Book Description
The bestselling author of The Botany of Desire explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first century
"What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't-which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we're realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. The Omnivore's Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America.
Pollan has divided The Omnivore's Dilemma into three parts, one for each of the food chains that sustain us: industrialized food, alternative or "organic" food, and food people obtain by dint of their own hunting, gathering, or gardening. Pollan follows each food chain literally from the ground up to the table, emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the species we depend on. He concludes each section by sitting down to a meal--at McDonald's, at home with his family sharing a dinner from Whole Foods, and in a revolutionary "beyond organic" farm in Virginia. For each meal he traces the provenance of everything consumed, revealing the hidden components we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods reflects our environmental and biological inheritance.
We are indeed what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the profound consequences of the simplest everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world. The Omnivore's Dilemma is a long-overdue book and one that will become known for bringing a completely fresh perspective to a question as ordinary and yet momentous as What shall we have for dinner?
Customer Reviews:
Corn!.......2007-09-29
I have never read the word "corn" so many times in my life! But corn is, in fact, a rather large part of our lives and we did not realize it. This is a very good book and is quite informative. Thank you.
Brilliant.......2007-09-29
This is one of the first thoughtful critiques of the culture of `big' Organic to appear. It was a decade in coming. Since the advent of stores such as Whole Foods, the ideology of `Organic' has come to revolutionize the way Americans eat. Organic is both an ideology, an ideal and a culture. This book seeks to examine four meals and where they came from. It looks a typical big agriculture diet, that uses pesticides and might be sold at McDonalds or Wallmart. It examines a meal purchased as Whole Foods. It also examines the ancient way of hunting food to survive and the development of agriculture. But its most insightful chapter is the examination of the origins of food purchased in the `big Organic' superstores, such as Whole Foods.
The author tracks the food back to its origins. From a supermarket label that claims the chickens are free range to the house where the chickens are kept in a massive barracks, barely able to move because there are so many. This book shows how the Organic industry is mostly a scam. Organic has outgrown its roots and because the Dept. of Agriculture and the government has not issues rules regarding what is `Organic' it was only a matter of time before most things labeled `organic' were far from it. The ideal of the `family farm' may be on the label of much `organic' food but it mostly comes from factories. A brilliant analysis of what happens when ideals meat the marketplace.
Seth J. Frantzman
a college assignment.......2007-09-28
I bought The Omnivore's Dilemma for a college English course. I'm not sure what I expected, but the result was intriguing. The book offers a detailed look into what exactly we are eating, and I really enjoyed it.
This is a book that I am likely to share with others because it relates to just about everyone and makes you think about the choices our society has made.
Just when you thought it was safe to eat..........2007-09-27
This book is very enlightening and informative. Over the last several months I have been reading lots of books about health and nutrition. This book stands apart from other, not for the quantity of scientific data that it presents, but for the unique perspective it offers to readers. I've always wondered where the myriad ingredients on industrial foods comes from. This book gives you a glimpse of their origins and evolution. This is one of the only books I've ever read that makes you aware that eating can be a moral and political act. It certainly changes the way I think about food. I would have to say that I am much better informed about the consequences of my eating decisions because of this book. Anyone with an inquisitive mind should find some or all of this book to be very valuable.
entertaining vital info.......2007-09-26
I couldn't put this book down. Very entertaining and very enlightening. If you are interested in your health and the health of the planet, you will gain a lot from this book.
Book Description
“Politics is stuck,” writes Bill Bradley, in this insightful, informative, and provocative book about America at a crossroads, but “idealism isn’t dead. It can be reawakened.”
What will it take to make America a better, stronger, truer country? asks the bestselling author, former Knicks star, and onetime presidential candidate. Bill Bradley believes that America is at a teachable moment when we are compelled to reevaluate our political system, our leadership, our agenda as a nation, and ourselves as citizens. With clarity and urgency, Bradley shows why the story we are being told now about who we are as a people is not true. He then offers a new story about our nation, based on America’s rich heritage and his belief in the character of the American people. Bradley explores what changes need to be made in our parties, in our politics, and in citizen activism to ensure America’s future. He asserts that the American people are ready for the truth and suggests that the party that chooses to embrace this new story will be in power for a generation.
Writing from his own experience in politics and drawing on his knowledge of history, Bradley shows how the Republican Party has built a solid pyramid structure since the 1970s, at the base of which are money, ideas, and media, whereas the Democratic Party’s structure is an inverted pyramid, with too much emphasis put on the need for a charismatic leader to hold the pyramid up. Each party, for different reasons, fails to deal with the real issues that now confront America.
This informed and inspiring call to action is addressed not only to the parties and elected leaders, but to citizens as well. Bradley proposes things every American can do to shape our nation’s future. He points out that if eighty percent of the electorate voted, instead of fifty percent, it would be the most important change in American politics since women got the vote. Now more than ever, he says, we need to embrace an “ethic of connectedness,” a combination of
collective action and individual responsibility, to solve our nation’s most pressing
problems, and he argues that the fate of all countries is bound together as never before. Writing today with the freedom of a private citizen, Bradley provides this transformative and eye-opening book about the danger and the promise of America’s choice at this crucial moment in the nation’s history.
Customer Reviews:
A "HOW-TO" for citizenship and political leadership.......2007-09-29
Why should you read this?
- If you care about our democracy and want to help make it strong again
- If you want to understand the big domestic challenges we face today
- If you want thoughtful proposals to addresses those challenges
- If you want to better the understand the Democratic and Republican parties; what makes them function, what makes them DYSFUNCTIONAL
- If you want to hear an insider's take on what makes our democracy tick, what makes it great, and what threatens its survival
This is a terrific book. If I had the money, I'd buy one for every member of Congress.
I listened to this book unabridged on audio, narrated by Michael Prichard. He does a good job capturing Bill Bradley's dignity, but to my ear doesn't quite capture his enthusiasm and passion for good government.
excellent.......2007-08-28
bradley is a truly brilliant man. the book is filled with hundreds of good ideas. hopefully he will stay involved in politics. the problem is that the people who need to read this book will not. our government is controlled by big business and greedy men with their own agendas. how soon is that going to change? i highly reccomend this book.
Call to Greatness.......2007-08-20
You'd swear Bill Bradley was running for office or dashing down court for a breakaway three-pointer. This one-time presidential contender and New York Knicks superstar writes with the energy and urgency of a man on a mission.
Read his book, The New American Story, and you'll be tempted to join him. Bradley has issued a powerful call to action--one that promises to rescue our nation from political infighting and restore America's leadership role in the world.
His is not a story of military might and moral superiority; it is the story of our nation's founding principles, written by the men and women whose active engagement at pivotal points in history assured the country lived up to its highest ideals.
We have a choice before us that could transcend our current state of affairs, says Bradley. A choice that puts country over political party, the common good over the distracting issues that divide us.
One of our nation's most admired leaders--Abraham Lincoln--knew a thing or two about bringing a divided nation together. When he was president, Lincoln would often sneak out of the White House on Wednesday nights to hear sermons of a well-known preacher at the New York Presbyterian Church. One night, an aide asked Lincoln what he had thought of the sermon. "The content was excellent. The minister had a strong voice and a good delivery," said Lincoln, pausing. "But he forgot the most important part. He didn't ask us to do something great."
Bill Bradley is asking us to do something great.
