DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Depth of Shallow Culture

The High Art of Shoes, Movies, Novels, Monsters, and Toys

Albert J Bergesen author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Inc

Published:15th Aug '06

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This hardback is available in another edition too:

Depth of Shallow Culture cover

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.

“Professor Bergesen is as capable as any of us in the profession in running a regression equation. However, his genius, as manifested in this illuminating book, lies in seeing patterns, connections, linkages, and stories that often tell us much more about human society than our most elaborate models. He opens up for us a world filled with fascinating possibilities.”Andrew M. Greeley, University of Chicago

ISBN: 9781594512735

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 317g

142 pages