Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Sky Is Falling
The Sky Is Falling: How Vampires, Zombies, Androids, and Superheroes Made America Great for Extremism | Peter Biskind
2 posts | 1 read | 1 to read
“A bold, witty, and brilliantly argued analysis of the role pop culture has played in the rise of American extremism.” —Ruth Reichl “You’ll never look at your favorite movies and TV shows the same way again. And you shouldn’t.” —Steven Soderbergh A bestselling cultural journalist shows how pop culture prepared Americans to embrace extreme politics Almost everything has been invoked to account for Trump’s victory and the rise of the alt-right, from job loss to racism to demography—everything, that is, except popular culture. In The Sky Is Falling bestselling cultural journalist Peter Biskind dives headlong into two decades of popular culture—from superhero franchises such as the Dark Knight, X-Men, and the Avengers and series like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones to thrillers like Homeland and 24—and emerges to argue that these shows are saturated with the values that are currently animating our extreme politics. Where once centrist institutions and their agents—cops and docs, soldiers and scientists, as well as educators, politicians, and “experts” of every stripe—were glorified by mainstream Hollywood, the heroes of today’s movies and TV, whether far right or far left, have overthrown this quaint ideological consensus. Many of our shows dramatize extreme circumstances—an apocalypse of one sort or another—that require extreme behavior to deal with, behavior such as revenge, torture, lying, and even the vigilante violence traditionally discouraged in mainstream entertainment. In this bold, provocative, and witty investigation, Biskind shows how extreme culture now calls the shots. It has become, in effect, the new mainstream.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
The_Book_Ninja
post image
Bailedbailed

Back in the 00s, postmodernism was all the rage. Nowadays ,Foucault, Baudrillard, Hall et al, who looked at popular culture & meaning, usually through a (Neo)Marxist lens, are a bit unfashionable. When I saw this book I thought it was going to be an update of Berger‘s, Ways of Seeing, for the Marvel generation: A look at the hidden, political messages in today‘s Superhero movies. I bailed after 40 pages as it just too boring. 2/10 chin strokes🤔🤔

5feet.of.fury That‘s too bad! Seems like such an interesting topic. 2y
The_Book_Ninja @5feet.of.fury that‘s what I was hoping when I picked it up. I just found really dull. But it‘s all a question of taste. 2y
7 likes2 comments
blurb
rjsthumbelina
post image

My #botm picks for June! What did you guys pick, and why?

Aswenson Golden Hour, Recursion, and Summer of 69... really hard to pick this month! 5y
rjsthumbelina That was the other one I was considering! I figured I could get that at work 5y
21 likes2 comments