Eclecticism
Why do we all want to be thought of as having eclectic tastes? Especially in the area of music, people are proud when they have Led Zeppelin and Bing Crosby in their collection. When you ask anyone about their musical tastes, they will in all likelihood reply "Oh, I like all kinds of music".
Yesterday I left the library feeling so proud of myself for being eclectic. I had gotten out the following materials:
2 gardening books
Novel by A.S. Byatt
5 graphic novels
Warm fuzzies: 30 sweet felting projects
Martha Stewart Living
Wired
5 movies (sadly none of which star Cary Grant or Gregory Peck)
And I thought to myself "now who gets out Martha Stewart Living and Wired at the same time? Am I cool or what?" Of course, the feeling lasted only about 2 seconds, as I realized there were probably millions of people being equally eclectic right at that very moment.
But it got me thinking about why we value this trait. Are the days gone in which people can say "I only listen to jazz" or pride themselves on only reading nineteenth century fiction?
And why does eclecticism only apply to certain areas? I am not aware of many people whose wardrobes are particularly eclectic, for example. It is just something to ponder.
Yesterday I left the library feeling so proud of myself for being eclectic. I had gotten out the following materials:
2 gardening books
Novel by A.S. Byatt
5 graphic novels
Warm fuzzies: 30 sweet felting projects
Martha Stewart Living
Wired
5 movies (sadly none of which star Cary Grant or Gregory Peck)
And I thought to myself "now who gets out Martha Stewart Living and Wired at the same time? Am I cool or what?" Of course, the feeling lasted only about 2 seconds, as I realized there were probably millions of people being equally eclectic right at that very moment.
But it got me thinking about why we value this trait. Are the days gone in which people can say "I only listen to jazz" or pride themselves on only reading nineteenth century fiction?
And why does eclecticism only apply to certain areas? I am not aware of many people whose wardrobes are particularly eclectic, for example. It is just something to ponder.
posted by Shelly at 3:41 PM
2 Comments:
i actually dont think that martha stewart and wired are all that eclectic. now if you got guns and ammo plus knitting plus business week, that would be eclectic. not to criticize you....i think it has something to do with the huge amounts of information available to us.
Fine, next time I go to the library I will try harder :)
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