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Title: New Age Capitalism: Making Money East of Eden by Kimberly J. Lau ISBN: 0-8122-3548-7 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $45.00

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Average Customer Rating: 2.6 (5 reviews)

Rating: 1
Summary: A snooze
Comment: This deals with a fascinating subject; unfortunately, the author claims an importance for her approach and analysis that simply can't be justified: she takes a few snippets from theorists of taste, commodification, and trans-cultural exchange, treats them as gospel rather than engaging critically with them, and applies them to material that (in her view) accedes so readily to the theories as to raise no challenging questions at all. Moreoever, the prose is the blue boiler-plate special: jargon-laden and warmed over, with no sense that writing must be digestable.

Rating: 1
Summary: A tepid polemic
Comment: This book uses a canon to kill a flea. Sympathetic as I am to the rhetorical and discursive analysis of cultural formations, such a project requires depth and context to be intelligible: this book lacks both. It provides quick parachute drops into various aspects of discursively mediated marketeering strategies touching on discourse touching on the body, and then hurries on to another example or arena without working through the consequences of the argument. Morever, the style is ponderous enough to kill a child with lead poisoning. Since the author never bothers to ask who reads (let alone who is persuaded by) the discursive constructs that she so rapidly catalogues, one wonders why she has devoted all this energy to debunking notions that are probably believed by virtually no one.

Rating: 5
Summary: An Interesting and Entertaining Read
Comment: "New Age Capitalism" is an insightful look at a burgeoning part of the economy that has gone overlooked for too long. Lau grabs our attention early on by showing that this cottage industry of Eastern culture is actually hundreds of millions of dollars a year and growing fast. From there she takes us on a fascinating look at not only the historical origins of the most well-known manifestations of Eastern culture (e.g. yoga), but also the particular ways in which they have been adapted and marketed to Western cultures.

The juxtaposition between the two (the purportedly ancient and mystical roots vs. the hard-nosed Western marketing) is stark at first, but the two slowly start to blend together as Lau shows that even the most non-traditional elements of other cultures can be packaged to enforce our existing social norms. The analysis will at times make you laugh, as when Lau highlights the yoga tag line, "Less Inner Thigh, More Inner Piece." At other times it will make you shake your head in frustration, as Lau illustrates how the bastardization of ancient customs is used to promulgate dangerous stereotypes and images.

The common thread throughout her analysis is that we are taught that these products are not only good for us, but good for society and the environment as well. Whether or not this is true is debatable and largely beside the point (I found myself sharing Lau's cynicism). But what is important is the perception that these products are good for society and the environment. Lau concludes with the worrisome thought that if this perception becomes prevalent, then individuals will replace political action and personal responsibility with consumerism. Why do I have to worry about global warming, I only use aromatherapy products.

Perhaps best of all, Lau presents this all in an academically rigorous fashion that is still digestible for the casual reader....or casual macrobiotic consumer.