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This puts a name to something I've found very strange the few times I've visited America. Places like the "stroad" picture are everywhere and they have a strang

This puts a name to something I've found very strange the few times I've visited America. Places like the "stroad" picture are everywhere and they have a strangely desolate feel to them. It's not an environment I would want to live and work in. I have to take issue with this, though: > We like to call them "the futon of transportation" because, just as a futon is neither a particularly good bed nor a particularly good couch, a stroad is neither a particularly good road or a particularly good street. Futons (good ones, at least) are fantastic beds. I've been sleeping on them for over 20 years entirely by choice, having plenty of space and money for the alternatives. How anybody came to consider them a form of couch is the mysterious bit to me.

mcv 5y ago
I'm not a futon fan, but I did recognise this attack on futons as misguided. The article has a very important point, but addresses it poorly in my opinion. Partially because of this sort of unfair attack on something unrelated.
masklinn 5y ago
> How anybody came to consider them a form of couch is the mysterious bit to me. Apparently someone saw a futon and figured “we could use [cotton-filled and somewhat foldable mattresses] instead of rigid split mattresses for sofabeds” and so “futon” became a style of sofabed (obviously shitty since it’s a sofabed).
fragmede 5y ago
Hm? Futons fold up into a softish furniture for sitting on. How is that not a couch?
- boudin 5y ago
  Futon, originally, designate the japanese bed, not the weird couch bed hybrid the author is talking about. It's not meant to be used as a couch but, often, to be folded so that it can be stored while the bedroom can be used for other purposes
- masklinn 5y ago
  Mostly in that it’s not what a futon actually is, in its country of origin. In japan, a futon is not a sofabed, it solely bedding and during the day it gets stowed into a closet (or a corner of the room). It’s not seating and it doesn’t have a frame. Those are western “additions”. But not improvements, because futons were never intended for slatted frames (or even hard surfaces). Because of this incompatibility and the desire to make them permanent the “futon-style mattresses” thus have to become much thicker and heavier, thereby losing the flexibility and stowability of the original, and just becoming bad mattresses (la requirement for sofabeds, really). In essence, “futons are shit” is one more example of taking something which is perfectly fine, moving it completely out of its context, misusing it entirely, and then calling it bad after making it so. And the badness gets attributed to futons where it’s been a universal constant of sofabeds. Futon-style mattresses have not made sofabeds worse, they’ve always been shit[1] they’ve just tarnished the name of futons. [1] Which in fairness is not normally an issue, their purpose is to be an ok-at-best couch with some ad-hoc bedding so guests don’t sleep on the floor.

mcv 5y ago

I'm not a futon fan, but I did recognise this attack on futons as misguided. The article has a very important point, but addresses it poorly in my opinion. Partially because of this sort of unfair attack on something unrelated.

masklinn 5y ago

> How anybody came to consider them a form of couch is the mysterious bit to me. Apparently someone saw a futon and figured “we could use [cotton-filled and somewhat foldable mattresses] instead of rigid split mattresses for sofabeds” and so “futon” became a style of sofabed (obviously shitty since it’s a sofabed).

fragmede 5y ago

Hm? Futons fold up into a softish furniture for sitting on. How is that not a couch?

boudin 5y ago
Futon, originally, designate the japanese bed, not the weird couch bed hybrid the author is talking about. It's not meant to be used as a couch but, often, to be folded so that it can be stored while the bedroom can be used for other purposes
masklinn 5y ago
Mostly in that it’s not what a futon actually is, in its country of origin. In japan, a futon is not a sofabed, it solely bedding and during the day it gets stowed into a closet (or a corner of the room). It’s not seating and it doesn’t have a frame. Those are western “additions”. But not improvements, because futons were never intended for slatted frames (or even hard surfaces). Because of this incompatibility and the desire to make them permanent the “futon-style mattresses” thus have to become much thicker and heavier, thereby losing the flexibility and stowability of the original, and just becoming bad mattresses (la requirement for sofabeds, really). In essence, “futons are shit” is one more example of taking something which is perfectly fine, moving it completely out of its context, misusing it entirely, and then calling it bad after making it so. And the badness gets attributed to futons where it’s been a universal constant of sofabeds. Futon-style mattresses have not made sofabeds worse, they’ve always been shit[1] they’ve just tarnished the name of futons. [1] Which in fairness is not normally an issue, their purpose is to be an ok-at-best couch with some ad-hoc bedding so guests don’t sleep on the floor.