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Object Lessons
Sock
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.
Who ponders the sock? This common object is something people tug on and take off daily with hardly a thought. Unraveling the garment's history, construction, and use, Kim Adrian's Sock reintroduces us to our own bodies- vulnerable, bipedal, and flawed.
Sock reminds us that extraordinary secrets live in mundane material realities, and shows how this floppy, often smelly, sometimes holey piece of clothing, whether machine-made or hand-knit, can also serve as an anatomy lesson, a physics primer, a love letter, a weapon, a fetish, and a fashion statement.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
Who ponders the sock? This common object is something people tug on and take off daily with hardly a thought. Unraveling the garment's history, construction, and use, Kim Adrian's Sock reintroduces us to our own bodies- vulnerable, bipedal, and flawed.
Sock reminds us that extraordinary secrets live in mundane material realities, and shows how this floppy, often smelly, sometimes holey piece of clothing, whether machine-made or hand-knit, can also serve as an anatomy lesson, a physics primer, a love letter, a weapon, a fetish, and a fashion statement.
Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryEssays
120 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 7, 2017
7 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 10, 2018
I received this delightful little book in a Secret Santa swap. It contains 3 chapters: socks and evolution, socks and desire, and socks and industry, plus a postscript on how to darn a sock.
The first chapter is the strongest. In a chatty way, it covers the archaeological and written record of socks, including many details about how each version of socks prior to knitted socks was problematic in some way. This section is peppered with fun anecdotes about the importance of socks, such as the death of sixteen-year-old Calvin Coolidge Jr., who died of an infected blister on his toe obtained while playing tennis without socks. Who knew?
The author lost her way a bit in the "desire" section, which touches on pedophilia (obvi) but also the depiction of socks and hosiery in various (extremely Western) artwork. She regains her footing (ha) in the final section about industry, which covers fast fashion, design, and socks in social media. I should have been using the #sockgame hashtag all this time! I love the anecdote about the design professor who teaches his undergraduates to darn their own socks and claims that the opposite of fashion isn't anti-fashion, but rather, freedom. Fashion and I don't have such a great relationship, so I will now start referring to my personal style as "free."
I know how to darn socks and the postscript about darning socks is solid. However, the sections about the author's experience learning to knit socks in a class were painful. I took issue with the lesson design and feel that much of Adrian's failure to embrace sock knitting can be placed squarely on that teacher. For an experienced sweater knitter (which Adrian is), socks just aren't that hard.
I look forward to exploring other titles in this series. Object Lessons ("a book series about the hidden lives of ordinary things") is published by Bloomsbury. There are 38 titles listed on the verso. I'm interested in many, including Hood, Shipping Container, Bookshelf, Toilet, and Whale Song. This is a fun resource for gift givers, too!
The first chapter is the strongest. In a chatty way, it covers the archaeological and written record of socks, including many details about how each version of socks prior to knitted socks was problematic in some way. This section is peppered with fun anecdotes about the importance of socks, such as the death of sixteen-year-old Calvin Coolidge Jr., who died of an infected blister on his toe obtained while playing tennis without socks. Who knew?
The author lost her way a bit in the "desire" section, which touches on pedophilia (obvi) but also the depiction of socks and hosiery in various (extremely Western) artwork. She regains her footing (ha) in the final section about industry, which covers fast fashion, design, and socks in social media. I should have been using the #sockgame hashtag all this time! I love the anecdote about the design professor who teaches his undergraduates to darn their own socks and claims that the opposite of fashion isn't anti-fashion, but rather, freedom. Fashion and I don't have such a great relationship, so I will now start referring to my personal style as "free."
I know how to darn socks and the postscript about darning socks is solid. However, the sections about the author's experience learning to knit socks in a class were painful. I took issue with the lesson design and feel that much of Adrian's failure to embrace sock knitting can be placed squarely on that teacher. For an experienced sweater knitter (which Adrian is), socks just aren't that hard.
