Are you in the market for a new sofa? My sympathies. Sofa shopping is stressful. Not only is it a high-ticket item, but you’re going to be sitting on it — and looking at it — every single day. For years.
I have a confession to make. I own an IKEA sofa.
We now join U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry lying on the couch in his therapist’s office:
Furniture, vital in everyday life, hardly ever plays a large role in art. Henry James\’ \”The Spoils of Poynton\” comes to mind, in which the characters\’ inner lives are manifested in their dreadful fight over inherited furnishings, as do stories by Anzia Yezierska, in which the meager possessions of immigrant Jews on the Lower East Side come to symbolize both their survival and their salvation. But for the most part, as in much of our lives, tables, chairs, sofas, bureaus, cabinets and the like are taken for granted in art, imbued with little meaning.
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