Gift Guide Antidote: Ridiculous Objects

Dec 24, 2024

Hello, it’s been…forever! I’ve been ultra busy with grad school but am now on break~

In today’s letter, ridiculous and expensive things that nobody needs. Instead of scouring the internet for good, solid, grounded gifts as many have, I’ve scoured it for impractical, frivolous, nonsense items with very few realistic uses. To be clear, I am NOT recommending that you purchase any of these, except maybe the lighters—though if any of you happen to, you absolutely must let me know and possibly let me come over to see.

I’ve previously cited Gohar World as a source for this genre, from their baguette bags and crudite belts to their chandelier egg-holders and "chicken slippers.” Ostensibly practical objects that horseshoe back around to useless, or seemingly normal items with idiosyncracies and claims that render them unreachable. Objects that you’ve never heard of and can’t imagine needing (except, again, the lighters).

I do think there’s something to be said about the rise (at least, what I’ve perceived as the rise) of nonsensical, very expensive, specific items? Maybe it’s a reaction to the feeling that everything costs too much anyway. An extreme reflection of a reality in which a cup of coffee is ~6 bucks, even at a bodega (mine, at least. What gives?!).

So maybe everyone wants to fantasize about luxuriating in a house full of useless and whimsical pleasures, show-off-able as an encapsulation of a unique aesthetic sensibility. On the flip side, maybe the sickening idea of a $3200 ketchup sleeve gives people a bitter pleasure, a catharsis of some sort.

More to come re: pondering the above. For now, I delight in looking at these silly things and hope you will too, so here are some more.