"The answers to our problems rest in our hearts as well as in our heads," Bradley says in the introduction to his book, "and until we understand that, we'll make marginal improvements, but we won't make the quantum leaps that our Founders made and hoped we would continue."
I am drawn to stories of ordinary Americans who overcame obstacles to achieve great things. Freedom fighters on the Underground Railroad. Journalists who exposed unethical business practices at the turn of the 20th century. The immigrants who built our transcontinental railroad. A country lawyer who became a United States Supreme Court Justice, America's chief prosecutor of Nazi War criminals, and the founder of international law. These are the stories I want people around the world to know about when they think of America and its unique contributions to the world. That's why my husband and I make historical documentaries for a living.
Bill Bradley's book had me from hello, or at least from the moment I read the book jacket blurbs written by David McCullough, David Halberstam, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Robert A. Caro, all Pulitzer Prize winners. Because I love history, and because I believe in the strength of our nation's collective character, I kept on reading.
There is no question the bold policies outlined in Bill Bradley's book will be hotly debated in the coming weeks. He takes both political parties to task, taking aim at the current administration's policies with the finesse of a seasoned athlete and senator. And while I don't agree with every single one of Bradley's strategies on health care, education, environment, tax reform, and national defense, if this American story is to have a happy ending, I, like all other Americans, will have to look for common ground, and make sacrifices for the greater good.
Bill Bradley has faith that, given the right information--the true American story--we will do the right thing.
Current state of affairs for the middle class .......2007-08-07
I confess I have read many other books on the current status quo and state of politics in our country before reading this book. If you have too, this may be a bit repetitive as most issues have been discussed before. What I do like about Bill Bradley's book is it is not simply a laundry list of complaints. He offers at the end of each chapter (designated to each issue) some thought out solutions. This is a good book for eye-opening for our major issues - health care, education, energy... and would recommend it to readers who want to learn more about the who, what and why our social issues are being ignored by government. I also recommend "War on the Middle Class" by Lou Dobbs or "Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class -- And What We Can Do About It" by Thom Hartmann. I enjoyed reading those a little more.
Long-winded and Confusing Story.......2007-07-29
I'll confess right up front that I haven't finished the book yet, and I'll update this review when I do. I'm still slogging through lengthy, wandering passages that fail to make any points. I keep waiting for any kind of "here's a solution" or "here's what we should do" sentence, but I have yet to find one. He spends a lot of pages in the first 25% of the book telling the reader about the "story" that he says we're being told -- by whom? On every issue he seems to pick the most extreme right-wing position as representative of this "story" rather than the positions that the majority of Republicans and conservatives hold. And thus far all he's offered for his "new story" is idealistic pie-in-the-sky notions with no plan to get there. I trust that he gets there in the second half of the book.
Just one example of the poor writing and editing: In the section titled "Inequality" in chapter on The Economy, he goes on for quite a while about financial inequality, then about globalization and technological change, finally claiming that you can no longer get ahead by working hard. He then admits that that there is no way around benefiting the wealthy if you want to encourage investment. And then this sentence:
"But there is no excuse for failing to conduct rigorous oversight of and increase resources to education ... which in the long run will result in ... greater equality."
Okay, he tied it back into equality, but how did he suddenly switch from tax cuts and investing and unions to education in the middle of the same paragraph? Where did this out-of-the-blue accusation come from that someone isn't overseeing and funding education? I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with that accusation, just pointing out that it's completely out of place in any kind of logical or narrative flow.
And so goes this story so far. I'll keep at it and hope the writing and presentation of ideas tightens up. Maybe his publisher paid him by the word...
Book Description
Bill O’Reilly is the very embodiment of the idea of a Culture Warrior—and in this book he lives up to the title brilliantly, with all the brashness and forthrightness at his command. He sees that America is in the midst of a fierce culture war between those who embrace traditional values and those who want to change America into a “secular-progressive” country. This is a conflict that differs in many ways from the usual liberal/conservative divide, but it is no less heated, and the stakes are even higher.
In Culture Warrior, Bill O’Reilly defines this war and analyzes the competing philosophies of the traditionalist and secular-progressive camps. He examines why the nation’s motto “E Pluribus Unum” (“From Many, One”) might change to “What About Me?”; dissects the forces driving the secular-progressive agenda in the media and behind the scenes, including George Soros, George Lakoff, and the ACLU; and dives into matters of race, education, and the war on terror. He also shows how the culture war has played out in such high-profile instances as The Passion of the Christ, Fahrenheit 9/11, the abuse epidemic (child and otherwise), and the embattled place of religion in public life—with special emphasis on the war against Christmas. Whatever controversies are roiling the nation, he fearlessly confronts them—and no one will be in the dark about which side he’s on.
Culture Warrior showcases Bill O’Reilly at his most eloquent and impassioned. He is an unrelenting fighter for the soul of America, and in this book he fights the good fight for the traditional values that have served this country so well for so long.
Customer Reviews:
interesting read.......2007-09-27
Well written book. I'm not sure of the validity of all the things he talks about because he is often defending himself, but I think he makes some very smart points. I can see some of the effects of the sp movement that Bill mentions in his book almost everyday.
Bill's strawman.......2007-09-25
Mr O'Reilly is somewhat of an enigma to me. I find his show entertaining. He sometimes speaks very rationally about current issues and presents his point of view very reasonably. But there are times when he appears to let his emotions completely overrule his logic, and then he looks foolish and petty. So it is with "Culture Warrior."
Bill blames nearly all of America's ills on secular progressives. The S-P movement (according to O'Reilly) wants to completely dismantle all that is good and replace it with atheistic, socialist programs that would undermine America's moral fiber and promote malaise and complacency.
Pure bunk! The truth of the matter is that Bill's Republican Party has held the White House for all but 12 years since 1968. In all this time, the party of "family values" and "personal responsibility" has done little, if anything, to improve our nation's social problems. A good argument could be made that many of those problems have actually gotten worse. And yet, here's Bill trying to shift the blame to some small minority of the population with practically no political power.
Of course, he's preaching to the choir with his simplistic scapegoating. If you're a Fox news fan and an O'Reilly-phile, you'll no doubt be blind to his flaws in logic and his stretching of the facts.
I would love to have Bill as a dad .......2007-09-16
My grandma read me this book.I thought it was good and it's fun too.It never gets boring and I feel like he is the greatest guy in the world.My grandma says she will read all the books he writes to me and that will make me real happy and I'm looking forward to that.
I Enjoyed This so much.......2007-09-16
This book is great from cover to cover.Bill has so many ideas and he should be making lots of money with this wonderful book.I also would like you to know about the great book he wrote just for kids.It should be on everybody's list for a birthday comming up or A present to some special kid.So far all of his books have been a joy reading.
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-02
Bill has discovered a conspiracy. Now I'm a true believer in conspiracies so I can't knock him on that one. It seems that there are a group of people, living right here within the borders of the United States who are presently involved in the overthrow of "our" government. They are not doing this by means of a revolution or violent overthrow. They are too cleaver to come right out and fight like men. They are doing it by guile and persuasion and trying to sway voters and by real sneaky, underhanded, dirty methods like using their money to twist the media and the "truth". Bill has a lot of terrible names for these people but overall he benignly refers to them as Secular Progressives or S-Ps.
These S-Ps are a very cleaver group of evil and vile people and they have a horrible anti-American agenda; wait until I tell you about it, you won't believe it. It is truly beyond your widest dreams.
