Perspectives on Everyday Life

This chapter introduces the subject of everyday life and offers a quotation from Robert MusilRobert Musil’s classic work, The Man Without Qualities. Musil suggests that by the middle of our lives, we become caught, like flies, in what we might call the flypaper of life, and we only have the slightest resemblance to “our original shape.” This chapter asks whether Musil is a realist or a pessimist.

In this chapter we focus on different perspectives of social scientists and others on everyday life. The Polish anthropologist Bronislaw MalinowskiBronislaw Malinowski, who suggested that the “imponderabilia of actual life” is basic to studying everyday life, is cited. His work suggests that people may be involved in institutions of great scope but not realize it. This is followed by a discussion of the psychoanalytic approach to everyday life and the work of Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud, Clotaire RapailleClotaire Rapaille, and others. This chapter also discusses James Joyce’s novel, Ulysses, Ulysses which is a classic study of everyday life—in this case, one day in the life of Leopold Bloom and other characters.

In this chapter we deal with the ideas of Henri LefebvreHenri Lefebvre, a French Marxist, whose book Everyday Life in the Modern WorldEveryday Life in the Modern World is an important contribution to the study of everyday life. Lefebvre is interested in the matter of recurrence, which is a basic element of everyday life, and of the role of advertising in shaping our lives and our ideological perspectives on things. He discusses Joyce’s Ulysses which is recognized as a universal study of everyday life. He also discusses what he describes as terror that pervades our everyday lives because the split between the wealthy and the poor inevitably leads to repression.

Michel de CerteauMichel de Certeau argues in the Practice of Everyday LifePractice of Everyday Life that people are not always dominated by the media and that they develop ways to subvert the messages found in media for their own purposes. In this chapter we discuss the work of Roman JakobsonRoman Jakobson, whose model of the communication processRoman Jakobsonmodel of the communication process is one of great importance. We see that communication is a complicated process and that the traditional distinction between senders and receivers of mass media has been changed due to the Internet.Internet. De Certeau deals with different methods of subversionMichel de Certeaumethods of subversion in his book and concludes with the notion that the mass mediaMichel de Certeaumass media do not have as much power to shape people’s beliefs as we might imagine.

In his book, Fernand BraudelFernand Braudel turns our attention, as historians, from kings, conquerors, and other “great men,” and diplomacy to the everyday lives of ordinary peopleThe Structures of Everyday Lifeeveryday lives of ordinary people and such things as their bread consumption and eating habits. That is, he is interested in the “little things one hardly notices” that play such an important, but generally neglected (by historians), role in history. The passage by Hedrick Smith on the role of vodka is used as an example of how seemingly unimportant topics can reveal a great deal about Russian everyday lifeThe Structures of Everyday LifeRussian everyday life, character, and culture.

Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud’s book on the psychopathology of everyday life deals with seemingly trivial things like slips of the tonguePsychopathology of Everyday Lifeslips of the tongue, forgetting people’s namesPsychopathology of Everyday Lifeforgetting people’s names, and mistakes in speechPsychopathology of Everyday Lifemistakes in speech. He offers an example from his own experience, forgetting someone’s name, and explains why things like that happen. The topics he deals with are all connected to our psychic lives, material stored in our unconscious, and unconscious imperatives that shape our behavior. The work of Charles BrennerCharles Brenner is cited to explain, in some detail, the psychoanalytic approach to forgetting people’s names.

Milton Sapirstein The Paradoxes of Everyday Life focus in Sapirstein’s book is on a psychoanalytic approach to paradoxical aspects of everyday life—topics such as decorating a home, reading a marriage manual, and screaming mothers that would seem unimportant and trivial but, in truth, are very problematic. The writings of a scholar of religion, Mircea EliadeMircea Eliade, are referenced in terms of the difference between the sacred and the profane and the importance of a house in religious thoughtParadoxes of Everyday Lifeimportance of a house in religious thought. Sapirstein explains that women equate a house to their bodies Paradoxes of Everyday Lifewomen equate a house to their bodies and thus decorating a house calls forth hidden resentments women have about their mothers and all manner of suppressed anxieties and fears.

Myth and Everyday Life This chapter deals with myth and its role in our everyday lives. It defines myth and offers a “myth model”Myth and Everyday Life“myth model” which suggests how myth informs many different aspects of our lives, even though we are not aware that this is the case. It discusses the work of Mircea Eliade on myth and takes two myths—the myth of Adam and Eve in the Garden of EdenMyth and Everyday LifeAdam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and of OedipusMyth and Everyday LifeOedipus—and shows how they are reflected in psychoanalytic theory, history, elite art forms, popular culture, and everyday life. It suggests that Sisyphus is the paradigmatic mythic hero of everyday life.

