I'm flipping through Larry "anthropologist of the plutocrats" Samuel's book, _Rich: The Rise and Fall of American Wealth Culture_.
and good gravy, the number of books on the shelves exploiting the bubble burst -- hilarious!
Anyone familiar with Samuel? He's a consultant with a company that helps other companies market to the wealthy.
Also, say Ehrenreich is on the circuit with her new book. Can't wait to read that. She digging into u.s.er's apparent inability to be anything less than chipper and upbeat -- which is interesting given that her last book, on the history of depression, suggests that depression is an effect of capitalist society. (Which, I should reword since depression wouldn't be the symptom or effect of the structure but is the structure?)
Also, skimming through Gerald Grant's newest book which we've discussed briefly a couple of years ago when he was heavy in the research phase. He'd just moved to the town I was living in, while I was moving out! bummer. anyway, the book is interesting so far, and backs up some of what I was saying on the thread about why poor and working strata young men will defer college in order to get a job -- and bling: _Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh_
Still flipping around with Chris Anderson's Free. He's a dork, of course. Free is, indeed, things like Freemiums, the old advertising supported model, etc. Yet, he keeps talking free. and it kills me because the entire focus is on _distribution_ costs -- and not on labor costs.
And then, at some point, he talks about how taxes are another way for things to be "free".
fuck.
the entire thing strikes me as being ripe for an analysis of the concept of 'free' which masks -- and Anderson thinks this is the awesomest thing -- the relationship between production and consumption. It is tres awesome, Anderson seems to think, that we put layers and layers and more layers between the things we consume and the people that create them.
it all strikes me as ripe for another level of analysis in commodity fetishism.
shag