Were the Hindu job applicants really in danger of having their heads sawn off by their collars?

Question

Early on in Diamond Age: A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, the following passage is used to describe a group of people who have come to apply for jobs at Machine-Phase Systems Limited:

Hackworth excused himself through a milling group of uncertain Hindus. Their hard shoes were treacherous on the cobblestones, their chins were in the air so that their high white collars would not saw their heads off.

I don't understand the comment about the high white collars. Is the danger of the collars potentially sawing their heads off literal, or figurative? Is the high white collar something based off of real cultural fashion elements? Is it supposed to indicate some fictional device described later in Diamond Age, or elsewhere in Stephenson's works?

Answer 1

The reference to a collar sawing a person's head off is just exaggeration for humourous effect. Machine-Phase Systems is a neo-Victorian company, and Stephenson is describing how uncomfortable the neo-Victorian clothes are.

I think the description of the high white collar is probably historically accurate. If you look here, you can see that the collar on the shirt of a Victorian-style shirt comes up quite high. Collars were starched, and might even be made of paper and cloth laminated together, so you can imagine that they were rigid and would have had a sharp edge.

Answer 2

Not having read the book, my guess would be it's simply a reference to their collars being stiff and starched, as one might expect job applicants to be dressed their very best to impress their potential employers (i.e. "hard shoes were treacherous on the cobblestones" referring to how dress shoes often have a smooth slippery sole). A starched collar can be uncomfortable and dig ("saw") into one's neck, thus the reason they kept their chins high.

Answer 3

It's a basic literary device: a little evocative hyperbole intended to draw both visual and tactile imagining from the reader.

The neo-Victorians indulge (if that is the word) in a lot of constrained dress (and other throwbacks to more puritanical times) as part of their commitment to stiff self- and social-discipline. Witness — later in the book — the gravity of the faux pas in pressing one's attention on a lady who has already asked to be left alone; the constraints placed on news choices at the highest level of their society; the formality of calling customs; and on and on.