The Language of Things: Understanding the World of Desirable Objects

By Deyan Sudjic

Book Overview

In ?The Language of Things , ?the director of London's Design Museum charts our relationship with all things designed. With scintillating wit and an eye for the pleasures and dangers of rampant consumerism, Deyan Sudjic takes us from luxury car commercials to glossy advertisements for seasonal variations of the Prada purse to the hype surrounding the latest version of the iPhone, exploring how we are manipulated and seduced by our possessions. Who would've thought that it's the subtle visual similarity between the Volkswagen Golf GTI and the barrel of an automatic pistol that makes people want to get behind the wheel? And why is it that digital cameras in cell phones "click" even though they don't have a shutter? Sudjic's illuminating argument will resound with anyone who has ever been affected by how things look--lured, in other words, by the powerful siren call of design.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393070816
• ISBN13: 9780393070811
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Deyan Sudjic starts his book oblivious to the real world.

I searched this book for some sort of social value or usefulness. Unfortunately, except for a few buzzwords and concepts that are secondary to what he's trying to say, there is nothing of any meaning in this book. The author Deyan Sudjic starts his dissertation with a complaint; he bought an Apple Computer because it was cute and fruity. Later he finds that the cute and fruity is not functional. So, he buys an Apple because it's black and flat. Later he finds that the black and flat does not mean it's functional. Throughout the book, he cites other people who buy things because they're fruity or black and flat. He makes the point that people are duped into things because they are fruity or black and flat, such as money, cars, lamps, clothing, and whatnot that are usable. He suggests that people collect things because they are either kitsch, have nostalgic value, or have some other elusive quality that is irrelevant to the function. He wraps up the book written in late 2008 with "What depression?" Everything seems as though it costs just the same, everybody still buys just the same stuff, and who would ever dream of a car company shutting down for 30 days over Christmas? This goes to show that he is still living in a fruity, flat black world. We learn nothing of any value from this book. Even his speculation that the red around the radiator of a black car is based on the red dot on a Walther PPK is stretching it a bit.