First and foremost these S-Ps do not believe in God; they are very anti-Judeo/Christian. They want to take all the money from the rich people and use it to make their version of a "better world". For example they want everybody to have their own home - with no mortgage; they want all children to have an education - for free! And that includes college; they think that everybody should make a living wage - whether they deserve to be alive or not! (my God! these people are horrible); they want businesses and corporations to act and conduct themselves in the world market place with a moral conscience (what a pernicious method for undermining capitalism and the American way); they want prisons to be reformed and drug crimes to be looked upon as an addiction to be treated as a sickness and not simply incarceration; they want any and all sick and even healthy people to have access to health care - even if they don't have a penny!; they actually want the United States to be attacked before the United States attacks anybody else; and one can only conclude from all of the above that these S-Ps would probably try to outlaw war if they could get away with it.
This book is powerful on emotion but very short on thought. If your ideas are on the far right you will love this. I was told by a friend that Bill is actually not on the far right but is really only moderately right. Since I didn't find much of what he had to say "right" in any way and many things very "wrong", I can't really find all that much to recommend . But Bill seems to be doing very well without me as a backer.
Average customer rating:
- Brand new - just like she said!
- Great Book!
- Real Positives for a Negative World...
- How Full is Your Bucket?
- Excellent
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How Full Is Your Bucket? Positive Strategies for Work and Life
Tom Rath , and
Donald O. Clifton
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Book Description
How did you feel after your last interaction with another person? Did that person — your spouse, best friend, coworker, or even a stranger — "fill your bucket" by making you feel more positive? Or did that person "dip from your bucket," leaving you more negative than before? The number one New York Times and number one Business Week bestseller, How Full Is Your Bucket? reveals how even the briefest interactions affect your relationships, productivity, health, and longevity. Organized around a simple metaphor of a dipper and a bucket, and grounded in 50 years of research, this book will show you how to greatly increase the positive moments in your work and your life — while reducing the negative. Filled with discoveries, powerful strategies, and engaging stories, How Full Is Your Bucket? is sure to inspire lasting changes and has all the makings of a timeless classic.
Customer Reviews:
Brand new - just like she said!.......2007-09-05
I ordered 25 books that were supposed to be in good condition. They were even better. They were just like new. They were missing one of the supplementary items as was clearly stated up front. I am completely satisfied.
Great Book!.......2007-08-27
Another new bestseller which I recommend - The Exclusive Layguide: When Dating and Having Sex with Incredibly Hot Women is No Longer Mirage Even If You Don't Look Like a Model or Don't Make a Fortune
Real Positives for a Negative World..........2007-08-03
I have probably referenced this book more in my training seminars and speaking engagements than any other book I have ever read. I just love it! (I gave everyone in my family a copy for Christmas) The author states that 99 out of 100 people report that they would like to be surrounded by more positive people. "And the church said; AMEN!" This short, interesting, and succinct read teaches the reader how to become one of those "more positive people." A must read about positive psychology for anyone who has to be around negative people in our negative world. I think that pretty much includes all of us, doesn't it?
SUCCESS: It Just Ain't That Hard Y'all! Three Things to STOP Doing and Three Things to START and KEEP Doing to Reach Your Greatest Potential
How Full is Your Bucket?.......2007-07-29
The book assigns theoretic valuations to philosophic concepts.
For instance, a full bucket has a net positive outlook + Energy
from every drop of strength expended. Relentless negativity leads to
death. The North Koreans broke down peer cohesiveness by insisting
that captors confess their transgressions publicly.
The author believes that regular praise= increased productivity,
tenure, loyalty and satisfaction. People leave when they aren't
appreciated sufficiently. Bad bosses increase stroke risk.
Activiely disengaged employees cost employers upward of $50B a
year or more. A strength of the book is that the authors attempt
to quantify universal concepts within practical contexts of
everyday life. To a considerable extent, the authors succeed.
Excellent.......2007-07-27
This was a great book that I handed out to my staff. Everyone found it valuable for life not just work.
Book Description
From the Introduction:
ghet-to n. (Merriam-Webster dictionary) Italian, from Venetian dialect ghèto island where Jews were forced to live; literally, foundry (located on the island), from ghetàr, to cast; from Latin jactare to throw
1: a quarter of a city in which Jews were formerly required to live
2: a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure
3a: an isolated group
b: a situation that resembles a ghetto especially in conferring inferior status or limiting opportunity
ghet-to adj. (twenty-first-century everyday parlance)
1a: behavior that makes you want to say “Huh?”
b: actions that seem to go against basic home training and common sense
2: used to describe something with inferior status or limited opportunity. Usually used with “so.”
;
3: a quarter of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure.
4: common misusage: authentic, Black, keepin’ it real
As current and all-consuming as “ghetto” is in these days of gold teeth, weaves (blond and red), Pepsi-filled baby bottles, and babymamas, ghetto has a long history. The original ghetto was in the Jewish quarter of Venice, a Catholic city. Before it became the Jewish quarter, this area contained an iron foundry or ghèto, hence the name. These days, ghetto no longer refers to where you live, but to how you live. It is a mindset, and not limited to a class or a race. Some things are worth repeating: ghetto is not
limited to a class or a race. Ghetto is found in the heart of the nation’s inner cities as well as the heart of the nation’s most cherished suburbs; among those too young to understand (we hope) and those old enough to know better; in little white houses, and all the way to the White House; in corporate corridors, Ivy League havens, and, of course, Hollywood. More devastating, ghetto is also packaged in the form of music, TV, books, and movies, and then sold around the world. Bottom line: ghetto is contagious, and no one is immune, no matter how much we like to suck our teeth and shake our heads at what we think is only happening someplace else…
From an award-winning journalist and cultural commentator comes a provocative examination of the impact of “ghetto” mores, attitudes, and lifestyles on urban communities and American culture in general.
Cora Daniels takes on one of the most explosive issues in our country today in this thoughtful critique of America’s embrace of a ghetto persona that demeans women, devalues education, celebrates the worst African American stereotypes, and contributes to the destruction of civil peace. Her investigation exposes the central role of corporate America in exploiting the idea of ghetto-ness as a hip cultural idiom, despite its disturbing ramifications, as a means of making money. She showcases Black rappers raised in privileged families who have taken on the ghetto persona and sold millions of albums, and non-Black celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, who have adopted ghetto attitudes and styles in pursuit of attention and notoriety. She explores, as well, her own relationship to the ghetto and the ways in which she is both part of and outside the Ghettonation.
Infused with humor and entertaining asides—including lists of events and people that the author nominates for the Ghetto Hall of Fame, and a short section written entirely in ghetto slang—Ghettonation is a timely and engrossing report on a controversial social phenomenon. Like Bill Cosby’s infamous, much-discussed comments about the problems within the Black community today, it is sure to trigger widespread interest and heated debate.
Customer Reviews:
(RAW Rating: 4.5) - A Mindset.......2007-09-29
Author Cora Daniels gives us her take on what she believes is ghetto. She states that ghetto is a mindset and no one is immune from it be it, inner city or suburban residents. While this is not a critical analysis of the ghetto phenomenon, Daniels does site some sociological ills and possible blame. That in itself is cause for debate.
Often portrayed with humor, the author interviews an array of people on what their take is of the term ghetto; what ghetto is to one may not be ghetto to another, be it children or adults. She speaks with boys hanging on street corners, boys and girls who are doing well academically and have college set in their minds and those who have done well financially, but chose to stay in the inner city, further demonstrating that ghetto is a mindset and running to suburbia does not eliminate the ghetto mentality, nor the chance you may see not ghetto. While GHETTONATION by Cora Daniels can cause a serious debate, it is also a reality check for many.
Reviewed by Dawn R. Reeves
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers
A great book even though some readers miss the point!.......2007-08-29
A Great book that will have a broad appeal to people of all ages! To those of you who feel like the book didn't offer you enough, I think that you miss the point that this book is written not just for the highly educated but its also written in a style that is of interest to the young men and women on the street corner. BrotherMan on the corner is not interested in black socialism or a book about black culturalism. This book is a wake up call to all people in the sense that it's asking you to think about what it is that you do and why you do those things that are considered to be ghetto. On that note, Mrs Daniels hit the mark. Pass it on to those that are ghetto fabulous and see if you have something worthwhile to talk about! Peace!
'Should be on Oprah's Book Club list.......2007-08-25
Some weeks ago I watched as a mainstream television newscaster referred to the police as the "po po's," a term that is, at this moment used by inner city youth. It's obvious that when such language becomes "accepted" by the mainstream, the words are on their way out...or are they?
Author Cora Daniels would probably say that such usage is further indication of the ghettonization of America and she's more than likely correct. In her amusing and thought-provoking book, the writer exposes all the aspects of American society that reflects how the ghetto mentality flourishes. She sites the entertainment industry, Madison Avenue, professional sports, as well as the everyday instances wherein that which we once thought was only a part of the inner city has become commonplace.
As entertaining as the book is, she hits hard when she challenges readers to consider her words and take action in order to stop or, at least, slow down the spread of "ghettoism" in this nation.
This is a definite "must read" for all Americans that want to understand what's going, not just with the young people, but among us all as we fall further and further into the rationale of the street.
Finally, someone who articulates the problem!.......2007-08-21
Suffering for sometime from the notion that the end is nigh for American civilization, being assaulted daily by the sights, sounds and stories of angry babbymammas and the gangstas who did 'em wrong, mysogynistic rap, the objectification of the female figure everywhere; girls as young as ten wearing t-shirts that read "If you surf I'm available" and crusted with bling, picking visible thongs out of their exposed cracks; young folk with the crazed look of meth/crack/coke in their eyes; fearless pedophiles defiant both about their sickness and civil rights; celebrities crashing and burning; and wondering who and where were the new role models, and where were our real poets and music makers -- and please don't tell me its Fall Out Boy, The White Stripes, or Pussy Cat Dolls or Beyonce or Timblaland or Timberlake-- I wearily picked this book up at my local library and began to read, and continued, and couldn't stop. In fact, I read Ghettonation in two readings, stopping only to pick up my kids from school and make a (rather ghetto) meal of hotdogs and canned beans. I had to rush back to this book.
I've been wrestling with American notions of class, race, identity, the decline of Western civilization, economic disparities, greed and respect, what constitutes illegal immigrants, education, environmental devastation, pitbulls, drugs, babymammas, and rap and hip hop music for a decade and more. I see how lowering the bar, for all of us, has resulted in a free fall for relationships, in parenting, manners, basic common sense, civility, charity, and even basic human discourse. In Ghettonation, Ms. Daniels finally articulated my inchoate thoughts and theories.
When Gwenyth Paltrow called her baby Apple that was a ghetto move. What a concept! This patrician looking, some would say Aryan, blonde with blue eyes doing something other than the classy she generally projects, but it's an absolute spot-on observation. An ah-hah moment, and this book has no shortage of other such examples to remind us all that ghetto isn't a class thing, it's not a race thing, it's simply about not being the best of what we can and should be.
The section on ghetto literature is terrifying. Proceed with caution. I had no idea these books were B. available and B. popular. I also had no idea that high profile music industry figures, such as Snoop Dogg (and more recently Dave Navarro) were getting involved in porn and doing well with it. Yes, we've come a long way from Bob Dylan, the Beatles, and MoTown. Yes, we are much more morally bankrupt than we used to be, even compared to the anything goes 70s days of decadence.
This is an important book, it's a wake up call to all who care about the world and our human family, that we need to be smart, we need to be kinder, we need to take care of our children, our business, our schools, and our world. It's the only one we have.
Thanks, Ms. Daniels, for this eye opening and cogent analysis of the most urgent problem facing America today. You managed to walk the fine line without resorting to snobbery, elitism, and also without giving an inch.
Ghettonation is essential reading.
Long on Examples, Short on Analysis.......2007-07-26
This book offers a blend of opinion, autobiography, and ethnography to ask why "ghetto" (and its adjectival uses, as in "That's sooo ghetto") has become an accepted "mind-set" in this country. Daniels does well to catalog the many ways in which ghetto culture is organized by "low expectations" and fosters carelessness, irresponsibility, and general unpleasantness. Her examples can be illuminating, including the website Gizoogle.com, which translates any webpage into "ghettospeak."
The problem with this book is its complete lack of organization and argumentative structure. I second one reviewer's claim that Daniels tends to substitute her own rambling musings for critical social analysis. Her back-and-forth rhetoric about "I'm ghetto, I'm not ghetto" typifies this problem: Daniels seems to think her examples are so self-evident that we should already know WHY she supposedly "is" or "isn't" ghetto. This sleight of hand is inexcusable for a book that means to delineate the properties of the "ghetto mind-set." We expect explanation here, not self-indulgent "you know it when you see it" joking.
The book also suffers from having an overly expansive definition of the ghetto mind-set. Daniels's examples are so wide-ranging and far-fetched (even referencing the heir to the throne of Monaco's philandering) that she loses sight of the specific (social, cultural, historical) reasons why "ghetto" has become fashionable among American youth. At times it seems Daniels interprets ghetto as signifying anything (or anyone) that thrives off "low expectations." Such an abstract definition means very little when applied to concrete examples.
In the end, I wanted more critical focus in this book. (A little less authorly self-indulgence would have helped.) The examples are sometimes illuminating, as I noted, but Daniels's basic theme is tackled more pointedly in black sociological criticism and black cultural studies.
Book Description
Introducing the ingenious, addictive tool for judging everything under the sun: ENLIGHTENED BRACKETOLOGY, the new science that makes opinion a sport.
Political battles are won and lost by popular vote. Great movies are nominated and chosen by committee. The rest of the world is more or less up for grabs. As a cure for the resulting confusion, Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir have organized the world's most haunting and maddeningly subjective questions into a scheme of binary pairings that finally reveal what is truly the best in its class: What's the greatest
American beer? The best Elmore Leonard novel? The most reliable economic indicator? In each bracket five Darwinian rounds of binary matchups leave a lone survivor; textual notes explain the details.
Experts and subjects include: Ken Jennings on Game Show Catchphrases; Roz Chast on Animation Characters; Mo Rocca on Political Hot-Button Issues; Stefan Fatsis on Scrabble Words; Kurt Andersen on Conspiracy Theories; Jeff MacGregor on NASCAR Phrases; Will Blythe on Sports Rivalries; Henry Beard on Latin grammar; the editors of The Bark on Dogs for the Ages; Jesse Sheidlower on Punctuation; Rick Meyerowitz on Dodosaurs; and many more - 101 in all.
Go forth and adjudicate!
