Garage Sale Research Articles

His and Hers: Gender and Garage Sales

L'A. montre qu'aux Etats-Unis les deux tiers des vendeurs de voitures ou des commercants sont des femmes. Il souligne que la plupart des agences des concessionnaires de voitures sont des residences privees. Il estime que les activites commerciales sont situees dans le prolongement du travail domestique traditionnellement effectue par les femmes et non par les hommes. L'A. etudie les differences que l'on peut observer entre hommes et femmes en ce qui concerne les methodes de vente, les relations avec les clients. Il montre que les hommes recherchent surtout l'argent et les femmes le developpement de relations sociales au-dela d'un niveau informel

Microcomputer History and Prehistory - An Archaeological Beginning

Calculators, computers, and video games are all high-tech tools of the mind. Teachers find students fascinated by early examples and willing to engage in high-tech archaeological searches in their local community. The cost is usually low - sometimes nothing - since companies are willing often to give away or donate surplus equipment, and old video games are common garage sale items. These artifacts, combined with their disks and cartridges, may be disassembled and analyzed, restored and displayed or operated as functioning units-an archaeological challenge that motivates students and gives them a historical perspective about the computer revolution, both its software and hardware.

The Museum World of Henry James (review)

Adeline R. Tintner. The Museum World of Henry James. Foreword by Leon Edel. Editor's Preface by Daniel Mark Fogel. Ann Arbor: UMI Research P, 1986. 390 pp. 101 illus. $49.95. This book on the integral use Henry James made of diverse art and artifacts in forming and informing his fiction is one of the most important studies ever published concerning America's most critically challenging literary artist. Adeline R. Tintner brings four decades of patient Jamesian and related research, marked along the way by scores of articles on James, to fruition with this bold and sumptuous book, and in so doing steps into the lonely circle of truly first-rate scholars in a busy field. Ms. Tintner had not merely to memorize James—his fiction (including revisions ), criticism, travel writing, art notices, plays, autobiography, letters, and notebooks—but also to bring to bear on his creative processes the results of related reading in Classical, Renaissance, Impressionistic, Symbolistic, Decadent, Art Nouveau, and Early Modern art (including sculpture, architecture, painting, and even cinema) and a variety of literatures (mostly English and French), plus no little incidental awareness of music and mythology and history, where applicable . The result is insightful eclecticism at its most exciting and helpful. Tintner's book is itself a museum complex, though not quite under one roof. Adeline has gerrybuilt her unique complex with a plan in mind, if not slavishly followed. "Addie's Museum" (if I may) has an oneiric shape, with adjacent garden and semi-detached warehouse. At the outset, we are beckoned to approach the place by watching James respond to the Louvre (ch. 1). Then we sidestep into a gallery and a pair of wings (housing some European paintings and one carved casket [ch. 2]; antique sculpture [ch. 3]; and Romantic and portrait paintings [ch. 4]). Then back to the Louvre and elsewhere (ch. 5), and so on to another portrait gallery (mostly displaying John Singer Sargent's work [ch. 6]). By this time we are so under the spell of la nostra guida that we do not mind her rapid forward motion: to garden, Impressionism and more, then Titian and J. M. W. Turner (ch. 7); followed by "the Gallery of Dreamers" (what else might one call the Pre-Raphaelites, Symbolists, and Decadents?—ch. 8). Now the tour becomes less well organized, and we proceed from an academic and genre wing (ch. 9) to a decorous garage sale (with good, ugly, ornamental, and functional items, and even cars and boats [ch. 10]) and then to an American wing (ch. 11). Finally, Ms. Tintner beckons us back to the warehouse, where she lectures on a variety of things, from art spectators to art-tuming-human to manor-as-museum to photographs (both still and motion) and the theory that art belongs where it was created (ch. 12). As we leave, dazzled by die display both of the art and of our guide's savvy, we are handed two catalogues of what we have seen—or missed. The first is a conclusion (ch. 13), while the second is an incredibly full index (of 46 columns). If I have given the impression that Adeline Tintner's book cannot quite be legitimately imaged as a museum, it is because I am a little upset by the fact that the author is responsible for the flawed image herself when she writes, "I ask the reader to follow with me the course art takes in the fiction of James, just as if we were really walking through a museum." In truth, though, Tintner 146 The Henry James Review has ingeniously assembled a lifetime of insights into James and art, which she published in unnumbered essays revised here (and only sometimes footnoted) from originals in ten journals, but which are so rich and varied that they cannot be forced conveniently into any set of chapters, even with titles such as "The Museum outside the Museum" (which has a subsection called "Back to the Museum ") or "The Cabinet of Curiosities" (with a subsection called "The Desk as Hero"). As we "walk" through Addie's Museum, we also move along a generally chronological line from James's earliest fiction to his...

