Questions of Consumption: What Ordinary Gardeners Do With Garden ‘Lifestyle’ Media - A Taste for Gardening: Classed and Gendered Practices - page 175

consumerism, which Campbell dates from the eighteenth century English consumer
revolution, is characterised by, 'an outgrowth of modern, autonomous, imaginative
hedonism … the widespread adoption of the covert habit of daydreaming' (Campbell
1995, 88-89). Modern hedonism, for Campbell, is distinguished by the distinctive
faculty of being able to generate illusions and fantasies which are 'known to be false
but felt to be true' (Campbell 1995, 78). In this way, fantasising and day-dreaming
become so pleasurable that it is wanting, as opposed to having, which becomes the
key element in the pursuit of pleasure. Indeed, consummating the desire to have
things by actual acts of consumption can be relatively 'disillusioning' for people.
Campbell goes on:
Individuals do not so much seek satisfaction from products, as pleasure from the self-
illusory experiences which they construct from their associated meanings. The essential
activity of consumption is thus not the actual selection, purchase or use of products, but
the imaginative pleasure to which the actual product lends itself, 'real' consumption being
largely a resultant of this 'mentalistic hedonism' (Campbell 1995, 89).
The credence of Campbell's concept of 'modern, autonomous, imaginative
hedonism' is directly relevant to the responses some of my ordinary gardeners
had to the actual consumption of garden lifestyle ideas. Kate and Geoff testified to
their dream of a Mediterranean garden, but I know through my continued contact
with this community of gardeners that their plans remain plans. Stimulated by the
Mediterranean 'looks' they have gleaned from viewing the garden makeover genre
and from their holidays in Greece, they continue to defer the gratification of fantasy
rather than to actually execute the work. Similarly, Anne and Phoebe were full of
new ideas to transform their back garden using the inspiration of garden designers
such as Diarmund Gavin, but they have never moved beyond excited sketches and
animated talk. Acts of mixing cement or laying bricks are not yet in evidence.
Integral to Campbell's argument about the nature of modern consumption
is the idea that a whole swathe of cultural artefacts which represent goods, for
example, calendars, posters, works of art - and texts which advertise goods in the
media and communications industries - work to facilitate imaginative hedonism.
Indeed 'window-shopping' which is performed without purchasing goods, is
itself a pleasurable experience. In this way, Campbell provides a useful way of
conceptualising why my respondents used lifestyle ideas to dream and fantasise
about how their gardens might have been, without ever feeling the need to actually
purchase or actively garden. Pleasure, he argues, 'comes from the imaginative use of
the objects seen; that is from mentally 'trying on' the clothes examined, or 'seeing'
the furniture arranged within one's room' (Campbell 1995, 92). Lifestyle interpreters
captured the imagination of some ordinary gardeners, but rather than inciting people
to manufacture garden lifestyles, they often provided material for garden day-dreams.
Wanting, longing, fantasising and day-dreaming were more desirous activities than
the messy, flawed, imperfect realities of actually executing the plans.