inherent vice metaphor, maybe

[John Bailey]

Compare: planned obsolescence, wherein consumer products are
deliberately manufactured with inherent vices. The infamous "Sony
clock" is used to describe the way that company's products tend to
break down within six month of warranty expiry. A friend of a friend
in Japan worked for the obsolescence department in one such company,
working out how to get the timing right.

On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Daniel Cape <daniel.cape at gmail.com> wrote:
> Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky talks about the related aesthetic of
> 'saba' (lit. 'rust'): “a natural rustiness, the charm of olden days,
> the stamp of time. [--or patina—A.T.] […] In a sense the Japanese
> could be said to be trying to master time aesthetically.”
> -- Sculpting in Time, p. 59.
>
> 2009/10/3 John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>
>>
>> Speaking of art, I was recently thinking about the Japanese aesthetic
>> concept of wabi-sabi which is another great way of thinking about
>> inherent vice (and I'm SURE Pynchon would have come across it).
>>
>> Hard to describe simply but it's to do with beauty's connection to
>> inherent imperfections in the object, and also its transience
>> (existence in time rather than outside of it).
>>
>> Pynchon certainly has a poet's eye when it comes to the impermanence
>> of all good things, I reckon. I think Japanese readers would really,
>> really get his work too. Have there been any translations?
>