VLVL2 (1) "More Is Less"

[jbor]

on 15/7/03 2:22 PM, Tim Strzechowski wrote:

> If you ask me (which, of course, you didn't), this is a classic example of a
> phrase containing multiple meanings, containing *all* of what you've said.
> The date in which the narrative is taking place cannot be ignored, for all
> the social and political issues it connotes, and the "DoubleSpeak" aspect
> structurally echoes the paradoxical slogans in Orwell.  At the same time,
> the pun of the women's store name, along with the Modernism allusion, all
> contribute to the deceptive complexity of the phrase.
> 
> And isn't that the nature of marketing slogans in a capitalist society
> anyways?
> 
> DoubleSpeak by its nature should make the citizen/consumer think the
> "obvious" while actually adhering to the hidden agenda of the market, no?

I acknowledge all these points, made quite a few of them myself in fact. It
just doesn't strike me as being a particularly potent critique of
capitalism, if that's the claim, nor a particularly coherent allusion to
Orwell's "Doublespeak" either, but it does read quite nicely as Pynchon
parodying the tendency for stores to adopt punning names. In this case the
pun derives from the reversal of Mies' maxim, and the fact that women get
"more" dress for "less" money.

I'm happy to agree to disagree, but that's the way I read it.

best