Evocative Objects: Things We Think With (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Evocative Objects is a collection of great richness and complexity. Reading these essays transforms one's sense of the most commonplace objects, and prompts us to explore the palimpsest of the past within us."
—Jill Ker Conway, President Emerita, Smith College, author of The Road from Coorain

"Original, absorbing, and beautifully written, this collection of essays will forever change the way you look at the objects in your life."
—Helen Epstein, author of Children of the Holocaust and Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for her Mother's History

Product Description

For Sherry Turkle, "We think with the objects we love; we love the objects we think with." In Evocative Objects, Turkle collects writings by scientists, humanists, artists, and designers that trace the power of everyday things. These essays reveal objects as emotional and intellectual companions that anchor memory, sustain relationships, and provoke new ideas.

This volume's special contribution is its focus on everyday riches: the simplest of objects—an apple, a datebook, a laptop computer—are shown to bring philosophy down to earth. The poet contends, "No ideas but in things." The notion of evocative objects goes further: objects carry both ideas and passions. In our relations to things, thought and feeling are inseparable.

Whether it's a student's beloved 1964 Ford Falcon (left behind for a station wagon and motherhood), or a cello that inspires a meditation on fatherhood, the intimate objects in this collection are used to reflect on larger themes—the role of objects in design and play, discipline and desire, history and exchange, mourning and memory, transition and passage, meditation and new vision.

In the interest of enriching these connections, Turkle pairs each autobiographical essay with a text from philosophy, history, literature, or theory, creating juxtapositions at once playful and profound. So we have Howard Gardner's keyboards and Lev Vygotsky's hobbyhorses; William Mitchell's Melbourne train and Roland Barthes' pleasures of text; Joseph Cevetello's glucometer and Donna Haraway's cyborgs. Each essay is framed by images that are themselves evocative. Essays by Turkle begin and end the collection, inviting us to look more closely at the everyday objects of our lives, the familiar objects that drive our routines, hold our affections, and open out our world in unexpected ways.

Essays by: Julian Beinart, Matthew Belmonte, Joseph Cevetello, Robert P. Crease, Olivia Dasté, Glorianna Davenport, Judith Donath, Michael M. J. Fischer, Howard Gardner, Tracy Gleason, Nathan Greenslit, Stefan Helmreich, Michelle Hlubinka, Henry Jenkins, Caroline A. Jones, Evelyn Fox Keller, Tod Machover, Susannah Mandel, David Mann, Irene Castle McLaughlin, Eden Medina, Jeffrey Mifflin, William J. Mitchell, David Mitten, Annalee Newitz, Trevor Pinch, Susan Pollak, Mitchel Resnick, Nancy Rosenblum, Susan Spilecki, Carol Strohecker, Susan Rubin Suleiman, Sherry Turkle, Gail Wight, Susan Yee

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (August 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262201682
• ISBN-13: 978-0262201681
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #31,013 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Evocative Objects" -- insightful and absorbing, October 10, 2007

By	Alice K. (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This book is a gem. In this collection of essays, the authors reflect on how a seemingly simple object - a rolling pin, a train, a pair of ballet slippers - can serve as an emotional marker and play a powerful role in understanding relationships, life transitions and loss. I'll recommend this book to my book group because it should prompt a lively discussion about the evocative objects of the members.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Evocative Objects" --elegant and evocative, October 8, 2007

By	shrink reader (Brookline, MA USA) - See all my reviews

THis is a lovely book, a treat for the imagination. Sherry Turkle has arranged these short essays with photographs and artfully chosen bits of literature, psychology, or cultural theory for accompaniment. Her own essays are erudite, clear, and beautifully written. REading this will prompt enjoyable meditations on your own evocative objects.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars thought-provoking and easy to read, December 11, 2007

By	A. Philley (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book because it seemed to get to ideas I've been using in my latest painting project. Turkle gives a very nice and brief introduction to how she became interested in objects as a path to philosophy and ways of thinking about the world. The vignettes are rather random and I think quite beautiful. This is not a book that will have a great final point. It meanders and allows you to make associations and hopefully draw some conclusions about your own life and the objects in it. I also like that the book itself is a wonderful object. About the size of a hymnal or some other type of book meant to be held and easy to carry around. A very nice book as a gift for someone who has too many things!