Style book information

Author: (USA) paul fussell Translators: Liang Lizhen, Tao Le, Shi Tao: 978-7-5100-3951-5/C.184 Page: 320.

Format: 787× 1092mm132 Print:10 Insert: 4

Words: 200,000 editions: 20 1 1 year 1 month 1 edition.

Number of prints: 20 111kloc-0/0/0/month1print price:? Yuan dynasty (1206- 1368)

Publisher: What is the ranking of Houlang Publishing Consulting (Beijing) Co., Ltd., a world book publishing company? Why did John F. Kennedy say to his friend when he saw Richard Nixon on TV, "This guy has no standard at all"?

Rank is an undeniable reality that is deliberately ignored, which is not only reflected in appearance, clothing, occupation, housing, table manners, leisure style and conversation, but also in how much money you have or how much money you can earn. Grade is a combination of a series of subtle things, which is hard to say clearly, but it is these subtle characteristics that establish your position in this world. Wealth is not the only criterion for judging grades. Style, taste and cognitive level are equally important.

Through a unique perspective, keen observation, incisive analysis and humorous writing, the author vividly depicts the phenomenon of social class in American society, and makes a nuanced comparison of the tastes of people like 369, which makes people laugh and inspire. Many descriptions of American society in the book reflect all kinds of people in China at present, so this book can also be used as a mirror to observe China society. 1. Sensitive topics 1

In the United States, people are taboo to talk about social class, but their sensitivity just shows the harsh fact that social class exists.

2. Anatomical grade 17

How many social classes are there in the American melting pot? Common sense holds that there are only two kinds: the rich and the poor, or the ruling class and the ruled class. With the general improvement of living standards, this simple division is obviously no longer applicable.

Invisible top layer 27

Upper layer 30

Middle-upper layer 33

Grade chart 38

Middle class 44

Upper difference 5 1

The middle class poor 57

Poor people under 60 years old

Extreme poverty 6 1

Invisible bottom layer 6 1

3. Judge a book by its cover

Appearance, height, fatness and clothes are all characteristics of people's social class. For example, smiling, poor women laugh more frequently and have wider mouths than upper-middle-class women.

Appearance 64

Smile 64

Height 65

Weight 65

Clothing 69

Color 70

Texture 70

Readability 72

Chun 74

Suit number 76

Presidential dress 79

Politicians wear 8 1.

Low-taste sign 84

Shirt collar 85

Ornament 86

Raincoat 87

Pants 87

Tie 88

Hat 92

High taste: ancient worship 95

4. House 103

Be careful of your house, it will make your social class clear at a glance. The driveway, the lawn, the shape of the house, the things in the yard, the writing of the house number … all these can show your social class.

104 lane

Fence 105

House number 105

Garage 106

Lawn 106

Livestock 108

Courtyard equipped with 108

Huacao 109

Whose house is 1 10?

Outdoor furniture +0 15

Automobile 1 15

Interior furnishings and decoration 1 19

Upper living room 120

Middle and upper living room 12 1

Middle class living room 123

Living room for the poor 124

Television 125

Tv program 127

Kitchen and bathroom 130

Pets 132

5. Consumption, leisure and decoration 135

Consumption choice, leisure style and interior decoration are also traps of social status. What kind of drinks you like to drink, what TV programs you watch, or what magazines you watch at all … will definitely reveal your social level.

Drinking 136

Dining 14 1

Food 143

Candy 146

Shopping places 146

Summer restaurant 147

Tv food advertisement 149

Super Bowl Party 150

Spend the weekend 15 1

Travel 153

Sports 155

Mail order goods 163

[Collection] 169

Readability decoration 170

Catalogue of all kinds of goods 17 1

Personalized ornaments 176

6. Spiritual life +08 1

The author is talking about American universities, because universities are in charge of people's spiritual life. In addition, reading is also closely related to people's taste and taste.

University 182

Reading 202

Bible 209

Concept 2 10

7. "I can understand you with my mouth open" 2 15

How a person speaks and what he says will, of course, show rank and taste without exception. In addition, whether you have confidence in your social status also determines a person's speaking habits.

8. Rise and fall: the trend of poverty 247

People's social status is not static, but rises and falls. From the perspective of the whole society, the world is becoming poor or popular, and this trend is irreversible.

Climb 248

Water tank 250

Poverty trends 252

9. Denunciation from Convention No.263

So, what about people with knowledge and creativity? What should they do if they don't want to drift with the tide in the cracks of social hierarchy? Fortunately, a new group was born: the otherness. Alternative is the last way out for creative and freedom-loving people.

