Carpet — a meme that emerged in early 2007, presumably on photo hosting sites like Flickr, and apparently took shape on LiveJournal. It manifests as frenzied commenting about carpets. It critiques and exposes the flaws of amateur photography, such as: shabby interiors, harsh frontal flash, acne, tracksuits, and most importantly — the obsessive tendency to photograph against a Carpet hanging on the wall or lying on the floor. A true Carpet is considered only one with Oriental or pseudo-Oriental patterns (usually having nothing to do with the East, mass-produced in textile factories during the late Soviet era). The deer-patterned carpet is especially revered and can only hang on the wall; placing it on the floor is considered terrible sacrilege.
A Carpet hanging on the wall is considered a sign of low cultural sophistication and insufficient wealth of its owner. Typically, the wall Carpet is covered in dust and accompanies yellowed wallpaper, a 1992 GoldStar TV (remote control wrapped in cellophane included) and crooked Soviet furniture from the seventies — most popular are "wall units" with glass doors, filled with a mix of dishes, crystal, 7 elephants and ballerinas (can't do without them), books, toys (the most valuable ones still unopened and gazing at viewers from boxes with transparent walls), photographs, postcards, and various clutter.
In particularly wealthy families, Carpets cover all four walls, the floor, and also sofas and armchairs, making the apartment resemble a Mongolian nomad's dwelling, which is telling. Reliable people, whose word is solid, also claim that against the background of His Pileness, GoldStars, and other primary signs, sometimes Accordion-Style Central Heating Radiators, Painted Yellow (ASCHRPY) appear, though this aspect requires additional study.
Recently, many young photography geniuses have emerged who are unable to either grasp the essence of the "Carpet" meme or determine a tilted horizon. Yet they're bursting with a wave of sparkling humor and desire to criticize others' photos and thereby become famous. Moreover, these individuals won't have their own housing for a long time, so they have a vague idea about proper interior decoration.
"And there is indeed one new trade, a merry one — painting carpets. Someone brought stencils back from the war, and since then it's gone on and on, and more and more such craftsmen — painters are appearing [...] they rake in thousands, and they paint carpets everywhere: fifty rubles for a carpet on any old sheet they're given, whatever's not too precious — and painting that carpet supposedly takes just one hour, no more. [...] He asked his wife then to describe — how could he become a painter when he'd never known how to draw? And what were these wondrous carpets like, what was on them? His wife replied that only a fool couldn't paint them: lay down the stencil and brush through the holes. And there are three types of carpets: one carpet is 'Troika' — with a hussar officer being driven by a beautiful three-horse team, the second carpet is 'Deer', and the third is Persian-style. And there are no other designs, but people across the country are grateful even for these and snatch them up. Because a real carpet costs not fifty rubles, but thousands."
-- Solzhenitsyn, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"
The revival of the glorious Tatar tradition — hanging carpets on walls — coincided with the appearance of truly gothic constructions like Khrushchevka apartments. In fact, carpets were observed in Stalinist buildings long before the appearance of Khrushchev-era housing, but they indeed became widespread during the latter period. The internal walls of Khrushchevkas were fantastically thin, causing absolutely everything happening at the neighbors' to be audible in any given apartment. The simplest solution to the sound insulation problem was carpets, which were hung on walls, laid on floors, and at least partially muffled sounds from neighboring apartments.
The intelligentsia were the first to figure out these tricks — poor workers of research institutes, design bureaus, and other advanced institutions. The common folk caught up later, deciding that Carpet was a symbol of prosperity (since it was expensive and had to be "obtained"), and began putting them on armchairs, sofas, walls, but never placed Carpet on the floor, as it would inevitably be damaged by walking on it in dirty socks and plebeian boots, and no one intended to wash or vacuum it.
There exists and continuously grows a collection of photos of gothic girls against Carpet backgrounds. Mitzgol's carpet photography is also well-known.
Glamour kitten photos in domestic social networks consist of slightly more than half of photographs where they pose in underwear against a Carpet background. A significant percentage of office plankton also has carpets on their walls, as they inhabit cheap rental apartments where carpets were hung by grandmothers during Stalin's time. In such cases, Carpet might coexist with IKEA furniture and a plasma TV bought on credit.
In 1998, in the USA, "The Big Lebowski" was filmed, where one of the plot lines involves the protagonist recovering his Carpet, which "really tied the room together."