In this chapter we investigate the role of the body in everyday life and the role that age, gender, and race play in our relationships with others. We consider the importance of generations in our lives since an individual’s age is a predictor of our attitudes and behavior. In recent years, gender has been in focus because of concern regarding stereotyping and the fact that now gender has become a matter of choice. Finally, we discuss the role race plays in our lives and new attitudes people have about race, which like gender is now socially constructed.

In this chapter we investigate the power of clocks, in many different forms, over our lives. We have wind-up clocks, digital clocks (the most popular form), and clock radios that tell us what the time is and have alarms to alert us when a certain time, that is important to use for one reason or another, is reached.The alarm clock is a signifier of the way clocks control the lives of people who live in modern, complex societies.

Smart speakers such as the Amazon Echo Dot and the Google Home Mini are the most important new product category of recent years and are having a major impact on American culture and society. This is because they are very functional (they can do so many different things) and because they rely on the power of speech, which makes them easy to use. There is a question of privacy involved with these devices, but millions of people who use smart speakers seem to feel that the benefits of smart speakers are more important than privacy concerns.

This chapter explores the 2017 Grammy Awards use of chandeliers and suggests they were meant to be signifiers of status and of the “high class” nature of the show. Chandeliers are traditionally seen as symbols of status and wealth. Grammy Awards, like all award shows, want to suggest their high status and use elaborate sets, and in this case chandeliers, to affirm their status. The awards given at the 2017 Grammy Awards were very controversial, but that is often the case in award shows.

In this chapter we deal with the evolution of the Starbucks logo and the role of Starbucks in American culture and society. It defines logos and offers a historical portrait of how the logo originated and evolved over the years. In addition, it shows how the myth model helps explain the popularity of Starbucks and deals, also, with the popularity of Starbucks.

In this chapter we consider our “need” for perfect teeth and the role teeth whitening agents play in our thinking about our teeth. We consider the ideas of a cosmetic dentist about the need for perfect teeth if one is to succeed in the business world—because people “read” teeth as signifiers of one’s status. We also consider the matter of the natural color of teeth, which are described in some advertisements as “stained.” There is also a kind of narcissism involved in desiring gleaming white teeth.

In this investigation of the hidden meaning of pacifiers, we make use of two linguistic devices, metaphor and metonymy, to understand the significance of these objects. The term “pacifier” suggests something that tames babies, who are thus, at the unconscious level, seen as wild animals. The chapter also considers psychoanalytic approaches to sexuality and the relation between stages in sexual development and material culture—that is, objects that relate to children’s needs as they develop sexually.

This chapter considers the role of toilets in different cultures, with particular attention to Japanese toilets, such as the Toto 700H toilet, which sells for $4700. The Japanese passion for cleanliness and the role of clean toilets and tourism is also considered.

This chapter considers the question of what milk is, and whether other milks such as soy milk and almond milk, which are called “impostor milks,” are really milk. It also deals with the question of whether people are addicted to milk and the assertion by a doctor that people consume too much milk, generally in the form of cheese.

Pressure cookers are connected to our attitudes toward time and our desire to be able to prepare some foods more quickly as compared with when using other means of cooking. The Instapot Electronic Pressure Cooker and other electronic pressure cookers are a new development in the design of pressure cookers, and are meant to help people deal with the stresses of time and preparing meals, since they free cooks from having to be in attendance when these pressure cookers are used. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the notion that food is seen as fuel in America rather than something to be enjoyed and a source of great pleasure.

This chapter begins with a discussion of a major social problem in the United States—obesity. It then offers some statistics about the size of the diet industry—dieting being an attempt made by many obese and overweight people to lose weight. This is followed by a discussion of dieting and some psychological afflictions relating to food, which concludes with a suggestion that Sisyphus is the model for dieters, who are generally condemned to lose weight and then gain it back again over and over again.

In this chapter we examine different styles of hair and speculate about where they come from, discuss President Donald J. Trump’s hair style, which has been described in different ways, and consider hair styles and age. This leads to a consideration of the semiotics of hair—what different styles of hair signify about people who wear them, aberrant decoding of the messages from hair, and finally the matter of hair color and our attitudes towards blonde hair.