Customer Reviews:
OK, but uneven.......2007-09-28
The premise for this book is great, but more thought should have been put into selecting the subjects that were "bracketed." I found some of the brackets enjoyable, but others were just baffling. Alt-Country Songs? Freshwater and Saltwater Flies? I realize that the authors were trying to get a little bit of everything into the book, from NASCAR Phrases & Pickup Lines to Opera Arias & Latin Grammar, but the result was that I found myself skimming or skipping many of the brackets. A fun concept that could have been carried off better.
Give It a Try.......2007-09-04
The overall concept behind THE ENLIGHTENED BRACKETOLOGIST is that people can figure out the best of everything by putting together a bracketed tournament, similar to what is done during the NCAA basketball tournament. 102 different subjects are bracketed (101 are listed, but there is a bonus category of Baby Boy Names in the Coda). The bracket selections and their ultimate winners have been selected by over 90 different people and those people are usually experts or are heavily associated with their chosen field. So Ken Jennings put together the brackets for Game Show Catchphrases, the authors of THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GUILTY PLEASURES put together the brackets for Guilty Pleasures, and former Presidential speech writer Curt Smith put together the brackets for Presidential Speeches. The categories of brackets in the book are:
March Madness Moments
Where Were You When Moments
Animation Characters
Ad Slogans
Alt-Country Songs
American Beers
American Plays
Bald Guys
Black-and-White TV Programs
James Bond Gadgets
Dodosaurs
Bob Dylan Cover Songs
Candy Bars
Mondegreens, or Misheard Lyrics
Celebrity Sports Couples
CEOs
Spokescharacters Who Will Shill for Food
Cheese
Chick Flicks
Crosswordese
Classic Comedies
Conspiracy Theories
Corporate Jargon
Dogs for the Ages
Marital Arguments
Elmore Leonard Novels
Elvis Costello Songs
Emoticons
Endangered Species
Cooking Tools
Economic Indicators
Film Deaths
Frank Sinatra Songs
Freshwater and Saltwater Flies
Fruit
Game Show Catchphrases
Sportscaster Signature Calls
Memorable Speech Lines
Golf Swing Thoughts
Horses for the Ages
Jock Films
Guilty Pleasures
Guitar Solos
Hairstyles
Hip
Indie Rock Albums
Innovations in Sports
Inventions
Investment Strategies
Most Likely to Survive the 21st Century
Jew/Not a Jew
Kings and Queens of England
Latin Grammar
Long Songs
Longevity Strategies
Magical Sports Numbers
Male Vices
Meaningless Sports Statistics
Most Jersey
Mythological Figures
NASCAR Phrases
Newspaper Headlines
Opera Arias (Male)
Paul Simon Songs
Perfect Book Titles
Pickup Lines
Punctuation
Short Books
Plastic Surgery Disasters
Political Blunders of the Last 50 Years
Political Hot Buttons
Presidential Speeches
Priceless Things
Rednecks
Red Wines
Rivalries
Samuel L. Jackson Films
Scrabble Words
SEX AND THE CITY Wisdom
Shakespeare in Film
Sidekicks
Simple Things
Sins Against the Language
Sport/Not a Sport
Sports Books
Sucker Bets
Talk Show Hosts
Tell Me Again Why They're Famous
Troll Models
TV One-liners
Typefaces
Underdogs
Video Games
Wedding Gifts
White Wines
Women's Magazine Sex Cliches
Women's Undies
Your Boss's Annoying Habits
Yiddish Phrases
Shakespeare Insults
Baby Boy Names
The book does have a few drawbacks. There was no overall standard of how "contestants" were chosen therefore there is an overall lack of connection to the book. Different bracketeers used different criteria for their choices and some apparently just used their own personal preferences without any thought at all. Some of the categories are so limited in their appeal that it was very difficult to even care about what had been written, for example Opera Arias (Male)--I had heard of three composers and that was it; the rest made no sense to me. Lastly, though this is more a book of entertainment, at times it is political and leans towards the leftist side.
Despite these drawbacks, I found THE ENLIGHTENED BRACKETOLOGIST to be entertaining and at times informative.
Quite Fun to Read and thought provoking.......2007-06-02
This book inspires one to apply bracketology to just about any multi-option conundrum. Fun to read, can't necessarily agree with every one of their conclusions but that is what makes the book fascinating.
Bracket Play.......2007-05-16
I was inspired by what I see as new sort of mindmapping... A wonderful look see into the minds of others and the decisions they make.
great fun!.......2007-05-13
I heard an interview with the author of this book on NPR. I didn't think it would be that great, but then it was on one of the morning news shows, and in a magazine that I read. So I bought it. I'm so glad I did, it's SO much fun! It makes a great coffee table book, it easily starts a conversation.
There are a million different categories--best chick flick, best Denzel Washington movie, most commonly misspelled word, most commonly misstaken song lyric (one of my favorities, it says only the wrong words, so it's fun to figure out which song it's from), most annoying grammatical error. There's something for everyone. It gets you discussing which candy bar is really the best, or which is more annoying--bogus apostrophes or its/it's confusion. The book is wonderful--I highly reccomend it!
Book Description
A pop-science journey into the surprising ingredients found in dozens of common packaged foods, using the Twinkie label as a guide
Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he often reads the ingredients label—without a clue as to what most of it means. So when his young daughter asked, “Daddy, what's polysorbate 60?” he was at a loss—and determined to find out.
From the phosphate mines in Idaho to the corn fields in Iowa, from gypsum mines in Oklahoma to the vanilla harvest in Madagascar, Twinkie, Deconstructed is a fascinating, thoroughly researched romp of a narrative that demystifies some of the most common processed food ingredients—where they come from, how they are made, how they are used—and why. Beginning at the source (hint: they're often more closely linked to rock and petroleum than any of the four food groups), we follow each Twinkie ingredient through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder with a strange name—all for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.
An insightful exploration into the food industry, if you've ever wondered what you're eating when you consume foods containing mono- and diglycerides or calcium sulfate (the latter, a food-grade equivalent of Plaster of Paris) this book is for you.
Customer Reviews:
You are what you eat.......2007-07-23
Especially in view of the tainted chemicals coming from China that are in our processed foods, this is a timely read.
Discover the fascinating story of what's in a Twinkie, and where it comes from.
Interesting for foodies, too.
I bought copies for a chemist friend, and for a curious friend.
Would make better television........2007-07-20
So much potential unrealized...I thought this was going to be much better. The concept of where all the ingredients that make up a Twinkie come from make disappointingly dull reading.
Mr. Ettlinger, I see your comment here, so may I suggest a TV series? I would love to have you examine an ingredient per week and actually see the places and things you wrote about as it was hard to visualize it all...now that would be great television!
Fun and Follies with Food Facts.......2007-07-13
Asked by his children what the ingredients in a Twinkie creme-filled cake really were, and where they came from, Steve traveled the world to find out, interviewing over a hundred people in the process. The book is well-written in the sense that it can be read very fast, and is entertaining until the number of technical errors and chemophobia intrude, which for me began on p8. I happen to enjoy processing plant and mine tours, even vicariously, and do not shy from hundreds of facts and factoids. It was fascinating to find where the biggest plants were that made the ingredients of a Twinkie, which are: wheat flour, bleach, iron(II) sulfate, vitamins B1, B2, B3, sugar, corn sweeteners, corn thickeners, water, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, lecithin and soy protein isolate, eggs, cellulose gum, whey, leavenings, baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate, salt, mono and diglycerides, polysorbate 60, natural and artificial flavors, sodium stearoyl lactylate, sodium and calcium caseinates, calcium sulfate, sorbic acid, FD&C Yellow No. 5 and Red. No. 40. All but 2 of the chapter headings follow this ingredient list. There is an inadequate index and no references, an ominous sign of what is to follow. There are no pictures or drawings, which this topic screams for. The concept was excellent, as were the metaphors. Between that and the potential entertainment value my rating would have been 5-star, even though the target audience was 12-14 years old, IMHO.
