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Title: Living It Up : America's Love Affair with Luxury by James B. Twitchell ISBN: 0-7432-4506-7 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 02 July, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Guilty Gordon Gekko
Comment: Living it Up starts with the premise that consumption--even overconsumption--is good for the economy and good for your community. Twitchell makes a coherent argument that those who pay ridiculous prices for things they don't need make it possible for the rest of us to pay lower prices for the same things. Then, what used to be a luxury to one generation (indoor plumbing, cars, computers) becomes a necessity for the next.
But somehow, Twitchell seems guilty about all this. He even quotes Gekko (from the movie Wall Street), a bit sheepishly. He praises "first-users" (those who buy the first VCRs, etc. at high prices) while sneering at the stereotypical yuppie with all his toys. Professor Twitchell mocks the voluntary simplicity movement by picking the most hypocritical example he can find, of a back-to-nature advocate who buys acres of her neighbor's land. But he ignores such aspects as not spending more than you have, reducing the amount of stuff you own, enjoying the occasional luxury rather than shopping as a habit.
Interesting reading if you are fascinated by our consumer culture, but a bit confusing as the professor tries to decide where he stands on over-consumption.
Rating: 4
Summary: Luxury, a new religion analyzed
Comment: This is a landmark book. The author analyzes in very detail the mechanisms behind selling luxury to the public, including the religious attributes affixed to those products.
"Probably it shouldn't get into the hands of consumers", because they might find out they are spending too much money for ordinarily manufactured goods with high status affixed by advertising. On my trips to the US, I wondered how big, luxury only shopping malls could survive, this book tells the reason why. Europe is still more conservative with luxury spending.
I wanted to give it 5 stars, but the language used is very difficult to read. To exclude most luxury spenders?
Rating: 4
Summary: Posh LUST
Comment: Entertaining book, well written, thought provoking, ultimately absolving us of our sins of posh LUST.
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Title: Trading Up: The New American Luxury by Michael Silverstein, Neil Fiske ISBN: 1591840139 Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover Pub. Date: 09 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Luxury Fever by Robert H. Frank ISBN: 0691070113 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness by Virginia Postrel ISBN: 0060186321 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Lead Us Into Temptation by James B. Twitchell ISBN: 0231115199 Publisher: Columbia University Press Pub. Date: 15 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.50 |
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Title: Snobbery : The American Version by Joseph Epstein ISBN: 0618340734 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 07 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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