I am now an official cliche. I am sitting in a Starbuck’s in San Francisco with my notebook computer hooked up to the wireless, and I am blogging. Ugh. If it can get any sillier, Leonard Cohen is on their stereo satellite radio.
A few amusing sightings today, but given my city years, it takes more than a conversation with a homeless man in the public library elevator to amuse me.
No, the oddest piece of culture I spotted today were the words “Post structuralism” written in permanent black marker on a store window – ROSS, in fact.
Post-structuralism is something I tripped over in the run-up to my application to that other graduate program. Frankly, I still don’t quite get it – but I’m quite a few books away from having time for postmodern philosophy right now.
Was the graffito a protest to the structuralism of ROSS, with its categories and sizes, or perhaps the words were meant to reinforce the truly deconstructionist nature of shopping for clothing (as I have, happily), which has been rejected by the major retailers, which is imperfect, which has trouble fitting into categories (think of pants that are size 48 waist, 24 inseam – this is ROSS).
There is also the rejection of structure inside ROSS, a dismantling applied by customers, a randomization of objects as humans mill about picking things up and putting things down, deciding on which eight-dollar-dress/shirt/pair-of-dress-shoes will complete that stray outfit in the back of their closet.
If you are the philosophy major who bothered to tag the glass in question, drop a line to ryansholinyahoo.com or comment here to explain your own ROSS theory.
tags: post-structuralism, ross