A fine appreciation of food chemistry was finally given on p258-260: "The fact that chemicals, especially those in foods, are part of nature..." Well and good, but Steve infiltrates all kinds of snide comments about "chemicals" almost everywhere else, such as one about the surprising purity of synthetic chemicals as opposed to natural (p208) -- the reverse of the truth -- that most natural chemicals are mixtures, and many synthetic ones are very pure. Part of the difficulty is that Steve does not define what a chemical is, or know the difference between an element, a compound, and a mixture, or between a rock and a mineral. Except on p173, where Steve appears to understand that the reactive and toxic elements, sodium and chlorine, react to form salt (sodium chloride), which has none of the properties of its precursors. Time after time he tries to scare the reader by implying that the toxicity of the precursors (called intermediates by chemists) somehow makes it into non-toxic products. On p261: "...try reflecting on the fact that one of the world's most lethal chemicals, chlorine, and one of the most reactive chemicals, sodium, have an exalted place...[in] the salt shaker." This, sadly, is more typical. Of course, there is no elemental sodium or chlorine in salt, and the properties of the elements do not persist in salt. And a rock should not be confused with a mineral.
So to repeat grade-school material, all substances are chemical. Dreams and electronic phenomena are not. Substances are either pure or mixtures. The smallest stable units of matter in substances are molecules. In an element, all the atoms in all the molecules are the same, except for isotopes, which still have the same chemical properties. In a compound, meaning that 2 or more elements are present in the molecule, all the molecules are alike. Sugar (sucrose) is a compound formed from a glucose and a fructose with loss of water; it is not a mixture of glucose and fructose as Steve claims (p71). A rock is a mixture of minerals. Granite is a mixture of the minerals quartz, mica and feldspar, and most minerals are well-defined compounds. Eating refined salt or calcium sulfate is not the same as eating rock. Steve wrote that the toxic and flammable element phosphorus is part of the Twinkies recipe (p154). This is nonsense. Steve never learned from a chemist to write: "phosphorus compounds, phosphates, are part of the Twinkies recipe"; no, he has to scare us and give chemicals in general a bad name on almost every page.
Steve wrote: "Ferrous sulfate is light gray with a bluish tinge, just as you'd expect an iron derivative to look" (p42). Pure iron(II) sulfate is actually pale green, just as I would expect it to look.
Steve wrote: "Despite being a mere mineral, calcium is really a so-called earth metal, like sodium...(p232). Calcium is not a mineral, because it is never found as the free element. Steve meant gypsum (calcium sulfate), I think. Calcium belongs to the family of elements called alkaline earths and sodium is in the family of alkali metals.
Whenever Steve has trouble with the chemistry of a food additive, his writing becomes very terse and flawed. From p250: "A reaction of benzene with nitric acid, itself a product of hydrogen (usually from natural gas) and nitrogen (usually from liquid air) that have been passed over over a thin platinum wire mesh, makes nitrobenzene and leads to the all-important aniline, a colorless oily liquid with a strong, pleasant odor that happens to be highly poisonous." When this is untangled, we find: (1) the reaction of hydrogen and nitrogen over a heated catalyst of iron oxide and potassium aluminate at 400 atm leads to ammonia, not nitric acid; (2) ammonia and air are heated to 650° and passed over a platinum/rhodium catalyst to make nitric acid, not nitrobenzene; (3) benzene and nitric acid with considerable sulfuric acid yields nitrobenzene; (4) nitrobenzene with iron powder or hydrogenation over nickel gives aniline; and (5) aniline does not have a pleasant odor in my nose. None of this makes much sense to a non-chemist without pictures of the molecules involved, which are sorely lacking. All the reactions are over 100 years old, so industrial secrecy should not have been an issue.
Steve fell for the myth that eating saturated fat causes hardening of the arteries (p181). See "The Cholesterol Myths" by Uffe Ravnskov, 2000; and "The Modern Nutritional Diseases" by Ottoboni.
A list of another 50 errors are available by e-mailing: kauffman@bee.net.
Eat your Twinkies and be happy.......2007-07-07
Author Ettlinger takes the reader on a fascinating saga through the world of how food ingredients are made and how many of the ingredients in our food are actually not food-based at all, such as benzene, petroleum and rocks. Ettlinger gives us the origin of every Twinkie ingredient in a offbeat, wink-of-the eye way that suggests mirth instead of mean-spiritedness.
If you enjoy learning about scraps of knowledge that will impress your friends, this book is for you.
Errors in Washington Post review.......2007-06-06
As the author, I have to alert you that the Washington Post review contains at leat four factual errors that imply the actual opposite of what I wrote, to wit:
"He also talks to lots of PR guys..." - I did not, and not one PR person is cited. I spoke with engineers, technicians, and scientists.
"PR guys...give him... the reassurance that there is absolutely no reason to fear any of the highly processed, sinisterly named ingredients... And Ettlinger, it seems, believes them." -- Wrong. Amid all my citations of toxic and explosive sub-ingredients, there is no affirmation of any PR guy's assertions.
"Ettlinger's characterization of partially hydrogenated soybean shortening as a `magnificent culinary achievement' is hard to swallow..." -- Ironic. This quote is actually a joke about the French and cheap pastries that introduces a section on trans fats, where I state that shortening "was almost killing us."
Powell also implies that I accept " ...the argument of high fructose corn syrup producers that portion size, rather than HFCS itself, is responsible for the obesity epidemic." -- Wrong. I emphatically write that the issue is clearly unresolved and full of controversy.
I would appreciate it if Amazon would correct these errors or at least publish my corrections. Thank you.
Steve Ettlinger
Average customer rating:
- amazing...and more
- A Greater Truth Exposed
- open your mind
- awesome book
- out of the box advertising
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Wall and Piece
Banksy
Manufacturer: Random House UK
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Binding: Hardcover
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Book Description
Graffiti artist Banksy decorates streets, walls, bridges and zoos of towns and cities throughout the world. His identity remains unknown but his work is witty, subversive and prolific. And now, he’s put together the best of his work in a fully illustrated colour volume.
Customer Reviews:
amazing...and more.......2007-09-27
a great piece of urban art history. Not only is this book filled with an enormous amount of big colorful pictures, it also has some great writing. I didn't realize Banksy was so witty.
Truly a must have for any fan of Banksy or anyone interested in street art.
A Greater Truth Exposed.......2007-09-27
Banksy, with its misterious aura, brings to the face of the society those things the society itself hides under the tapestry (as perfectly illustrated in his book). Even more if we're talking about Great Britain, or America.