I look forward to exploring other titles in this series. Object Lessons ("a book series about the hidden lives of ordinary things") is published by Bloomsbury. There are 38 titles listed on the verso. I'm interested in many, including Hood, Shipping Container, Bookshelf, Toilet, and Whale Song. This is a fun resource for gift givers, too!
April 24, 2018
I liked this book. I was overly enthusiastic while waiting for it to arrive, I adored the first part... And then the second part was ok, but not veeery sock-realted. And then the third part was kind of neat but full of knitting. Don't get me wrong, that is exactly how I got fascinated with socks to begin with, and I am a very obsessed knitter, but I was expecting more from the last part. Also: if I am reading about electromagnetic fields and toxins in the way it was presented towards the end of the book, I get pretty irritated. I am not a native English speaker so I might have misunderstood the writer's tone, and this was just in the last few pages, but some things there seemed pretty pseudoscientific.
To summarize: I enjoyed the majority of the book and I learned many new things. I would recommend it to friends, but it disappointed me a bit towards the end.
Oh! And it is not f#cking spelled "stockingnette". It is freaking "stockinette" damnit, that it is knitting 101!!!!!
To summarize: I enjoyed the majority of the book and I learned many new things. I would recommend it to friends, but it disappointed me a bit towards the end.
Oh! And it is not f#cking spelled "stockingnette". It is freaking "stockinette" damnit, that it is knitting 101!!!!!
September 23, 2022
phenomenal. Who knew something as mundane as socks would have me captivated, entranced, and wanting more. Lyrically written. I want my own copy
March 22, 2018
Sock, you might ask? What about socks? Kim Adrian will tell you. Now and then, admittedly, she detours from the history and milieu of all things sock, but her writing is so consistently entertaining, well formed, and outright sprightly, I didn't mind a whit.
And I learned about #sockgame and why middle-class men are getting into colorful, patterned socks. It's a thing. I can offer testimony.
Lots of fun altogether. The Bloomsbury Object Lessons books can get addictive.
And I learned about #sockgame and why middle-class men are getting into colorful, patterned socks. It's a thing. I can offer testimony.
Lots of fun altogether. The Bloomsbury Object Lessons books can get addictive.
December 10, 2018
What a fun delightful little read. Socks are used as a way to talk about so many more subjects. Fashion, family, fetishists, and global economics. The art history section was a drag. The author had so many great stand out lines. A true writer can make any subject a pleasure.
What I learned: knitters exhibit “a dangerous level of patience.” Otzi had hay socks. The corpse of hitler’s body double was not mistaken for the real corpse, because it had darned socks.
What I learned: knitters exhibit “a dangerous level of patience.” Otzi had hay socks. The corpse of hitler’s body double was not mistaken for the real corpse, because it had darned socks.
December 20, 2022
This is a part of a series on small topics. If you wear socks it is interesting. Lots of little facts you never knew. If you knit socks the author misses quite a bit. Here’s a factoid for you: did you know that one of the advantages of wool is that it still insulates even when wet? This is one reason why good hunting socks have at least some wool in them. Also wool will not burn unless in direct contact with a flame. There you go.
December 2, 2020
I loved the history and the personal reflections on socks, and the review of human biology and function related to bi-pedalism and the feet. And I enjoy Kim Adrian's writing.
Only three stars, though, because I did not enjoy the extended discussion of socks and sexuality in the artwork of Egon Schiele, whose artwork I find distasteful and ugly.
Only three stars, though, because I did not enjoy the extended discussion of socks and sexuality in the artwork of Egon Schiele, whose artwork I find distasteful and ugly.
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January 6, 2022My husband recommended this book, but I'm not sure what he found interesting. It was very scattered, and where there were a couple interesting ideas, she didn't go very deeply into them. I didn't like the casual writing style, and she includes a long thread from Reddit within the text which seems to just be taking up space.
June 7, 2020
A more traditional survey in the Object Lesson series that I really appreciated. Adrian steps through history and strange variations of the sock story with relevant tangents on anatomy of feet, fashion, and her own adventures in knitting. Bravo!
June 9, 2018
Quirky, friendly, smart. I learned a lot about socks and about the way this author's mind works. She's a super-good writer.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews