The Comfort of Things

by Miller, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780745644042
• ISBN10: 074564404X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-07-07
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

The diversity of contemporary London is extraordinary, and begs to be better understood. Never before have so many people from such diverse backgrounds been free to mix and not to mix in close proximity to each other. But increasingly people's lives take place behind the closed doors of private houses. How can we gain an insight into what those lives are like today? Not television characters, not celebrities, but real people. How could one ever come to know perfect strangers? Danny Miller attempts to achieve this goal in this brilliant expos? of a street in modern London. He leads us behind closed doors to thirty people who live there, showing their intimate lives, their aspirations and frustrations, their tragedies and accomplishments. He places the focus upon the things that really matter to the people he meets, which quite often turn out to be material things, the house, the dog, the music, the Christmas decorations. He creates a gallery of portraits, some comic, some tragic, some cubist, some impressionist, some bleak and some exuberant. We find that a random street in modern London contains the most extraordinary stories. Mass murderers and saints, the most charmed Christmas since Fanny and Alexander and the story of how a CD collection helped someone overcome heroin. Through this sensitive reading of the ordinary lives of ordinary people, Miller uncovers the orders and forms through which people make sense of their lives today. He shows just how much is to be gained when we stop lamenting what we think we used to be, and instead concentrate on what we are becoming now. He reveals above all the sadness of lives and the comfort of things.

Author Biography

Daniel Miller is Professor of Material Culture at University College London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Prologue	p. 1
Empty	p. 8
Full	p. 18
A Porous Vessel	p. 32
Starry Green Plastic Ducks	p. 46
Learning Love	p. 57
The Aboriginal Laptop	p. 67
Home and Homeland	p. 73
Tattoo	p. 83
Haunted	p. 90
Talk to the Dog	p. 100
Tales from the Publicans	p. 108
Making a Living	p. 117
McDonald's Truly Happy Meals	p. 125
The Exhibitionist	p. 133
Re-Birth	p. 143
Strength of Character	p. 153
Heroin	p. 162
Shi	p. 171
Brazil 2 England 2	p. 179
A Thousand Places to See before You Die	p. 186
Rosebud	p. 193
The Orientalist	p. 201
Sepia	p. 207
An Unscripted Life	p. 217
Oh Sod It!	p. 227
José and José's Wife	p. 234
Wrestling	p. 241
The Carpenter	p. 252
Things That Bright Up the Place	p. 260
Home Truths	p. 274
Epilogue If This Is Modern Life - Then What Is That?	p. 282
Appendix The Study	p. 298
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