Those that live in "3rd world" countries like Brazil (myself included) can appreciate even more this masterpiece of urban intervention. A must-have. Specially for the narrow-minded, conservative ones.
open your mind.......2007-09-05
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awesome book.......2007-09-04
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out of the box advertising.......2007-08-28
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Amazon.com
There's quite a bit of intelligent analysis and thought-provoking insight packed into the pages of Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, which is a little surprising considering how darn stupid most of Klosterman's subject matter actually is. Klosterman, one of the few members of the so-called "Generation X" to proudly embrace that label and the stereotypical image of disaffected slackers that often accompanies it, takes the reader on a witty and highly entertaining tour through portions of pop culture not usually subjected to analysis and presents his thoughts on Saved by the Bell, Billy Joel, amateur porn, MTV's The Real World, and much more. It would be easy in dealing with such subject matter to simply pile on some undergraduate level deconstruction, make a few jokes, and have yourself a clever little book. But Klosterman goes deeper than that, often employing his own life spent as a member of the lowbrow target demographic to measure the cultural impact of his subjects. While the book never quite lives up to the use of the word "manifesto" in the title (it's really more of a survey mixed with elements of memoir), there is much here to entertain and illuminate, particularly passages on the psychoses and motivations of breakfast cereal mascots, the difference between Celtic fans and Laker fans, and The Empire Strikes Back. Sections on a Guns n' Roses tribute band, The Sims, and soccer feel more like magazine pieces included to fill space than part of a cohesive whole. But when you're talking about a book based on a section of cultural history so reliant on a lack of attention span, even the incongruities feel somehow appropriate. --John Moe
Book Description
Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman. With an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and an almost effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter, Klosterman attacks the entire spectrum of postmodern America: reality TV, Internet porn, Pamela Anderson, literary Jesus freaks, and the real difference between apples and oranges (of which there is none). And don't even get him started on his love life and the whole Harry-Met-Sally situation.
Whether deconstructing Saved by the Bell episodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance of The Empire Strikes Back or the Celtics/Lakers rivalry, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane -- usually all at once. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is ostensibly about art, entertainment, infotainment, sports, politics, and kittens, but -- really -- it's about us. All of us. As Klosterman realizes late at night, in the moment before he falls asleep, "In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself.'" Read to believe.
Download Description
"From the kid who brought you Fargo Rock City -- the first book in history to garner the praise of Stephen King, David Byrne, Donna Gaines, Sebastian Bach, Jonathan Lethem, and Rivers Cuomo -- comes Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs -- the first book in history to examine breakfast cereal, reality television, tribute bands, Internet porn, serial killers, and the Dixie Chicks. Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman -- with an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and a seemingly effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter. Whether deconstructing Saved by the Bell episodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance of The Empire Strikes Back or the Celtics/Lakers rivalry of the 1980s, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane -- usually all at once. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is ostensibly about movies, sports, television, music, books, video games, and kittens...but, really, it's about us. All of us. As Klosterman realizes late at night, in the moment before he falls asleep, ""In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself.'"" "
Customer Reviews:
Worth skimming.......2007-10-01
I recommend borrowing this book from your hip literary friend, who already owns it. It has some very funny chapters, and some of the interludes between chapters are truly great. However, it's really unsatisfying in large doses; after finishing a lot of the chapters, I just felt that I had wasted my time. Klosterman has a nice dry wit, and he's good at BSing about quirky topics. But that's really not enough for me to buy a book. Skim it at the bookstore or get it from the library; this is not a book that you'll ever want to reread.
An oxymoron for Gen Xers.......2007-09-16
I decided to read this book after considering the many positive reviews along with the accolades of several independent book sellers. I shouldn't have. I'm not going to say this book is bad, but its certainly not anywhere near being good either.
This book is a self-described manifesto, which it is not. It is the inane ramblings of someone who does not suffer from lycantrophy. It is dysfunctional, poorly written, and is essentially about nothing at all. I liken it to a Seinfeld episode, in print form, but without the distraction that comes from actual humor or entertainment value. In hind site, I'm starting to wish Klosterman did suffer from lycantrophy.
If you don't believe me, I will let a Chuck Klosterman quote from the book serve as a one line synopsis:
"Do you not see what I am no longer not saying to you? If so-congratulations!"
Like a great conversation.......2007-06-08
Reading this book is like having a long conversation about life with the most sarcastic/ funny person you know. Klosterman is easy to relate to, even when you haven't got the slightest idea what he is talking about.
Manifesto?.......2007-06-03
This book is only mildly funny and outdated. It seems like a bad rendition of the books he references, like "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." The section on mixtapes is uninspired- "Love is a Mixtape," by Rob Sheffield is much more successful. This book produced no mindblowing or even relatively interesting ideas- a waste of time if you ask me.
How much junk culture can you take?.......2007-04-27
Chuck K is undoubtedly is a very clever dude and some of the insights here will make you laught at loud. Ultimately however I would advise cherry picking through these essays, as Chuck is so enamored of his beloved
'low culture' that it will get both stultifying and extremely banal. Make sure to skip the analyses of bad tv shows (esp The Real World and Saved by the Bell). Chuck tries so hard to show why disposable pap has an influence on society that he torpeoes hiw own argument - his assertion that Gen Y behavior pettern can be correlated to a character on Real World says much more about Klosterman than anything else. Similarly, his essay on the Lakers and Celtics rivalry sets perhaps a new low in 'serious' sports journalism, as the argument that the Lakers reperesent Democratic party values while the Celtics carry the torch for Republicans (CK seems to be a fairly staunch right-winger after his addiction to pop culture is peeled away) is beyond absurd, and his assertion at the end that "if you dont' care about the Lakers-Celtics you don't care about anything" (this is said unironically) is downright embarassing.
Chuck will also be very strident in his declarations of what is 'cool' and 'uncool'. The repeated appearance of these exact words in almost evry essay (sometimes sevral times) becomes very annoying and pointless. Klosterman (by his own admission) of course is 'uncool', but his endless obsession with coolness (and defining it)renders it meaningless.
So enjoy, but be careful.
Book Description
View the
Table of Contents. Read the
Introduction.
Winner of the 2007 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Katherine Singer Kovacs Book Award
”The standard convergence narrative of recent years presents media concentration as a threat both to the diversity of communication channels and to individuals' opportunities to engage in public discourse. A respected and well-established media scholar, Jenkins (MIT) here counters such pessimistic perspectives on the brave new media world with theoretical and evidentiary attestations to the growing power of individuals and grassroots groups to affect the larger media landscape.”
—Choice
“Jenkins is an astute observer of media culture and his insights are spot-on. . . . He intends his book to be a powerful tool both now and in the future. . . . This is a book to be praised. It raises many issues.”
—Los Angeles Times
"Remarkable. . . . Jenkins' insights are gripping and his prose is surprisingly entertaining and lucid for a book that is, at its core, intellectually rigorous. . . . Jenkins' impressive ability to break down complex concepts into readable prose makes this study vital and engaging."
—Publishers Weekly
"Jenkins tries to bring clarity to cultural changes that are melting and morphing into new shapes on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly basis.
Convergence Culture provides a view that looks at the restless ocean and tracks the currents rather than just looking at the individual rocks on the beach."
—The McClatchy Newspapers
“I thought I knew twenty-first century pop media until I read Henry Jenkins. The fresh research and radical insights in
Convergence Culture deserve a wide and thoughtful readership. Bring on the `monolithic block of eyeballs!'” —Bruce Sterling, author, blogger, visionary
"Henry Jenkins offers crucial insight into an unexpected and unforeseen future. Unlike most predictions about how New Media will shape the world in which we live, the reality is turning out far stranger and more interesting than we might have imagined. The social implications of this change could be staggering."
