This text takes the reader through a range of thought styles from the vulgar to the refined, and leads them to an understanding of the rules of thought styles. This book shows how thought styles work and how outsiders can learn the styles of insiders. It should make the reader: think in new ways about the mechanisms of communication in everyday life; rethink their ideas about choice and personal independence; and consider how adopting a given thought style carries with it deeper social alignments.

Table of Contents

Introduction The Uses of Vulgarity A French Reading of Little Red Riding Hood The Choice between Gross and Spiritual Some Medical Preferences Bad Taste in Furnishing On Not Being Seen Dead Shopping as Protest The Consumer's Revolt Anomalous Animals and Animal Metaphors Classified as Edible Prospects for Asceticism The Cosmic Joke