Glass

Object Lessons

by John Garrison, John S. Garrison

Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.

Pause and look you will see that you are surrounded by glass. It reflects and refracts light through your windows; it encircles a glowing filament above you; it's in a mirror hanging on the wall; it lies shattered in a dented corner of an iPhone-you're drinking water out of a pint glass. Taking up a most common object, rarely considered because assumed to be transparent, John Garrison draws evocative connections between historical depictions of glass and emerging visions that see it as holding a unique promise for new forms of interaction. Grounded in everyday examples, this book offers a series of surprising insights into how we increasingly find ourselves living in a world made of glass.

Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.

Genres: Nonfiction

136 pages, Paperback

First published August 27, 2015

About the author

Alternate name of https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[D. E. Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garrison's short book--really an essay divided into sections--has been on my reading list for about a year. I finally got to it this summer and am so glad I did. In the best sense, it reminds me of the old literary essays by Eliot, Trilling, Heilbrun, and others that were meant both for scholars and for a general readership. It's beautifully written and illuminating. There are historical and cultural-literary aspects of the subject--glass as mirror, as barrier, as window--that I knew a bit about before, but here they are also tied to the long technological development of glass and its uses. The book also looks forward as well as back: In fact, just as I was finishing this excellent read, NPR did a piece on Corning and its new campaign, which suggests that, in light of fiber optics and interactive screens, we are just entering the Age of Glass. Read Garrison's book to see what that might mean.

[Nefeli · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Farah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t think of many scholars who can move from Biblical texts, early modern literature, technological advances, cultural criticism, and pop culture with the acute insight and deftness that John Garrison carries this immensely engaging and provocative book. Highly recommend!

[Philip Krejcarek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Garrison creates a blending of historic and contemporary themes in GLASS. For example, he compares Roland Barthes’ photograph of his mother as a young girl with Shakespeare’s Sonnet 3, which states, “You are thy mother’s glass and she is thee.”
This book includes such contemporary subjects as Corning’s “A Day Made of Glass,” which imagines the future of interactive glass; Google Glass, which was tested by celebrities and everyday people alike; and Microsoft’s HoloLens, which applied holograms to the real world. He also looks to science fiction films that utilized glass in various forms. These include, “Strange Days,” “Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol” and “Minority Report.”
This book is rich in its research of glass. Garrison makes this everyday object provocative and wonderfully interesting. His writing is scholarly, while at the same time accessible and fun.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather maddeningly scattershot, both in terms of content and quality of analysis. Some of it is very interesting, including historical usage of glass as a literary metaphor, but other sections feel more like an undergrad English essay stretching logical connections to the breaking point. The organization also feels somewhat incomprehensible at times, jumping between Biblical studies, film criticism, deep dives into specific Star Trek episodes (which probably get more play than the Bible), and a host of other oddball topics. I don't regret reading it, but given how all-over-the-place it is, I don't have much of a basis for recommending it, either.

[James Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grabbed this book on a whim when I wanted something new to read while traveling and this did not disappoint. Not exactly what I was expecting but a very fun and thought provoking read. Essentially a meditation on the role of glass in art, culture, and society with a lot of interesting insights. Also the perfect travel read in a lot of ways. I was able to read it in its entirety during a long day of plane travel. I would also probably pick up more books in this series.