10. Exercise questions, living room score sheet and reader's question and answer 279

Appendix:

Chinese preface 1: taste-the last way out of social class 293

Chinese version 2 preface: ranking, style, new social topic 30 1

The first sensitive topic after publication

Although the vast majority of Americans feel that they really live in an extremely complicated social hierarchy, they even suspect that concerns about social status affect people's behavior. However, the topic of social class is still ambiguous and suspicious, and it is often too sensitive. Today, even a slight mention of the topic of social class will make others furious. This situation is like a century ago, gentlemen were sitting in a social salon drinking tea. Once someone talked about sex too openly, the seats suddenly became silent.

Someone asked me what I was writing, and I replied, "A book about American social classes." At this time, people always tie their ties tightly first, and then secretly glance at the cuffs to see the degree of wear there. After a few minutes, they will quietly stand up and walk away. This is not only because they suspect that I am a spy of a social class, but also as I said just now, "I am writing a book to encourage people to beat young whales with the carcasses of young seals until they die." I experienced a terrible truth that I have seen several times since R.H. Toni [1] wrote this book automatically. In his book Equality (193 1), he wrote: "The word' rank' will cause all kinds of unpleasant associations. Therefore, as long as you stay on this topic for a while, it will be understood as a symptom of psychopathy, jealousy and prejudice. "

Especially in the United States, the concept of hierarchy is quite embarrassing. It is true that the sociologist Paul Blumberg simply called social class "an idea banned in America" in his book "Inequality in the Decline Age" (1980). Usually, even when this topic is touched, people will start to get restless. When two interviewers asked a woman if she thought there were different social classes in this country, she replied, "That's the dirtiest thing I've ever heard!" " "When another person was asked the same question, he became very angry." Social class should be completely eliminated! ""this sentence blurted out.

In fact, in the face of this problem, people will only expose their sensitivity to the social hierarchy: the more annoyed and angry, the more real and harsh the hierarchy is. If someone easily becomes very anxious, this tendency implies that you are middle class and you are very worried that you will fall one or two grades; On the other hand, the upper class is keen to talk about this topic, because the more they pay attention to this matter, the better their position becomes; Poor people usually don't mind discussing this topic, because they know it is difficult for them to change their social status. Therefore, for them, the whole hierarchy problem is almost a joke-the empty nobility of the upper class is just a kind of stupidity and arrogance, while the anxiety and affectation of the middle class are boring.

In fact, the middle class is highly sensitive to social class, and sometimes even scared to death by this question. Russell Ringnes, a representative of the middle class, left his mark in a library book, The Creator of Fashion (1954). There is a section in this book that talks about the unreliable decorative tastes of the middle class in a condescending manner, and then cynically compares them with the more advanced and refined artistic behaviors of other classes. Next to this passage, angry readers approved in capital letters: "Shit!" In my experience, this man must be a hopeless middle-class man (maybe a lady? )。

Just as anger over hierarchy exposes class identity, the way you explain this thing that makes you angry will have the same effect People at the bottom are willing to believe that rank is based on how much wealth a person has; People living in the middle class admit that money is related to grade differences, but the education a person receives is as important as the type of work he is engaged in; People close to the upper class think that taste, values, lifestyle and behavior are indispensable criteria for judging rank identity, but they don't consider money, occupation or education.

Stutz Turkel [3] once interviewed a woman to write Teacher Street: America (1967). She not only showed panic and anxiety about the question of rank, but also instinctively regarded occupation as the main criterion of rank, which clearly showed her middle class status. "People from almost all classes live in this street," she said, "but I shouldn't mention the word class," she went on, "because we don't live in a country with different classes." Then, professional standards came. "But in this street, there are janitors, doctors, businessmen and accountants." For sociologists, it is common for respondents to repeatedly state that there is no social class difference in the area where they live. Leonard Reisman, author of Class in American Life (1959), wrote: "Almost without exception, the first sentence recorded by investigators is always:' There is no class difference in our city'. Once this sentence is blurted out, it also tells the level difference in this area, because it is followed by amazing good citizens of the same community who agree with each other. " The novelist John O'Hara spared no effort to explore this extremely sensitive topic, and his sensitivity to this issue is simply amazing. As a child, he began to observe a small town in Pennsylvania where he was born and raised. "Older people don't treat others equally."

The class differences in the United States are so complicated and subtle that foreign tourists often ignore those subtle differences and sometimes even don't realize the existence of the class system. As Francis Trollope described when he traveled to the United States in 1932, "the myth of equality is really powerful." The government is quite embarrassed in the face of this problem-government agencies have issued hundreds of grading standards, but the government does not recognize the existence of social classes-so foreign tourists will accidentally ignore the operation of this national grading system. The experience of English novelist and literary critic Walter Allen is a good example. Before teaching in an American university in the 1950s, he imagined: "There are almost no classes in the United States, and even if there are, it may only be to make some distinctions between different races or immigrants." However, after living in Great Falls, Michigan for a while, he finally came to his senses. There, he saw the snob of New England and the local people's long-term obedience to the moral and cultural authority dominated by the ancient family.

