[Laura Shore] Our friend Debbie Millman had me at “bad, bad, bad.” Check out Millman’s story of a globe paperweight, the mysterious Susan and the really cool thought experiment Significant Objects … in which you can participate by searching for other significant objects on ebay.
On her blog, Millman explains that the Significant Objects experiment works like this: Invite a writer to invent a story about an object. Invested with new significance by this fiction, the object should — based on the organizers’ hypothesis — acquire not merely subjective but objective value. The object is sold on ebay to test the hypothesis. Millman’s own fiction about a globe paperweight is a wryly written, thought-provoking example of how the process works.
The paperweight in Millman’s story sold for $197.50 (no word on how “Susan” reacted to the letter). Proceeds from Significant Objects benefit 826 National, a nonprofit tutoring, writing and publishing organization with locations in eight cities across the country.
