why I do the things I do [myspace]
Motivation for action is an interesting thing. There are plenty of different motivators – I’ve always thought that the survival instict is the base of everything else. Some of us are lucky enough not to need to worry about basic survival needs – food and shelter, then reproduction and community. The possibility that I might not be able to eat tomorrow, or I might not have a safe place to sleep tonight has never crossed my mind. It’s not even on my radar. So when survival isn’t really much of a factor, why do I want to do all this other stuff?
I’ve got urges that I don’t really have a name for – but there are some words that come close:
- aesthetic
- whimsy
- sentiment
- feng-shui
- atmosphere
… irony in particular appeals to me in a tought-to-describe manner.
Here’s why I’m thinking about all this. I reorganized my clothes today, and now I’ve got one drawer for socks – and what goes in a sock drawer? Well, socks, sure, but also porn! And I realized I didn’t have any actual physical porn.
Now, I like porn, I’ve got tons of it, but the digital format works great for me – in fact, I really don’t even think that porn magazines and DVDs are even neccesary any more. And yet – as soon as it occured to me, I really wanted to get an actual porno magazine for my sock drawer.
So it’s the irony of me having porn in my sock drawer, right where it’s supposed to go, that prompted that. The sort of aesthetic picture of me moving my socks aside and finding those glossy pages underneath. I don’t know, it’s weird, but it’s appealing.
Then there was the dilemna of what magazine to get – I gave the Taboo on 82nd’s selection a once over, and picked out one published by ‘Bel Ami’. It was a tough choice – ‘Penthouse’ or even a not-so-racey ‘Victoria’s Secret’ would have actually fit in better, that or ‘Playboy’, but in the end it seemed like fitting the stereotype by putting a porn magazine in my sock drawer but then breaking it by making it gay porn was so much better.
So with that as an example, there’s actually a lot of that kind of reasoning that dictates my actions. Obviously, it’s not always practical. But in most cases, my choice in most things is guided by comfort, utility, and irony, possibly in that order.
… this whole thing might’ve actually just been an effort to make a post more interesting then, “I got porn for my sock drawer!”, ha ha. Well. That’s all I’ve got on this subject.
edit: oh man, this just occured to me, I rack up further irony points due to the fact that you don’t just put porn in your sock drawer, you hide it there – which means I’m telling people that I’m hiding it, therefore making it not at all hidden! Ohhhh man this is so perfect.