Some Americans viewed with great satisfaction the failure of the TV series Beacon Hill in the 1970s, which was a work about the upper class and adapted from the British drama Upper, underlower. The audience firmly believes that this work will end in tragic failure, because there is no hierarchy in the United States, that is, no one can be interested in such works of art, but they are wrong. The reason why Beacon Hill failed to attract American audiences is that it focuses on the kind of people who are least interested in the local people-the quasi-aristocratic upper class. If the story takes place at a conflict point that everyone will pay attention to, such as the conflict between the upper class and the middle class, resist the latter's attempt to climb up; Or if the middle class unites against the lower class, the dramatic performance will be much better.

If foreigners often take American government's propaganda on social equality seriously, American citizens are happy to know the truth, even if they are a little uneasy when talking about this issue. A keen southern black man asserted one of his ambitious friends: "Joey can't be compared with those big shots." This makes us feel that this is indeed the case. As a carpenter said, "I hate to say that life is hierarchical, but people are more comfortable with people with similar backgrounds."

His method of distinguishing grades by "similar background" is almost the same as any other method that tries to distinguish one grade from another, although it is not completely scientific. Whether you are talking about the Rams and the 49ers with another person, or talking about recreational vehicles, big houses (that is, Christchurch in Oxford University), the Italian restaurant "Mama Leone's", the big market committee of the new york Stock Exchange, vineyards or porcelain, if you feel it is unnecessary to elaborate on your words, or you have no intention to explain what you mean at all, you.

In this book, my theory will mainly focus on visible and audible symbols in the social hierarchy, but I will mainly focus on symbols that reflect a person's behavior choices, which means that I will not consider racial factors, even religious or political factors (unless occasionally mentioned). Racial differences are obvious, but you can't choose for yourself. Religious and political views are usually chosen by people, and their performance is generally not exposed except for the occasional shrine in the front yard or the small sticker on the bumper of the car. When facing a person, you usually can't tell whether he is a "Roman Catholic" or a "liberal". You may only see a hand-painted tie or a crappy polyester shirt, and hear things like "limiting factors" or "as for …".

……

In "The Life of the Big Rubbish" (1970), the humorous writer Roger Price even understood grade jealousy as revenge for egalitarianism. He distinguished egalitarianism from democracy in this way: "Democracy requires all citizens to be born equal, while egalitarianism insists that all citizens should die and be equal." L.P. Hartley [7] once satirized a future society somewhat similar to ours today in his novel "Appearance Justice" (1960). People there hold a "prejudice against beautiful appearance", and the government plastic surgeons have corrected everyone's appearance inequality. Here, the scalpel is not used to make people beautiful-it is used to make everyone plain.

Although we are willing to accept the equality and openness of politics and law, as far as personal cognition and understanding are concerned-most of them are rarely revealed-we will classify things vertically and adhere to the differences in values. No matter how we say "equality", I think everyone is gradually realizing what Oscar Wilde once said: "Human equality and fraternity are not just a poet's dream, it is a very frustrating and deeply humiliating reality." It seems that what we need in our hearts is difference, not getting together. Differences and separation interest us, while integration bores us.

……

William Barrett, a former socialist and editor of Party Review, reviewed the social changes in the past two decades and concluded: "The' classless society' seems more and more like a utopian illusion. Socialist countries have developed their own hierarchy. " Although the hierarchy there is mainly based on bureaucracy and flattery, "since there will be a hierarchy anyway, why don't we let it exist in a more organic, heterogeneous and diverse' western inherent form'?" So, since there is a hierarchy in our society, why don't we learn as much as possible? This topic may be too sensitive, but it doesn't have to be ambiguous forever.

……

[1] R.H. Tony (1880— 1962) is a famous British economist, historian, social critic and educator. -Editor's note

[2] Russell lines (1910-1991) is an American art historian, photographer, writer and editorial director of Harper magazine. -Editor's note

[3] Student Tucker (19 12—2008) is an American writer, historian, actor and broadcaster. -Editor's note

[4] Leonard Reisman (1921-1975) is an American urban sociologist who studies class and inequality. -Editor's note

[5] Francis Trollope (1779-1863), English novelist. -Editor's note

[6] The American football team was named after the person who won the gold medal in California in 1849. -translator's note

[7] L.P. Hartley (1895-1972), a British writer. -Editor's note

[8] Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), English playwright, poet and essayist. -Editor's Note ● The Chinese versions of American bestsellers 1998 and 2002 were all the rage, which triggered a cultural event of "taste dispute" in China and led the publishing trend of "taste" and "style" books.

Serious sociological works, but from the most daily and interesting point of view, a very interesting and easy-to-understand book can give people great inspiration and is worth reading again. There are readers posting new book reviews on Amazon and Douban, and there are many new and old readers and potential readers.

● The third edition of Chinese corrected some translation errors, unified the translation method of context, and added footnotes to some people and things, which made it easier for readers to understand the author's original intention.