—Will Wright, designer of SimCity and The Sims
“One of those rare works that is closer to an operating system than a traditional book: it's a platform that people will be building on for years to come. What's more, the book happens to be a briskly entertaining read—as startling, inventive, and witty as the culture it documents. It should be mandatory reading for anyone trying to make sense of today's popular culture—but thankfully, a book this fun to read doesn't need a mandate.”
—Steven Johnson, author of the national bestseller, Everything Bad Is Good For You
"Henry Jenkins is the 21st century McLuhan I've been waiting for. With all the fuzzy generalities, moral panics, and gloomy pronouncements from industry spokesmen and social critics, Jenkins' clearly communicated and nuanced analysis is sorely needed. The world McLuhan foretold back in the age of 'electric media' has become immensely more complicated in today's many-to-many, converged, remixed and mashed-up, digital, mobile, always-on media environment. If you are a parent, a student, an educator, a creator or consumer of popular culture, an entrepreneur, or a media industry executive, you need to understand convergence culture. And you will only after reading Henry Jenkins."—Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
"For any Sony PS3 execs out there wondering why their technological masterpiece is being ridiculed by customers before its even released...
Convergence Culture is a must read...Jenkins offers numerous insights on how technology and media professionals can forge better relationships with their customers."
—Slashdot
"I simply could not put this book down! Henry Jenkins provides a fascinating account of how new media intersects old media and engages the imagination of fans in more and more powerful ways. Educators, media specialists, policy makers and parents will find
Convergence Culture both lively and enlightening."—John Seely Brown, Former Chief Scientist, Xerox Corp & director of Xerox PARC
"Henry Jenkins is the Director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program. Or, in other words, he's a genius. He's one of those rare people you meet and are instantly jealous of, wishing you could somehow transplant their amazing wealth of knowledge into your own noggin. I was privileged to have made his acquaintance when he interviewed me for his fabulous new book,
Convergence Culture...Go read it, you just might learn something."
—The Heather Show
"The book is a short, smart, buttery read on a hot topic, and it is sure to draw both popular and academic interest."
—Water Cooler Games
”
Convergence Culture, is for anyone who is curious about future trends at the intersection of technology and humanity. Jenkins tries to bring clarity to cultural changes that are melting and morphing into new shapes on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly basis.
Convergence Culture provides a view that looks at the restless ocean and tracks the currents rather than just looking at the individual rocks on the beach.”
—Ledger-Enquierer
Convergence Culture maps a new territory: where old and new media intersect, where grassroots and corporate media collide, where the power of the media producer and the power of the consumer interact in unpredictable ways.
Henry Jenkins, one of America's most respected media analysts, delves beneath the new media hype to uncover the important cultural transformations that are taking place as media converge. He takes us into the secret world of Survivor Spoilers, where avid internet users pool their knowledge to unearth the show's secrets before they are revealed on the air. He introduces us to young Harry Potter fans who are writing their own Hogwarts tales while executives at Warner Brothers struggle for control of their franchise. He shows us how The Matrix has pushed transmedia storytelling to new levels, creating a fictional world where consumers track down bits of the story across multiple media channels.Jenkins argues that struggles over convergence will redefine the face of American popular culture. Industry leaders see opportunities to direct content across many channels to increase revenue and broaden markets. At the same time, consumers envision a liberated public sphere, free of network controls, in a decentralized media environment. Sometimes corporate and grassroots efforts reinforce each other, creating closer, more rewarding relations between media producers and consumers. Sometimes these two forces are at war.
Jenkins provides a riveting introduction to the world where every story gets told and every brand gets sold across multiple media platforms. He explains the cultural shift that is occurring as consumers fight for control across disparate channels, changing the way we do business, elect our leaders, and educate our children.
Customer Reviews:
Intersections: collisions and traffic flow.......2007-07-31
Jenkins is a genius. Not only does he provide a theoretically grounded book explaining cultural mass media...but he writes in a manner the masses can understand. Bravo! Convergence culture...the place of multiple media collisions and smooth traffic flow of participatory culture. This book is a must read for any scholar interested in understanding "new" literacies.
Good introduction to modern media culture.......2007-06-26
Henry Jenkins is one of the least dogmatic, most pragmatic voices on contemporary media culture. Unlike many other critics of electronic games and culture, he doesn't slavishly follow any particular school of thought; Jenkins consistently charts his own path, based primarily on research rather than preconceived notions. Like Lawrence Lessig, Henry Jenkins is always worth reading.
That said, this is not a book for specialists. It's most effective as an introduction to "convergence culture"; experienced participants in digital community will find much of the book to be familiar ground. I hoped to see Jenkins extend his arguments, with more detailed exploration of each case and more thorough contextualization of the academic theory he references (e.g. the work of Pierre Levy).
In presenting his perspectives, Jenkins also neglects significant details of some of his supporting examples - e.g. the execrable state of code for "Enter the Matrix", or LucasArts' infamously counterproductive community management for "Star Wars: Galaxies". Such omissions are particularly surprising because they would deepen his case rather than compromising it. His point, after all, isn't to draw a clear path to the future, but rather to map the multivalent dependencies and challenges which must be negotiated along the way.
Ultimately, "Convergence Culture" is only an introduction, a brief safari into lands still marked (on mass-cultural maps) as "frontiers undefined". Readers already exploring those frontiers will encounter few surprises. Newcomers (latecomers?) to "convergence culture", however, will find no better place to start.
What an amazing book.......2007-05-19
"Convergence Culture - where old and new media collide" by Henry Jenkins is one of the most exciting books I have read in the last months. It provides a new understanding of media, interaction and user collaboration. After the magificent volumes from Lawrence Lessig "Convergence Culture" helps to enlarge the media perspective.
A thought-provoking and thorough analysis of online participatory culture.......2007-01-16
Henry Jenkins is one of the foremost researchers in the field of online culture, and in "Convergence Culture" he presents many of his timely ideas. In brief, Jenkins' states that convergence is a deployment of content across mediums. A movie might have different incarnations in an online discussion groups, a movie created by a fan, a book, a game, and finally, the movie itself. (The alluring but dated idea of traditional convergence, a "black box" that serves to unite multiple delivery methods, has thankfully been set aside) Entire chapters are devoted to in-depth analyses of how certain advertising campaigns have incorporated transmedia storytelling. Chapter 3 looks at the Matrix, and how fans have followed it through multiple incarnations, resulting in a multi-medium campaign that not only had a certain mystique, but was deep enough for fans of all levels to follow.
At the best points in the book, Jenkins produces insights that rival the best qualitative research; "Convergence Culture" accurately and colorfully follows the emergence of new ways of consuming media and connecting with people. Unlike many books on new media, he has created a very fairly evaluated and expansive book on a "hot" topic. His one central idea has implications for many different aspects of the interaction of mass communication and society. This is one of the more thought-provoking books I've read in the last year.
An excellent survey of media and culture.......2006-12-24
What I loved about this book was the approachability of the language. Rarely do you see an academic write in a style that's friendly to audiences not in the ivory tower, but Jenkins produced a book I thoroughly enjoyed, as opposed to a laborious, slogging read I usually expect with academic treatises.
His knowledge about pop culture, culture theory, convergence culture is explained excellently and well balanced with examples that focus on fan culture and consumer culture, such as survivor, star wars, and Harry Potter. Jenkins shows how these communities interact, negotiate, and recreate culture.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in media studies, pop culture, or related works. I know it will prove useful for me.
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