine that all scholarship, e.g., food chemistry, etymology, particle physics, etc., exists to prove that life is rich, funny, and meaningful." Like, making up a verb to describe the decidedly not unique activities of a writer is bad enough, but four!? I don't know. Having now finished the book I remember it quite fondly. I gained several partially-interesting vaguely-insightful tidbits from it, and didn't actually die of boredom, so maybe it's an alright book after all.
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