Visions of Power: Ideology and Practice in the American Garage Sale

In this article, we examine ideological statements reflected in, and to a small extent created by, people's participation in garage sales.1 Although the article touches upon the economics of garage sales, its focus is on ideology, about how people understand what they are doing when they buy and sell, and how this relates to their more general perception of the social world and their position in it. The way people discuss their participation in garage sales tells a great deal about how they understand their worlds: patterns of work and consumption, claims (especially by women and the aged) that their daily activities have more dignity than is normally afforded them within society, a felt need for moral and practical networks. The expression of ‘oppositional culture’ in the statements garage sale participants make to describe their lives is certainly underdeveloped. It is not free of the dominant ideology, cannot be the basis of class-conscious political practice and in present form poses little danger to any social institution (except perhaps department stores). Still it does contain, in shadowy form, seminal statements in contradiction to what is generally regarded as the dominant ideology. We will call these emerging elements ‘prefigurative cultural formations’, as in vague form they connote emergent social values. Further, we will argue that these prefigurative cultural formations are grouped into discrete ideological claims that we call ‘Visions of Power’, each of which speaks to the empowerment of subordinate groups. We will discuss four specific Visions of Power: reclaiming control of one's work, creating a sense of social justice, beating the system, and feeling oneself a part of a nurturing community. Before attempting to demonstrate the utility of these concepts in understanding forms of belief reflected in garage sales and other informal economic activities, we will briefly explore our approach to ideology, and will attempt to situate it within the contemporary debate on the nature of ideology.

Wie sagt man ...?

This time Wie sagt man? will be very short, in dirt bike das Motocrossrad keeping with the theme of short-order cooking. A (motorized), number of students who work in restaurants have das Mountainbike asked how certain terms are expressed in German. (bicycle) In some cases, there are terms already available in features (of a car, German motorcycle, etc.) die Ausstattung Waiter Kellner game show host der Quizmaster Waitress Kellnerin garage sale der Flohmarkt to wait [tables] bedienen to hold somebody jemanden zur Geisel Tip/gratuity Trinkgeld/Bedienung for ransom nehmen but, as always, terms that refer to specifically hot tub der Whirlpool (wird oft American gastronomical experiences are the ones mit deutschem i, of interest. Here are some, with no further comalso Wirlpuhl, ment and in no particular order, short or otherausgesprochen) wise: human services office das PersonalbOro marching band die Marschkapelle waitron plastic jar die Plastikdose, server der Plastikbehalter

WHIMSY III — Western Humor and Irony Membership Serial Yearbook: Proceedings of the 1984 WHIM Conference: Contemporary Humor ed. by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen (review)

252Rockv Mountain Review contract theory "betrays him occasionally into representing social authority as a more unproblematic reality than . . . he really knows it is" (149). In other words, Dickens usually recognized the problematic nature of social life — an observation very close to the equivocation and ambiguity noted by the other two critics. Magnet's analysis seems derivative at other points as well. For one thing, his description of Oedipal elements in father-son relationships follows Marcus'. As Marcus points out, the apprentice Sim Tappertit aspires to the sexual power held by his surrogate father Gabriel, steals a master key in symbolic transference of that power, and has his legs crushed in a symbolic castration, a retribution for his rebellious behavior (185-86). Magnet makes these same points in his discussion (61-68), and his discussion of Oedipal elements in the relationship between John and Joe Willet also seems based on Marcus'. Second, the most interesting parts of Magnet's thesis seem broadly indebted to Robert E. Lougy's 1972 study of Hard Times, "The Romance of Radical Literature" (Dickens Studies Annual, II, 237-54). Like Magnet, Lougy uses Freud's notion, from Civilization and Its Discontents, that society grinds through a dialectical struggle between two sets of forces: those Thanatos-oriented forces (law, conscience, learned mores) which stabilize yet smother the social order and those Eros-oriented forces (love, imagination) which disrupt yet vivify the social order. According to Lougy, these dynamics move the world of Coketown, and Magnet by coincidence finds Freud's idea an equally handy tool for interpreting the earlier novel. In most cases, Magnet's analysis goes far beyond that of his predecessors; nevertheless he should salute all past views which in any way counterpoint his. Neither Lucas nor Lougy is cited at all. In connection with Barnaby Rudge Marcus receives only a single, unrevealing citation (59; the reference is left out of the index). Yet Magnet finds time to cite Jack Lindsay's leftist reading, a convenient straw man to refute. Boise Slate University MICHAEL CASE DON L. F. NILSEN and ALLEEN PACE MLSEN, eds. WHIMSY III — Western Humor and Irony Membership Serial Yearbook: Proceedings ofthe 1984 WHIM Conference: Contemporary Humor. Tempe, Arizona: WHIM/English Department, Arizona State University, 1985. 287 p. This is a book? Whimsy III: Contemporary Humor seems to be for the most part a transcript of conference proceedings, a common enough genre in the professional and academic world, and as such is hampered in its being a readable book by the very nature of its form — the miscellany. Now if it were a true anthology, or proceedings of a symposium with a genuinely unifying theme, it'd be a far more inviting work to review — and more to the point, to read not only for information and instruction — but for amusement. However, plowing through the almost 300 pages is a task, and even after having scanned, read, and reviewed the collection, I failed to find fundamental focus — real unity. Despite the categories and subcategories and headings, it all seems no more pulled together than a garage sale with too many boxes labeled "miscellaneous"; trying to stuff all this merely under the rubric "contemporary humor" is not enough. But let's approach the fundamental weakness of this collection: first, the act of reading itself is not enjoyable because of deficiencies of graphic design. More vitally, the reading is not enjoyable as an experience: I found too many of the efforts a Book Reviews253 little torpid — and this in a volume titled with studied light-heartedness Whimsy. (Cute.) More, it's subtitled Contemporary Humor. And it isn't funny. This is a "serious" problem — one that has two faces. A number of pieces are indeed "serious" — that is, they are well researched, well thought out, and carefully crafted analyses of what constitutes humor, many of them essays of definition, striving to detail the very essence of the humorous — but the articles are not themselves amusing . Of course, they are scholarly papers, and worthy of respect in terms of the genre, though they sure vary in readability and persuasiveness. Here are some representative examples: Martin Stoneman (Rikki), "The Og Viewpoint: If Today's Humor Isn...