In this analysis, we consider the matter of college rejection letters and the fact that for some young people, being rejected at an elite university is the first time they have been disappointed in a major way. That is because the number of people applying to elite universities is enormous and institutions such as Stanford and Harvard accept only a small number of applicants. Being accepted at an elite university confers lifelong benefits on young people in terms of their sense of achievement and of accomplishment.

Air Jordans are objects of considerable cultural significance. This chapter explores their meaning for people and can be seen as an exploration of material culture, a subject of considerable interest to social scientists of all kinds.

French fries are the most popular cooked food sold in the United States and play an important role in the obesity epidemic there and in other countries as well. Statistics show the average American eats close to 30 pounds of French fries a year—about a half a pound a week. In this chapter, the semiotician Roland Barthes is quoted on the cultural significance of “frites” to French culture and the psychoanalyst and marketing expert Clotaire Rapaille is quoted on how food preferences are imprinted on children as they grow up in a particular country.

The origins of the backpack are discussed in a Wikipedia article which leads to a discussion of the variety of backpacks available and the different materials from which they are made—generally polyester or nylon. They are used for many purposes and are now signifiers of travel and self-sufficiency, commonly worn by people in airports who take them on planes along with their suitcases. Speculations are offered on the number of backpacks a typical family owns.

The historical origins of the mattress are discussed followed by a discussion of the agony of choice involved in choosing a particular mattress from the seemingly countless number of companies making mattresses and the different models available. Two kinds of customers are discussed: maximizers, who want only the best at the best price, and satisfizers, who are not terribly particular about their choice of a mattress or any other product. Mattresses connote sleep and rest but choosing mattresses is one of the most agonizing and anxiety-ridden purchases people make, since mattresses last for many years. So if one purchases the wrong mattress, one has to live with that bad choice for a long time.

The chapter begins with a discussion of “shoe obsession” in women. An image is described that shows a woman in a shoe store with dozens of different shoes on the floor, suggesting she is having difficulty in finding a shoe she likes and reflecting the anxiety women often feel when it comes to purchasing shoes. This is followed by a discussion of the erotic nature of the foot and of the shoe and of the role shoes play in folklore. In the story of Cinderella, it is the size of her foot, which fits into her glass slipper that the prince has (which she left at a ball), that is of crucial importance.

This chapter deals with Madonna’s background and cultural importance, with a focus on her controversial video classic “Like a Prayer.” We explore the importance of her Italian Catholic background and Italian-American identity and the role of race in the video. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Madonna as a postmodernist artist who has no regard for narrative continuity and who blends Italian-American and African-American musical forms and traditions.

The growth of the travel and tourism industry, now the largest industry in the world, means that suitcases—of one kind or another—are now of great importance, since we rely on them to transport our clothes and other things needed for travel. We discuss the size of the suitcase industry and how the design of suitcases has evolved over the years. There are so many different brands and kinds of suitcases that consumers have to deal with that choosing a suitcase generates anxiety in people purchasing them. The problem suitcase manufacturers face is how to make a suitcase that is light and strong, that will protect what we put in it, that is not too expensive, and will last a long time.

Superglues have the distinctive quality of bonding immediately on contact. This chapter deals with the history and invention of superglues and with their functionality. They were used by surgeons in the Vietnam War with good effect. The chapter also offers a psychoanalytic analysis of the superglue phenomenon and suggests they are seen, in the unconscious, as a means of rescuing the world from entropy by “saving” things that have broken apart from being thrown out and thus keeping the world more orderly.

This chapter starts by discussing the different kinds of calendars by which religious groups organize their time. Thus, September 1, 1995, is the year 5755 for Orthodox Jews and the year 1446 for Muslims. It then explores the role calendars play in our everyday lives and offers examples of the kind of calendars the author uses: yearly calendars and monthly calendars, in addition to his daily calendar. It concludes with a discussion of calendars and religious and national holidays, with a section on the symbolic significance of an American holiday, Memorial Day.

In this final chapter, I consider the role my interest in popular culture or mass-mediated culture has played in my career as a professor and a writer. I explain that I always thought of myself as a writer who happened to teach rather than a teacher who happened to write. And though I have written a great deal on popular culture, much of what I’ve written can be understood to be about everyday life. Most of what I’ve written has come out of speculations and notes in my journals, where I devote pages to brainstorming on various topics related to my interests and the book I am working on at any given time.