Comments on: Carpet Is a Class Issue

By: LHOOQ

LHOOQ — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:58:42 +0000

@WaityKatie I know, but it’s more ‘aren’t I cute’ than self-deprecating. I get that it’s satire, but she’s using a veneer of self-mockery to reinforce her position that she feels no need for personal growth on this issue. Maybe everyone doesn’t need to be oozing self-loathing all the time. Fine. I’ll return to my corner of puritanical self-flagellation now.

By: ThatJenn

ThatJenn — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:46:32 +0000

American cheese and/or Wonder bread.
Pants that are short enough to show socks.
Kitschy signs/figurines in bathrooms.
Big signs with neighborhood names on them (that are not related to some natural or historical feature of the area).
Gold hoop earrings.

By: Beck

Beck — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:16:58 +0000

@Norrey Agreed. As someone trying to raise money to redo the floors in a house (old, but not so old that the shitty carpet is covering – surprise! – fabulous hard wood), I have come to realize that carpets are for the masses. Unless they (the carpets that is) are made of wool from New Zealand. Where does bamboo fit into all of this? ‘Cause that’s where I’m leaning…

By: WaityKatie

WaityKatie — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:12:15 +0000

@jenfizz Somebody hurry up and tell all those young poor people in NYC that they’re a cliche! Lots of people live in NYC, and write about it, and everyone is free not to read about them if they want. Or write about young people living in Montreal, or old people living in Cleveland, or whatever you want, really!

By: smack

smack — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:50:31 +0000

@melis SO TRUE WINGS 4EVA

By: WaityKatie

WaityKatie — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 16:35:27 +0000

@LHOOQ It’s pretty clearly self-satirizing. She’s using carpet as a metaphor for her own class-climbing anxieties.

By: LHOOQ

LHOOQ — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:47:54 +0000

Carpet is a class issue, and snobbery is a moral issue.

I prefer hardwood floors to carpet, too, but I can’t get over how many people are giving this pean to snobbery a pass. It’s one thing to acknowledge one’s privilege and another thing entirely to rhapsodize unabashedly about one’s own shallowness.

Also, bonus points for the exquisitely condescending use of the word postiche, I guess? Don’t hear that one every day. Unless you’re in the John Birch Society. (Points rescinded if a typo for pastiche.)

By: WaityKatie

WaityKatie — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 15:10:11 +0000

I just…loved this book so much when it came out, I foisted it on everyone I know, and loved this essay in particular. It really nicely articulated all the weird, irrational feelings I have had about carpet. Which sounds pretty insane to even write, because, what’s so bad about carpet, right?

By: Sallymander

Sallymander — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 15:47:57 +0000

@jenfizz Arguably, kids and suburbs are more interesting depending on the family!

By: sintaxis

sintaxis — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 23:13:13 +0000

@jenfizz seconded!