Restoration of the Humanities Urged

Restoration of the Humanities Urged

For Fun and Profit

Garage sales are to be found in virtually all American communities, conducted and attended by a complete cross section of the populace. After discussing the evolution of the garage sale, its transformation and institutionalization, this article presents elaborated typologies of modes of garage sale participation. Roughly ranked by degree of economic rationality, the typologies demonstrate the complexity and contradiction of modes of garage sale participation. The garage sale is born of affluence, the rise of disposable consumer goods. But, it is argued, the garage sale and other forms of informal economic activity constitute survival strategies utilized by an ever-widening range of participants spurred by long-term economic crises.

Ad hoc categories.

People construct ad hoc categories to achieve goals. For example, constructing the category of “things to sell at a garage sale” can be instrumental to achieving the goal of selling unwanted possessions. These categories differ from common categories (e.g., “fruit,” “furniture”) in that ad hoc categories violate the correlational structure of the environment and are not well established in memory. Regarding the latter property, the category concepts, concept-to-instance associations, and instance-to-concept associations structuring ad hoc categories are shown to be much less established in memory than those of common categories. Regardless of these differences, however, ad hoc categories possess graded structures (i.e., typicality gradients) as salient as those structuring common categories. This appears to be the result of a similarity comparison process that imposes graded structure on any category regardless of type.

Interview with Martha Rosler

Rosler: The question of medium per se isn't terribly interesting to me. Meaning is, and I use the appropriate medium. Often it's not a decision so much as it is a matter of the way the work presents itself to me. If a text unfolds in my mind, I may wind up with something written. If I want a greater intensity of address, something seen, that may become a script for a videotape. Sometimes I want video's lack of definition; at other times I want the sharpness of film. Most of the video I do addresses television forms. In installations and performances, I pose a question: What if... ? What if people were to find themselves in such a situation, physically present? Presence makes a great difference. Voyeurism, for example, in relation to women, functions differently when projected on a screen than when physically present. Sometimes I just want people to be in a situation or to participate actively, as in the two garage sales. Sometimes, though, I want a work to be discontinuous and weightless. The postcard works were just carried in on a card, with a stamp, an address, a printed text. The week's interval between episodes meant that the depth of the work had to be enacted in the reader's mind. Duration was important, but the physical medium was nothing.

It's Time to Talk

It's Time to Talk is a book of 194 communication activities designed for intermediate and advanced learners of English as a second or foreign language. The activities are placed within six different settings: 1) Strategies in the Classroom; 2) People in the Community; 3) Services in the Community; 4) Places in the Community; 5) Media in the Community; 6) Family and Fun. Tasks include discussions, interviews, polls, treasure hunts, panels, debates, role play, problem solving, and story telling. Each section contains a meaning list, which glosses words as they are used in the activity. Special attention is paid to twoand three-word verbs. At the end of the book is a Glossary of Meanings, giving the number of each activity where a word or expression is introduced. The final entry is a Topic Index, listing the thematic material within each activity. The authors have put together a delightful and useful book. It is geared to students living in the United States, but sections can easily be adapted to overseas situations. The variety of cultural situations discussed is impressive. Topics range all the way from bumper stickers, garage sales, and recycling to T-shirts, women's liberation, The Yellow Pages, fire stations, and churches, to name but a few. To the authors' credit, sensitive issues are not ignored: there are discussions on rape, drugs, venereal disease, abortion, and x-rated movies. Students are treated as mature adults, although there is also room to adapt the activities for children.