[lit-ideas] Re: Soup Story
- From: Teemu Pyyluoma <teme17@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 04:04:57 -0700 (PDT)
--- Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> A.A. I heard on Car Talk that Saabs are very
> faithful, but most unreliable. They recommend
> shaggy old goats over Saabs.
>
But Saab is not a car, it's an ideology, that is
Saabism. Whether it breaks down all the time or not is
beside the point. Saabism is like Comte's secular
religion, set of as such abrurd beliefs adapted for a
rational end.
For example, my very own father torn between lutherian
modesty and scorn for display of worldly possesions on
the one hand, and a hefty car allowance on the other,
chose a Saab 900 with all possible extras. A cheap
looking car that costs a lot, a very Saabist thing to
do.
A Saabist firmly beliefs that his choice of car is a
rational decision. Sure, his car can't do an U-turn
(the legendary Saab 93 aka The Kayak), has lousy
performance/consumption ratio, requires elaborate
manouvering to start (shifting to reverse, holding
down brake, rotating the steering wheel, tapping the
clutch to beat of Waterloo, arcane chants, and so on
depending on the model) ...all of these are just minor
annoyances that smaller minds hang on to. Look, it's
ugly and expensive so it has to be practical.
And it's safe. And not just the design. Saab AB sends
letters to its customer regulary warning about dangers
of driving with underinflated tires, at dark, or in a
road. Saabs don't come with a manual, they come with a
content list of Pandora's box. And the lovely Swedish
engineers even look after your health; there is no
place for an ashtray.
And because it is so safe and so rational, a Saabist
can afford bit of recklessness and irrationality.
Enter Saab Sports Wagon. A half sport car, half wagon.
For the aging wannabe rally driver with a wife, three
kids and two dogs. Only Saab can transcend forms of
car design like that.
Saab is all those great books you like people to think
you have read but really haven't. It's a lavish
drunken dinner at a health spa. A respectable marriage
with a woman half your age. You see, Saabists have
resolved one of the great riddles of our times, how to
be bourgeois and human at the same time.
Cheers,
Teemu
Helsinki, Finland
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