I joined Facebook a year ago, but I’ve been a reactive user — accepting the occasional random friend request, and simply ignoring all the features I didn’t understand.
But now I’m getting serious. I launched a Facebook page for Mrs. Polonius, the persona I’m creating as part of a new project on Shakespearean housekeeping. There is no Mrs. Polonius in the Shakespeare canon. She’s simply an attitude, a bundle of strange tastes, weird hobbies, and not so random thoughts for the day. And Facebook is a persona-developing machine, a database with attitude. “Ambient intimacy,” says my Facebook Friend Anna Kornbluh.
I had been building Mrs. P locally — collecting possible portraits, china patterns, and closet skeletons. Why not do some of this gathering on line?
If you’re a Facebook regular with an interest in the history of housekeeping, please befriend her! Mrs. P. gets real mean when she’s lonely.
— Julia Lupton · 2008-11-15
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THE BOOK