Trash Culture: Popular Culture and the Great Tradition

This book was great. Based on the postmodern premise that there is value in both high Culture and low culture, Simon bases his chapters on well-tested (in the Cal Poly classroom where he teaches) theories that many elements of recent culture are easier to interpret when compared and contrasted with High Culture. So, he compares "Star Wars" and "The Faerie Queen", the shopping mall and the formal European garden, Playboy and The Book of the Courtier, Star Trek and Gulliver's Travels. And with each comparison, your eyes grow wide as you see the similarities. It's a wonderful way to evaluate modern cultural production. So, basically, anyone at all open to postmodern ideas will love this book. If you're a strict modernist you will probably hate it, but it'd be good for you to read it ;-)