Writing a final, Amusing myself

[blacksquirrel]

In the movie You've Got Mail, protagonist Joe Fox makes the following observation while waiting in line at a coffee shop, "The whole purpose of places like Starbuck's is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall! Decaf! Cappuccino!" As Joe Fox steps out of the frame, the next customer in line, a short and timid-looking man, orders, "I want a tall, decaf cappuccino" (Lazlo, 1998). These meanings come with our tall decaf cappuccino whether we order them or not. Perhaps the customer enjoys the flavor of coffee but is concerned about the health factors involved in caffeine consumption and has no intention of adding any additional meaning to his beverage. Regardless, his presence in the quasi-public consumption-oriented space of the Starbucks coffee shop and his entrance into the public space of the street has meaning. The insignia on the coffee he carries is laden with messages created by Starbucks corporation in their advertisement campaign, by environmentalists in campaigns against excessive packaging, by fair trade activists who protest the conditions of coffee picking in third world countries, and a broader more intangible social meaning which associates Starbucks with our era, with that indefinable advertising gold that is hip. Buying only from co-ops doesn’t stop the process. Drinking coffee only in secret does not halt the process. Carrying a ceramic mug filled with tea leaves that one personally harvested while doing charity work in Nepal does not stop the process. Rather, these anti-Starbucks practices reinforce a discourse which makes mugs meaningful, and continues to politicize consumption habits as signifiers of personality and individuality. If sufficiently popular, Starbucks will no doubt follow the ever changing stream of cool signifiers and start selling ceramic mugs of their own. Thus the anti-mug mug, the outward signs of rebellion, are bought and sold.