Depth of Shallow Culture: The High Art of Shoes, Movies, Novels, Monsters, and Toys

by Albert J. Bergesen

Come 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.

142 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Albert James Bergesen is an American sociologist and Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology at University of Arizona.

Reviews

[Summer · Rating 2 out of 5]

The entire time I was reading this, I was waiting for the part where the author said, "Ha ha, I was joking, of course no one thinks this." But alas, it never came. This book continued to be a mess through its mercifully short page span. This book includes a chapter on why sneaker design is like classical Greek tropes, one on how Rambo parallels Don Quixote, a couple of indecipherable pieces on the difference between Western and Japanese heroes (with glaring contradictions within the text itself), and a conclusion which I didn't finish reading. There is no basis for any of the arguments presented,and in several cases, the arguments are disproved by the examples.

Also, how do you write an entire chapter about sneaker style and not mention the Reebok Pump? COME ON.