Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenHero 
Monocle is to post-hipster douchebags as dollhouses are to 8 year old girls. It's little more than a vain platform for 26-35 year old pseudo-commies in Band of Outsider shirts to delicately contrive their ideal society after a hard day of graduate school or graphic design. The entire mission of the magazine is to cultivate self-satisfaction so all the pretty readers can vicariously live through its vacuous plasticity under the pretense of authenticity. Within every dedicated Monocle reader is a flickering flame of hope that one day, in a More Just World, every neighborhood has its own family-owned charcuterie that stocks first edition Philip Roth novels and chrome grooming accessories.
Monocle is to post-hipster douchebags as dollhouses are to 8 year old girls. It's little more than a vain platform for 26-35 year old pseudo-commies in Band of Outsider shirts to delicately contrive their ideal society after a hard day of graduate school or graphic design. The entire mission of the magazine is to cultivate self-satisfaction so all the pretty readers can vicariously live through its vacuous plasticity under the pretense of authenticity. Within every dedicated Monocle reader is a flickering flame of hope that one day, in a More Just World, every neighborhood has its own family-owned charcuterie that stocks first edition Philip Roth novels and chrome grooming accessories.
Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenHero
It's not like those other magazines. It's uniquely shitty in its own special way. Here's every issue:
Design: Young design collective X rethinks everyday product Y, with a focus on sustainability.
Urbanism: City in Northern European country X rethinks how to spend tax money on Y for the enjoyment of magazine editors in country Z.
Transport: Fledgling entrepreneur X rethinks distribution of Y on scale Z, by "taking lessons from China" and "harnessing social media".
Travel: 80 page insert about country X, featuring the latest trends in regional bar food, avant garde cocktails, and urban bike paths.
Current Affairs: Delusional idiot writes op-ed about issue related to "emerging markets" and its effect on X industry. Remedy: A) Public investment B) Winning the future C) Bicycles
It's not like those other magazines. It's uniquely shitty in its own special way. Here's every issue:
Design: Young design collective X rethinks everyday product Y, with a focus on sustainability.
Urbanism: City in Northern European country X rethinks how to spend tax money on Y for the enjoyment of magazine editors in country Z.
Transport: Fledgling entrepreneur X rethinks distribution of Y on scale Z, by "taking lessons from China" and "harnessing social media".
Travel: 80 page insert about country X, featuring the latest trends in regional bar food, avant garde cocktails, and urban bike paths.
Current Affairs: Delusional idiot writes op-ed about issue related to "emerging markets" and its effect on X industry. Remedy: A) Public investment B) Winning the future C) Bicycles
Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenHero
Here's their description of their latest issue : "Issue 50 indexes the businesses, brands and nations that have the charm factor." That's it. Charm factor.
They're basically doing missionary work on behalf of urban-bourgeoisie asceticism, except they're less like the Cistercians, and more like tyrannical Visigoths in Fred Perry cardigans. They should just fuck off.
Here's their description of their latest issue : "Issue 50 indexes the businesses, brands and nations that have the charm factor." That's it. Charm factor.
They're basically doing missionary work on behalf of urban-bourgeoisie asceticism, except they're less like the Cistercians, and more like tyrannical Visigoths in Fred Perry cardigans. They should just fuck off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by StephenHero
It's not necessarily deplorable, but there is an overarching tone of worldy-derived righteousness that is antithetical to what the magazine really is, which is an insular lifestyle magazine that offers shallow mental and visual fodder to a very narrow segment of society and its equally homogenous worldview, which is upper-middle class progressives who can't comprehend why K-Marts or minivans exist. They cherry-pick esoteric topics from weird places that might seem to be novel sources of wisdom or cultural sensibilities at first glance, but in reality, everything is half-baked, meaningless, or delusional and heavily relies on its spiffy graphics to pass as high-brow, sophisticated material. It does do a good job of making its readers feel sophisticated and "global" so it's admirable or successful from that standpoint, but that's about it.
It's not necessarily deplorable, but there is an overarching tone of worldy-derived righteousness that is antithetical to what the magazine really is, which is an insular lifestyle magazine that offers shallow mental and visual fodder to a very narrow segment of society and its equally homogenous worldview, which is upper-middle class progressives who can't comprehend why K-Marts or minivans exist. They cherry-pick esoteric topics from weird places that might seem to be novel sources of wisdom or cultural sensibilities at first glance, but in reality, everything is half-baked, meaningless, or delusional and heavily relies on its spiffy graphics to pass as high-brow, sophisticated material. It does do a good job of making its readers feel sophisticated and "global" so it's admirable or successful from that standpoint, but that's about it.
I love you, man
