Fake Fake Things? Coffee Cup a Concession to Ugly Post-Modern World

This article was originally published by Technorati on 11 February 2010. To see all my Technorati articles, click Lifestyle in the Contents listing on the sidebar.

Are you kidding me? Has the world fallen in on itself? Something's gone haywire here.

The Daily Grommet has come up with a to go cup . . . that isn't. Called the I'm Not a Paper Cup and produced by Decor Craft, the ladies in a video posted to Shine on Yahoo! are fawning over this double-insulated porcelain replica of something you throw away as if it's just darling.

What's next, real linen napkins that have the look and feel of paper?

Or better yet, "This metal spork looks like something you'd get at KFC with you cole slaw, doesn't it? But it isn't, it's high tensile strength, grade A titanium."

The paper cups from which we're forced by necessity to drink our coffee are a concession to an ugly post-modern world. The next step is to turn around and call this ugliness beautiful.

We've already taken this step in so many ways. If you actually listen to the music we enjoy, most of the sounds are modern and ugly. Compare an electric guitar to a violin. One is metal and grating, the other smooth and mellifluous. Maybe it's a tribute to genius that today's musicians are able to fashion likable tunes using these tools.

If you compare the art of two hundred years ago to most of what's manufactured today, it's much more pleasant to behold. Much more time and effort went into the crafting of it. Slowly and intractably we've eliminated the necessity for beauty in paintings. Again, perhaps it's a tribute to modern artists that some of them find ways to keep us interested. Or maybe it's just a tribute to their salesmanship.

We see it in architecture more acutely. No one would get away with building a St. Peter's Basilica today, not even the Catholic Church, because we have eliminated the necessity for beauty in our buildings. And our landscapes suffer wherever modern humanity clutters the horizon.

Now we have people selling us Starbuck's to-go cups and calling them precious keepsakes.

I guess I just thought our earthenware was safe; that people would always find beauty in a warm, sturdy, inviting coffee mug.

I guess I was wrong.