Here is another example of a set of shakers that exudes an intriguing ambiguity. It represents a clown, clearly, accompanied by a drum. Why a drum? I have no idea. Perhaps the drum originally came from a different shaker set–although the color tones do suggest these two do belong together. But that’s not the sourceContinue reading “Skin or Mask?”
Category Archives: Theoretical Approaches to the Salt-and-Pepper World
Food, Fictional and Non-Fictional
Thinking as I wrote my last post about how disturbing it was to look at versions of the exact same characters in different poses in two different salt and pepper shaker sets, about how the impression that they could move and take different positions seemed to suggest a life they were leading outside and beyondContinue reading “Food, Fictional and Non-Fictional”
Once More for Old Times’ Sake, Once More
When I wrote about shaking in my last post, I realize, I was taking something important for granted: you are allowed to give the shakers a symbolic shaking that implies violence to the person or thing a shaker represents because the shaker is, in fact, merely a representation–not actually the thing it represents, but aContinue reading “Once More for Old Times’ Sake, Once More”
Shaking
In my explorations of the scriptive actions of salt and pepper shakers over the past while, I’ve considered everything but the most obvious action they imply–the one implied by their name: shaking. Salt and pepper shakers are made to be shaken. Furthermore, as I think about it, I see that the act of shaking isContinue reading “Shaking”
Shit, Kitsch, and Other Things that Stink
In my last post, I suggested that one of the actions scripted by novelty salt and pepper shakers is conversing about them as artistic objects: the invitation to “observe them more closely–perhaps in something like the way we look at paintings or other art objects, with an eye to understanding both what they represent andContinue reading “Shit, Kitsch, and Other Things that Stink”
Scriptive Things, Fifth Verse: A Little Bit Louder, A Little Bit Diverse
The question remains the same. Generally speaking, what actions or responses do novelty salt and pepper shakers invite when they appear as part of a table setting for a meal? Most obviously of course, they invite those at the table to shake them, i.e., to put salt and/or pepper on their food–and whatever kind ofContinue reading “Scriptive Things, Fifth Verse: A Little Bit Louder, A Little Bit Diverse”
Scriptive Novelty: A Pair of Bears
And now, on to what scriptive attitudes and actions might be implied by having a set of novelty salt and pepper shakers on the table. Just so that there’ll be something specific to refer to, I offer what I take to be a pretty basic and therefore really rather uninteresting example of the kind ofContinue reading “Scriptive Novelty: A Pair of Bears”
Binaries as Scriptive Things
Before I head onwards towards a consideration of the novelty aspects of shaker sets as scriptive things, I think there’s one other aspect of salt-and-pepper sets generally that needs to be considered: their implications as a coupled pair. The question here is not just, why salt and pepper, but also, why salt and pepper together?Continue reading “Binaries as Scriptive Things”
Scriptive Things Again
As promised in my post of June 22, I embark now on an exploration of how novelty salt and pepper shaker sets like those in my collection might be illuminated by means of Robin Bernstein’s concept of “scriptive things.” So what scripts for performance by their potential users do such shakers imply or invite? I’llContinue reading “Scriptive Things Again”
Scriptive Things
I n her recent book Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights, Robin Bernstein offers an insightful and innovative analysis of the ways in which ideas about childhood, texts about and for children, and objects representing children and/or intended to be used in their play intersected with and were inflected by ideasContinue reading “Scriptive Things”
Perry Nodelman 