So I have an essay due very, very soon that’s supposed to detail what on earth I’ve been doing for the past half year of my Honours degree, which hasn’t really felt all that much, actually… However, I’ve noticed during this time that whenever I do engage in some discourse regarding kitsch in a public domain, it evokes such passionate responses from  people – sometimes bemusedly with a hint of derision, or simply with nostalgic affection and warmth as one recalls a different time and place. It got me thinking, we need even more discussion on this very topic; having read many texts already on the subject, I still struggle to define this concept that is kitsch. Is it just a mass-produced object, a failed commodity, some worthless trinket you find in a carboot sale? A pretentious social construct that just brushes sentimentality aside, scorning an object simply because it “looks bad” or in bad taste? Or is it a kind of sensibility/mentality in the way of neo-baroque, or put more crudely, perhaps, an aesthetic/style in itself?

I ask these two questions (that kind of branch out into other modes of thought…):

• What is kitsch to you? Don’t tell me what you think it should be, but how you feel about it. And why do you feel that way (why do you love it, or hate it, or are you simply ambivalent and try to ignore it altogether)?
• Are you a collector? (And no, sexual partners do not count, okay) What do you collect, and what got you into collecting?  What makes you a collector, not just a passer-by with a fleeting interest in a certain object? How and where do you arrange your collection/s? (Photos would be a BONUS! ) Do you find that your collecting impedes on other aspects of your life?

Please note, I may or may not be referencing your responses in my essay, (and I may yet contact you further for more details), and my future exegesis to be published at the end of this year, so if you are not comfortable with my using your name, or responses, please don’t feel pressured into partaking in this questionnaire. General comments are always welcome.

However, if you just don’t feel like having your response published on this blog, please feel free to email me at jen@eveninghour.org with your answers!

All I ask is that you leave your name (preferably your real one) and email address. Feel free to answer one section or the other, or both!

Thank you!