The Depth of Shallow Culture: The High Art of Shoes, Movies, Novels, Monsters, and ToysCome 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
Cultural Icons | 41 |
Making Mythical | 63 |
How Transformers | 87 |
Copyright | |
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abstract action figure Air Jordan algorithm American Archaic sneaker art object art world Baroque Baroque shoe Baroque sneaker basketball beast Bergesen canvas century Cervantes Chapter chivalrous civilizational Clark Kent Classic sneaker Classic style color composition create cultural objects Danto Dassler decline decorative digivolve Don Quixote dragon Durkheim earlier effect elements essence Essentially Other Model fight film Gabumon giant global Godzilla heel hegemonic historical human ideals ideas incarnation interpretation Japanese John Rambo jump kami King Kong knight Mannerist material meaning Mixing Model monsters morph movie mythical creatures natural creatures Nike novel outer sole painting philosophical Pikachu Pokemon political popular culture Power Rangers principles produce reality red square reincarnation Robocop Rococo Sailor Moon seems seen sense sheriff's shoe's signifier sneaker sneaker style social sociology of culture Spain Special Forces Spiderman straps structure Superman supernatural theory tion tradition Transformer toy Trautman Tsunomon upper Vietnam world-system