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Tuesday, August 7. 2012

How stories confer value upon material things

She begins her post with this: "'The universe is made of stories, not atoms', poet Muriel Rukeyser famously remarked."


It's true enough to be a truism. We live by stories, in stories, telling stories.


Furthermore, atoms are stories too.


A simple ring supposedly owned by Jane Austen recently sold at auction for $236,000. Its value without the story? Probably a couple of hundred bucks. It's just as easy to think of stories which detract from value, eg the value of Jeffrey Dahmer's house.


Is it possible to quantify the story value, the sentimental value, of things? Sometimes, yes: Significant Objects: How Stories Confer Value Upon the Vacant

Posted by Bird Dog in Our Essays, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 15:52 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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Yes, a story can add tangible cash value.

I once rented a house where the previous occupant had been murdered by his brother. These were the infamous pornographers, the Mitchell Brothers, owners of a strip club in San Francisco's Tenderloin district and producers of "Behind the Green Door." One of their most colorful actions prior was putting then-mayor Diane Feinstein's unlisted telephone number on their billboard..."For a good time, call 415-XXX-XXXX."

I rented the place out one weekend to the District Attorney so they could do a re-enactment for the jury. Latter, a sleazy TV show talked my teenage son into letting them film inside too - I collected a nice check for that too.


How many bed & breakfasts pay the mortgage by renting haunted rooms?
#1 Whitehall on 2012-08-07 16:37 (Reply)
How valuable? It's market price. Helps a lot if the story is true..., but only to those who care.
#2 Sam L. on 2012-08-07 17:41 (Reply)
Last time this came up, it was about some dead guy's piano. You can guess how interested I was.
#3 Sam L. on 2012-08-07 17:42 (Reply)
"Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws"

--Confucious
#4 buddy larsen on 2012-08-07 18:18 (Reply)
I always liked the pre-Internet fable of the ultimate computer which was programmed with all human knowledge and was then expected to be able to answer any question.

When it was asked, "When will a computer think like a human?", it worked steadily for a long time before coming up with the answer, which was, "That reminds me of a story...."
#5 Phil in Englewood on 2012-08-07 21:53 (Reply)
Amazing (and disheartening) what we assign value to.
#6 janet on 2012-09-07 13:51 (Reply)

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