Glitter - Paperback

by Nicole Seymour (Author), Christopher Schaberg (Editor), Ian Bogost (Editor)

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

Glitter reveals the complexity of an object often dismissed as frivolous. Nicole Seymour describes how glitter's consumption and status have shifted across centuries-from ancient cosmetic to queer activist tool, environmental pollutant to biodegradable accessory-along with its composition, which has variously included insects, glass, rocks, salt, sugar, plastic, and cellulose. Through a variety of examples, from glitterbombing to glitter beer, Seymour shows how this substance reflects the entanglements of consumerism, emotion, environmentalism, and gender/sexual identity.

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

Author Biography

Nicole Seymour is Associate Professor of English at California State University, Fullerton, USA. She is the author of three books, including Strange Natures: Futurity, Empathy, and the Queer Ecological Imagination (2013; Winner, 2015 Book Award for Ecocriticism from the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment) and Bad Environmentalism: Irony and Irreverence in the Ecological Age (2019, Finalist, Book Award for Ecocriticism from the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment; "Best Nature Writing of 2018" list in the Chicago Review of Books).