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Title: Boxed in: The culture of TV by Mark Crispin Miller ISBN: 0-8101-0791-0 Publisher: Northwestern University Press Pub. Date: 1988 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (3 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: This book changed my life
Comment: In high school around 1985, I tried to argue with a Republican classmate that US bombers were targeting civilian neighborhoods in Libya. "No," he said, "You see, the A-rabs don't know any physics. They're firing antiaircraft missiles at ninety degrees, and their own bombs are falling back on them." The following year, when our government teacher announced that the Challenger had exploded, another classmate of mine said with a crooked smile and a faux-childlike tone, "Gee, Mr. Duffey, it's a good thing *you* weren't the teacher they chose to go into space!" I only began to understand these incidents--the naively credulous belief in government statements, the postemotional reaction to atrocities--when I read Mark Crispin Miller's essay on "The Hipness Unto Death." MCM exposes the vitiating effects of late Seventies and early Eighties media--the sadism of Jerry Lewis, the subtle thuggery of Bill Cosby, the crazed sensationalism of Dan Rather, the vacuity of Reagan's public face, and the ability of "Lettermanesque irony" to drain everything of meaning are among his themes. Miller is a dissident ironist, in the tradition of his sometime friend Christopher Hitchens and his avatars Michael Berube and Thomas Frank, but he is also a prophet: no one familiar with Boxed In was surprised when audiences began to treat the characters on Seinfeld as role-models, when Sam Donaldson became a Republican spokesman, or when Bill Maher smiled while pantomiming the attack on the World Trade Center. Fans should look at Miller's other books and his articles in The Nation, Extra!, and CONTEXT magazines.
Rating: 5
Summary: brilliant, breathtaking analysis of tv shows and ads
Comment: The first 8 or so essays in this book constitute some of the greatest writing on TV and advertising that I have ever run into. Analysis of texts is often so freaking esoteric and bookish that there's no point in reading it unless you want to impress an english undergrad at a department meeting. However, everyone who has any ability for introspection will benefit from the essays in this book, which use the tools of text analysis to help understand american culture and the motivations behind the culture creators. Other than incredible essays about advertisting and TV news, there are also some pretty decent essays about technology and movies and some pretty mediocre essays about music. Notwithstanding that, this book is required reading for all smart Americans, and you really won't be able to read advertising until you've read the opening essay, Hipness until Death, which becomes more and more applicable with each abstraction put out by Sprite or Arizona Jeans. Thank you Mark Crispin Miller!
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant and biting collections of essays on pop culture
Comment: "Boxed In" is a collection of essays on TV, Elvis, movies and the future. Miller's piercing critical analysis of the world of pop culture is no dry thesis. It contains hilariously colourful, laugh-out-loud, read-to-your-friends, genius (and often biting) observations of the media and the world we live in. There is a cunning essay on the TV game show "Family Feud" as well as a very shrewd essay on the Jerry Lewis telethons that are especially clever and funny. A must read.
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Title: The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder by Mark Crispin Miller ISBN: 0393322963 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman ISBN: 0140094385 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 November, 1986 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President by J. H. Hatfield ISBN: 1887128840 Publisher: Soft Skull Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.50 |
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Title: Obliviously On He Sails : The Bush Administration in Rhyme by CALVIN TRILLIN ISBN: 1400062888 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 01 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips ISBN: 0670032646 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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