Cute, Quaint, Hungry and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism

I've read a ton of texts about "consumer culture" and this is by far one of the best. What's most intruiging about its arguments is that Harris is willing to explore how the culture is appealing, plausible, seductive, rather than just hideous kitsch that the sweaty masses--for reasons obscure--tend to enjoy. Harris is brilliantly insightful, tactful, persuasive.

Alfred North Whitehead said that when one criticizes an epoch it is important to look, not at the commonly agreed upon, controversial issues, but at subjects which no one is discussing -- the aspects of life that everyone takes for granted. Daniel Harris does just that in this quirky, provocative book. He examines phenomena which are ubiquitous but unstudied, such as coolness, deliciousness, and cuteness. His book is full of original observations, but the one that I find most striking is the way in which advertisers of all products flatter their potential consumers with notion that they are daring individualists -- that buying a particular car, t-shirt, or coffee mug is somehow an empowering act of bold rebellion that sets one apart from the crowd. After reading this book I didn't flip through a magazine or watch television commercials the same way, and you won't either.

Harris explains that he has no new ideas to fight consumerism or how to develop an acceptable aesthetic, but this book offers a new voice to current aestheticism, trends and pop-culture. If you want to find out why people like what they like, Harris gives bare minimum facts and allows you to draw your own conclusions, which was well received. For independent thinkers!

These essays are quirky, witty, obnoxious, and fun -- all at once. Daniel Harris is an exceptionally fine essayist whose gaze on consumer culture is like a laser beam. (Where else can you find sitcoms described as "laughter vomitoriums"?) If you have a wry attitude about consumer culture, you'll enjoy this book.

Daniel Harris is that unusual essayist who writes about popular culture in an informative, unpretentious and humorous way. He doesn't spend all of his time trying to inflate the importance of the subjects of his essays to make himself seem more important. Instead, he just goes about selecting familiar yet unexamined niches of popular culture and reveals the ironies that turn up with wit and enthusiasm. These 10 essays on the aesthetics of consumerism may embarrass some readers when they show how we've been manipulated by corporate marketing, but, ultimately, one can't help but feel enlightened and thoroughly entertained by Harris' writing. As essays as good as these rarely appear in mainstream publications, I would recommend buying this book without hesitation.