Contrary to popular belief, the fashion of being photographed against a Carpet background emerged long before the appearance of "Khrushchevkas" and panel buildings. The first surviving photo of this genre is a photograph of Finnish Marshal Mannerheim (kept in the Helsinki Photography Museum) against the background of His Pileness. The photograph was taken in winter 1918, shortly after the baron's resignation from the Russian army and return to Finland. Judging by the ornament, this carpet was brought by the baron from his expedition to East Turkestan — as a scientific trophy.
British "specialists" from the cult scientific organization "A Bit of Fry & Laurie" established in 1990 the beneficial effects of the subject on the brain of a future child at the pre-pregnancy stage. Thus, a certain genius medic owes everything to his ancestor, who began conceiving his children on a treasure received from his father.
Carpet (from English "cover") — a term denoting a cover version (distorted) of someone else's song. According to natives, the music video should have both a Cat and a Carpet.
Also, carpet from the same "cover" means a cover or any coating of something.
We all love to make fun of people who have carpets hanging on their walls here. As soon as we see a photo with a carpet — it begins...
Just twenty years ago, the average salary in the country was 120 rubles. A good wall carpet cost 1500r. ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED RUBLES. Just imagine a situation where you work your ass off for a YEAR to buy a CARPET. Not a penny aside. No food, no entertainment, nothing. ALL FOR A CARPET!!!! So they hang there. You don't throw away a year of your life in the garbage just because it's no longer fashionable.
xxx: Sitting in my room, freezing, minding my own business. Mom bursts in: "Daughter! Why did you put the heater on the carpet?? Can't you read?! It says right there not to put it on the carpet!" And points to the text "Do not cover" ))
It became quiet, only the moriskills chirped in their cages by the window. Lady Aramona secretly surveyed the room and barely concealed a smirk upon seeing the luxurious Morish carpet on the wall. In the ruler of Kenalloa's house, such carpets were used to cover floors. And rightly so! -- Vera Kamsha, "Face of Victory"
- I don't have a TV, I eat fly agaric and watch the carpet.
- Aesthetics. A good handmade carpet (preferably Persian) is a true work of art, capable of decorating a room no worse than some multi-million-ruble painting, though it will cost accordingly.
- Thermal insulation. A wall-sized carpet is the cheapest and most convenient insulation material. For the floor too. It's much nicer to walk on a warm carpet than on cold linoleum.
- Sound insulation. You're not going to cover a Khrushchevka's plywood wall with cork just to avoid hearing your neighbor's snoring.
- Coziness. A carpet, patterned curtains, and other colorful textiles in the house turn the space into a cozy Mongolian yurt living space.
- Well, can't throw it away!
- Training the piggish nature of dwelling inhabitants toward order. Firstly, a carpet, even on the wall, needs to be regularly vacuumed. And sometimes thoroughly cleaned (for example, calling a specially trained person with professional equipment). Secondly, a carpet on the floor imposes certain restrictions on a natural male human's tendency toward piggishness. Once you've fouled your carpet with vomit, shit, or something else pleasant, you've made yourself an awesome souvenir that will delight the eye for years, especially guests'.
- A classic of Soviet design and art, after all!
- Another good place where your cat can sleep (if the carpet is on the wall, it can climb on/under it).
- Possible to hang a dartboard and play peacefully!
- Aesthetics. The "churkestan" nonsense of "peppers," rhombuses, and other "Turkish cucumbers" offends many people's eyes (if they're not themselves churkas or gypsies). And in general — all these carpets, from an interior design perspective, are like a saddle on a cow. A carpet is retrograde and in some sense stupid: surely a hundred million lemmings can't be wrong?!
- Price. A good handmade carpet, matched to the room's design, costs a lot of money. Very much.
- A carpet means several holes in the wall. Sometimes about a dozen, if not more.
- Your cat will also hint that the carpet is fucking useless by unambiguously tearing it with claws, after preliminarily pissing on it. Though, they generally have the same feelings toward wallpaper.
- Bug haven — Dust collector. If you're not a Kirby owner and don't possess a miracle vacuum-almost-spaceship, this is your case, because the carpet collects dust, microscopic creatures, and other crap that causes allergies and other ailments.
- Moths. There's a very high probability that they live specifically in your carpet, slowly but surely eating it and defecating in it until it loses its marketable appearance.
- Loss of vertical space: you could have hung something more useful in the carpet's place.