How men hide in plain sight
"If you ask men if they spend any time hiding, they usually look at you as if you're nuts. 'What, me hide?' But if you ask women whether men hide, they immediately know what you mean." (from jacket summary)
"As opposed to other furniture, like the bed or tables, the chair is peculiar in that there is really no need for it. You could just as well sit on the floor."
"Most chairs are about power. Chairs are about ordering, about rank, about who's where and who's nowhere. Don't believe it? Consider the chair at the head of the table, the electric chair, the departmental chair, the hot seat, the umpire's chair, the captain's chair, the pattern of chairs in parliaments, the different chairs in a Masonic lodge, the lifeguard's chair, the professorial chair, the chairmanship of a committee, and, well, Dad's chair in the living room."
"The first time most of us learn about the special relationship between a man and his chair is in our own living room with our own dad. When he comes into the room, you get out of his chair."
"And what of Patrick Stewart's self-conscious invocation of Shakespeare's kings every time every time he plops himself down into the captain's chair on Star Trek? Trekkies will tell you how they inhale each time he takes the throne of power."
"Perhaps the best picturing of the centripetal power of this chair is the French painter Ingres's Jupiter and Thetis (1811). We see the god of the ancients, Zeus (aka Jupiter) from below, seated on his throne high atop Mount Olympus. The Lord of the Heavens is resting his arm upon a cloud, looking very lordly and totally in power. All he needs is the remote-control clicker."
"So far, we have been able to avoid the last common use of throne, but no matter how comfy he is, sooner or later our Zeus will have to leave the recliner. How fittingly ironic that the other private perch in the modern household is called a throne."
from Where men hide, by James B. Twitchell.
"As opposed to other furniture, like the bed or tables, the chair is peculiar in that there is really no need for it. You could just as well sit on the floor."
"Most chairs are about power. Chairs are about ordering, about rank, about who's where and who's nowhere. Don't believe it? Consider the chair at the head of the table, the electric chair, the departmental chair, the hot seat, the umpire's chair, the captain's chair, the pattern of chairs in parliaments, the different chairs in a Masonic lodge, the lifeguard's chair, the professorial chair, the chairmanship of a committee, and, well, Dad's chair in the living room."
"The first time most of us learn about the special relationship between a man and his chair is in our own living room with our own dad. When he comes into the room, you get out of his chair."
"And what of Patrick Stewart's self-conscious invocation of Shakespeare's kings every time every time he plops himself down into the captain's chair on Star Trek? Trekkies will tell you how they inhale each time he takes the throne of power."
"Perhaps the best picturing of the centripetal power of this chair is the French painter Ingres's Jupiter and Thetis (1811). We see the god of the ancients, Zeus (aka Jupiter) from below, seated on his throne high atop Mount Olympus. The Lord of the Heavens is resting his arm upon a cloud, looking very lordly and totally in power. All he needs is the remote-control clicker."
"So far, we have been able to avoid the last common use of throne, but no matter how comfy he is, sooner or later our Zeus will have to leave the recliner. How fittingly ironic that the other private perch in the modern household is called a throne."
from Where men hide, by James B. Twitchell.