The depth of shallow culture : the high art of shoes, movies, novels, monsters, and toys / Albert J. Bergesen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bergesen, Albert.

Series:

Studies in comparative social science

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Popular culture.

Material culture.

Civilization, Modern--21st century.

Civilization, Modern.

Physical Description:

vii, 133 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boulder, Colo. : Paradigm Publishers, [2006]

Summary:

Come take a closer look at ordinary footwear, like sneakers, or children??'s toys and Saturday cartoon TV shows, or make a comparison between Don Quixote and John Rambo of the Sylvester Stallone movie. Although some regard popular culture as??shallow,?? this book reveals that it is more often complex, deep, meaningful???and subject to the style changes we associate with high art. Bergesen shows how complex philosophical ideas of reincarnation are embedded in Transformer toys; how sneakers have gone through a life cycle of style types; why the decline of empires like Spain and the United States led to fictional characters like Don Quixote and Rambo; and why monsters from Japan look different than those from the United States.

Contents:

Introduction : the depth of shallow culture

The baroque sneaker : how the history of the tennis shoe recapitulates Giorgio Vasari's Life cycle of art styles

Rambo and Don Quixote : cultural icons of national decline

A sociology of monsters : making mythical creatures in the United States and Japan

A sociology of toys : how Transformers and Spiderman embody the philosophies of East and West

Bringing the art object back in : toward a new realism in the sociology of culture.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 119-122) and index.

ISBN:

1594512736

OCLC:

67383617

Publisher Number:

9781594512735