Giles Slade Is a Writer

As I read further into the book Made to Break by Giles Slade, the writing took a surprising turn. Up till the third chapter, the book sounded more or less like a history book that is seemingly objective. However, I literally laughed out loud when I got to the detailed imagery in chapter 4 of beautiful dark haired Marion Armstrong's "broad-brimmed hat twisting and flapping in the wind"(pg 105). I understand that this is Slade's attempt to give the innovators he mentions life and character but...really? For a few paragraphs it sounded like Slade's writing is an excerpt from some romance novel. The love stories,  and social scandals mentioned  by Slade definitely made this part of the reading somewhat comical and refreshing.

On a more serious note, chapters 4,5 and 6 of Made to Break posed some interesting information on why Americans fell into the hole of obsolescence. The creation of things like small radios, synthetic fibers, and of course cars are discussed by Slade as tools of obsolescence in America. What I understand from the reading is that manufacturers and innovators took advantage of quick and cheap mechanical assembly of products to lower the durability of products and also the price of the product. These low prices then tempt consumers who eventually find the product disposable when it breaks and therefore do not hesitate to replace it with a product of equal durability and cost. Judging from this shallow overview of the situation, it would seem that Americans are not the smartest of consumers but are they to blame? E. S. Stafford suggests that consumers are subject to "forced feeding" (pg 165) by American Companies. What Stafford means by this is that with the attractive, hip and cool advertisement and packaging of products, consumers are almost  brainwashed into buying these products. The example of "Madison Avenue...marketing new goods, new fads, new symbolic gestures of defiance"(pg 179) is given. Phychological obsolescence is the factor of all these things.

This mention of the introduction of new goods reminds me of Computers by  Eric G. Swedin and David L. Ferro. Computers displays the ongoing innovation in computer technology and how the invention of one thing replaces the invention of an older model. When I first read Computers, my reaction to this was positive and only thought it to be progressive. With this new view on obsolescence, the wastage of materials, energy comes to mind. However, I have concluded that if the product contributes to the advancement of society, the obsolescence of another product that is older and less efficient can be spared.