John Freyer's "All my Life for Sale"
If you are wondering, I’ve waited to post these reading responses because I was interested to see if there was some sort of connection between these works and Lost Horizon.
In John Freyer’s “All my Life for Sale”, the reader is introduced to a man who has an evolving motivation. That is, initially John had a pile of things that he had collected and simply wanted to get rid of them. After posting these items on eBay, John became interested in the circumstances surrounding each item. The reader is guided through the evolution of this motivation and the evolution of this project of selling everything he owned.
Freyer’s work reflects the importance of items in our day to day lifestyle. More importantly, “All My Life for Sale” illustrates how our things essentially define us as a person. For example, Freyer stopped eating toast after selling his toaster and after reflecting upon his history with the toaster. His “consumer profile” had changed, and Bill (the new owner of the toaster) now had begun a new history with this item. These items that were sold have a historical, emotional significance with the owner. Each buyer that wrote back to John illustrated the importance of the item and how their lives were changed because of it.
”All My Life for Sale” illustrates how our items are generally taken for granted. We generally don’t think about the historical significance of an item or where we bought or received that item from unless we encounter it. These items we own are essentially a concrete guide to our past, and remind us about that specific experience. The most abundant memories are those which have the most emotional attachment to them. That is, you probably remember your graduation, and you probably smile when you think of that memory. Your emotion of that memory resurfaces once you think of it. Yet, with items, emotions are not strong enough to have a similar, vivid recollection of things, and can only be recalled once that item is encountered. So much of a person’s history can be remembered through the items we have.
In terms of Lost Horizon, John Freyer and Conway are similar. That is, Conway is willing to adapt to life and be open-minded to something new. Similarly, Freyer was able to evolve his motivation and begin a project based on his new motivation. The two are strikingly similar.
”All My Life for Sale” also demonstrates the randomness of life, similar to Lost Horizon. When the four characters in the novel are somewhere completely remote of civilization, the remoteness of the area is a theme, or perhaps motif, that is embedded in the reader. The work by Freyer similarly illustrates the surprises of life. Specifically, the surprise of undergoing such a project, or the surprise of selling an item to a random individual who thought of the item differently, or the surprise and randomness of stopping at a garage sale and buying an item that would later be part of such a project.
In John Freyer’s “All my Life for Sale”, the reader is introduced to a man who has an evolving motivation. That is, initially John had a pile of things that he had collected and simply wanted to get rid of them. After posting these items on eBay, John became interested in the circumstances surrounding each item. The reader is guided through the evolution of this motivation and the evolution of this project of selling everything he owned.
Freyer’s work reflects the importance of items in our day to day lifestyle. More importantly, “All My Life for Sale” illustrates how our things essentially define us as a person. For example, Freyer stopped eating toast after selling his toaster and after reflecting upon his history with the toaster. His “consumer profile” had changed, and Bill (the new owner of the toaster) now had begun a new history with this item. These items that were sold have a historical, emotional significance with the owner. Each buyer that wrote back to John illustrated the importance of the item and how their lives were changed because of it.
”All My Life for Sale” illustrates how our items are generally taken for granted. We generally don’t think about the historical significance of an item or where we bought or received that item from unless we encounter it. These items we own are essentially a concrete guide to our past, and remind us about that specific experience. The most abundant memories are those which have the most emotional attachment to them. That is, you probably remember your graduation, and you probably smile when you think of that memory. Your emotion of that memory resurfaces once you think of it. Yet, with items, emotions are not strong enough to have a similar, vivid recollection of things, and can only be recalled once that item is encountered. So much of a person’s history can be remembered through the items we have.
In terms of Lost Horizon, John Freyer and Conway are similar. That is, Conway is willing to adapt to life and be open-minded to something new. Similarly, Freyer was able to evolve his motivation and begin a project based on his new motivation. The two are strikingly similar.
”All My Life for Sale” also demonstrates the randomness of life, similar to Lost Horizon. When the four characters in the novel are somewhere completely remote of civilization, the remoteness of the area is a theme, or perhaps motif, that is embedded in the reader. The work by Freyer similarly illustrates the surprises of life. Specifically, the surprise of undergoing such a project, or the surprise of selling an item to a random individual who thought of the item differently, or the surprise and randomness of stopping at a garage sale and buying an item that would later be part of such a project.
posted by Moneer | 5:40 PM
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