- Paperback: 312 pages
- Publisher: Emblem Editions (May 3 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 077107106X
- ISBN-13: 978-0771071065
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13.2 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #163,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“It’s a fascinating approach to a fascinating subject . . . Written in a lively style that invites the reader to argue with the author, the book, at the very least, will turn the reader’s eye inward, and make us take a good, long look at the way we present ourselves to the world.”
— Booklist
“Unique insights on every page and breathtaking in scope, The Authenticity Hoax is a useful guide to understanding what we humans are all about.”
— John Zogby, Chairman of Zogby International and author of The Way We'll Be
"A totally real, genuine, authentic book about why you shoudn't believe any of those words. And it's genuinely good."
— Gregg Easterbrook, author, Sonic Boom
“In The Authenticity Hoax, Andrew Potter masters two of the trickiest balancing acts in contemporary social criticism. He takes on a wide range of highbrow sources — from John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Walter Benjamin and Lionel Trilling — and he makes them accessible without reducing them to cartoons. And he comments on an even wider range of pop culture items — from The Matrix to skateboarding to locally grown produce and the YouTube aesthetic — in a tone that’s pitched just right, each mordant insight framed in terms that show he understands the appeal of the quest for authenticity, even as he unmasks it. That’s the kind of criticism that changes minds.”
— Thomas de Zengotita, author of Mediated
“A provocative meditation on the way we live now.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“A shrewd and lively discussion peppered with pop culture references and a stimulating reappraisal of the romantic strain in modern life.”
— Publishers Weekly
From the Hardcover edition.
— Booklist
“Unique insights on every page and breathtaking in scope, The Authenticity Hoax is a useful guide to understanding what we humans are all about.”
— John Zogby, Chairman of Zogby International and author of The Way We'll Be
"A totally real, genuine, authentic book about why you shoudn't believe any of those words. And it's genuinely good."
— Gregg Easterbrook, author, Sonic Boom
“In The Authenticity Hoax, Andrew Potter masters two of the trickiest balancing acts in contemporary social criticism. He takes on a wide range of highbrow sources — from John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Walter Benjamin and Lionel Trilling — and he makes them accessible without reducing them to cartoons. And he comments on an even wider range of pop culture items — from The Matrix to skateboarding to locally grown produce and the YouTube aesthetic — in a tone that’s pitched just right, each mordant insight framed in terms that show he understands the appeal of the quest for authenticity, even as he unmasks it. That’s the kind of criticism that changes minds.”
— Thomas de Zengotita, author of Mediated
“A provocative meditation on the way we live now.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“A shrewd and lively discussion peppered with pop culture references and a stimulating reappraisal of the romantic strain in modern life.”
— Publishers Weekly
From the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
One of Canada's hippest, smartest cultural critics takes on the West's defining value.
We live in a world increasingly dominated by the fake, the prepackaged, the artificial: fast food, scripted reality TV shows, Facebook "friends," and fraudulent memoirs. But people everywhere are demanding the exact opposite, heralding "authenticity" as the cure for isolated individualism and shallow consumerism. Restaurants promote the authenticity of their cuisine, while condo developers promote authentic loft living and book reviewers regularly praise the authenticity of a new writer's voice.
International bestselling author Andrew Potter brilliantly unpacks our modern obsession with authenticity. In this perceptive and thought-provoking blend of pop culture, history, and philosophy, he finds that far from serving as a refuge from modern living, the search for authenticity often creates the very problems it's meant to solve.
From the Hardcover edition.
We live in a world increasingly dominated by the fake, the prepackaged, the artificial: fast food, scripted reality TV shows, Facebook "friends," and fraudulent memoirs. But people everywhere are demanding the exact opposite, heralding "authenticity" as the cure for isolated individualism and shallow consumerism. Restaurants promote the authenticity of their cuisine, while condo developers promote authentic loft living and book reviewers regularly praise the authenticity of a new writer's voice.
International bestselling author Andrew Potter brilliantly unpacks our modern obsession with authenticity. In this perceptive and thought-provoking blend of pop culture, history, and philosophy, he finds that far from serving as a refuge from modern living, the search for authenticity often creates the very problems it's meant to solve.
From the Hardcover edition.
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