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

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 Rambo. Although some regard popular culture as 'œshallow,'� this book reveals that it is more often complex, deep, and 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.

Albert J. Bergesen is Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona. He is the author of numerous books and articles. He coauthored God in the Movies (2003) with Andrew M. Greeley and Cultural Analysis: The Work of Peter Berger, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, and Jnrgen Habermas (1984) with Wuthnow, Hunter, and Kurtzweil.