S. Turkle, Evocative Objects

Zeroing in on evocative objects

Graham Harman

pp. 443-457

in: Human Studies 31 (4), 2008.

Abstract

Sherry Turkle’s collection Evocative Objects is a compulsively readable volume. In her own words, it “began with a seminar series at the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self and became a way to capture the intellectual enthusiasms of that enterprise” (p. viii). Each chapter focuses on one author’s fascination with a specific object or kind of object. The first five are an indicative sample: a cello, knots, archival documents of Le Corbusier, stars, and keyboards. Along with the unusual subject matter of the book comes an unusual style, for while the authors gathered here are mostly academics, they do not write in a typical academic manner. Instead, they reflect on childhood artifacts with starry eyes, and confess to traumas in family life with an often stunning intimacy. While it may seem remarkable that commerce with inanimate objects should provoke such a baring of souls, there is no denying the evidence: the reader somehow feels on closer terms with these authors after sharing a...