The One-Eyed Man Is King: How did the monocle become a symbol of wealth? (2012) | Hacker News Reader

The One-Eyed Man Is King: How did the monocle become a symbol of wealth? (2012)

slate.com

24 pointsBluestein23 comments

I started wearing a monocle about 5 years ago and it's and absolutely fantastic addition to my glasses.

For about 20 years I've needed glasses for reading and close work, anything more that about five ft. away is clear and in focus.

At my desk or reading I've no problems with glasses, but when I go out to museums or restaurants for example I like to travel light and glasses are a faff having to carry them and continually taking them on and off. I've tried bifocals and didn't like them.

I now take my prescription monocle with me every time I go out. It's so easy, pop it in, read the menu, drop it out.

What I hadn't appreciated was how clever the brain was at processing the images. With it in place my left eye sees distance clearly and my right eye can read close up, my brain merges the two images so I still get depth but also everything is in focus. It's strange, but works.

I've had a few comments about it, generally surprised to see one in use or curiosity, and they have always been positive.

I got mine from https://www.monoclemadness.co.uk/ where they start from £35. If they'd work for you I really suggest giving it a go.

It is a very sort of portable optimum. Why carry two lenses when one will do?

>my brain merges the two images so I still get depth but also everything is in focus.

This might beat bifocals.

This is exactly how they do some bifocals, particularly contact lenses. It's also very relevant to surgical procedures like Lasik.

https://www.aao.org/eye-health/treatments/what-is-monovision...

That looks exactly like what's happening, even down to "In fact, with both eyes open, they may not be able to tell which eye is set for distance and which is set for near."

Quick edit to add I didn't expect that to happen as was pleasantly surprised when I noticed it. For me it happens immediately and automatically, it just works.

Suppose that's excellent news if you're ever interested in surgical correction!

Sadly, our most famous monocle wearer in modern times died 12 years ago.

A gentleman very much missed by techies and non-techies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Moore

A friend and I wrote to him with a question when we were about 10 and got a lovely personal letter back explaining why stars flicker & pulse.

Lovely man.

I had to look him up on DDG Images, and it's disconcerting having a guy in a top hat and monocle juxtaposed with someone else with that name who looks like a live-action He-Man action figure. Pretty much aesthetic and cultural opposites...

I've got to figure out how to pull off wearing a top hat!

(2012)

> Currently, a monocle in “whisky tortoise” can be had from the eye-dresser Warby Parker for $50.

No longer being sold; details from when it was and an image: https://www.inc.com/neil-blumenthal/why-we-sell-a-monocle.ht...

When I was 12, I got contacts for the first time. Well, technically, contact. I was only nearsighted in my right eye, so they only gave me one for my right eye.

My mother, absolutely serious, asked why I had been wearing a full set of glasses if I was only nearsighted in one eye. (In her very slight defense, my dad had been the only one to deal with my eye doctor for me to this point.)

I thought she was kidding and replied like a smartass, "Mom, monocles haven't been in fashion in a century!" Turns out she really hadn't known only one of my glasses lenses had a prescription.

But who are we kidding? I absolutely would have worn one if I'd had the option!

Personally, I agree about how "having to shape a lens in an erstwhile expensive process to fit to a particular eye socket shape" would render monocles expensive to produce, ergo, associated with wealth, might have something to do with it.-

PS. That, and the "New Yorker", of course:

- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41409311

Price: €200

Product description: The monocle is the ultimate expression of style and intelligence. With this adorning your face, you declare by your very being that you are above others intellectually, fashionably and morally. Laser cuts are barbaric and now everyone on the street wears glasses. However, you are unique and irreplaceable, so let it show!

This was more difficult than I thought. The lens is from old optician's set.

https://github.com/timonoko/monocle

This is so necessary. I have lost my spectacles at freak wave on Arctic Ocean. It quite difficult to land half-blind and look for the spare set.

I can't hear the word monocle without thinking about either Mr Peanut or cartoony Marxist propaganda about "capitalists".

If it wasn't such an affectation I'd wear one just so that I could have it pop out at a moments of surprise in business meetings.

"Found a bug in some of the core business logic, you say?!" o_O

(I used to carry an old-fashioned wooden pipe for that, and would pull it out while leaning back quizzically. I don't smoke).-

Don't forget to walk off in a huff supported by your silver duck beak topped cane, before getting on your penny-farthing to ride off. No need for half measures, surely?

Bonus points for quitting on the spot the exact moment your man comes round with the brougham.

You had me at "brougham". Well played :)

This is a well-known trope: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HighClassGlass

That’s the worst use of an allusion that I’ve seen in a while.

Probably because it was sold by a guy in a designer turtleneck.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com