Depth of Shallow Culture: The High Art of Shoes, Movies, Novels, Monsters and Toys (Studies in Comparative Social Science)

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 “shallow,” 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.