From Publishers Weekly
Wielding semiotic theory like a scalpel, Blonsky removes the European filter from the study of signs and slyly decodes America's multitudinous myths. He deciphers the name ok? Pepsi ("signifying nothing at all"), the Marlboro Man, Vanna White ("a version of Venus"), John Gotti, pornography and McDonald's. His dense, convoluted first-person narrative winds from the underground hell of New York City's subways to the glitzy ethereal realm of Hollywood game shows. Along the way he interviews Ted Koppel ("A television priest . . . principled and self-effacing"), Helmut Newton, Pat Robertson, Umberto Eco and Merv Griffin. Blonsky, who teaches semiotics at Manhattan's New School for Social Research, discusses horror with Stephen King in Maine, fashion with Giorgio Armani in Milan and American culture with Yevgeny Yevtushenko near Moscow. His contextual readings generate more sparks than light. Illustrated.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
From Library Journal
Powerful myths make sense of people's lives. Blonsky's myths involve speed, sex, and possession--manifestations of "energy," "the new name for God." According to Blonsky, people with enough energy are supposed to find themselves (the modern salvation). Television projects us into these myths through performers like Vanna White, who become everything to everybody by seeming to be both perfect and nothing in themselves, and figures like Ted Koppel who, equally hostile to everyone, can be the vehicles of all dislikes. Blonsky joins the mythmakers in a series of interviews--themselves speedy and blurred--that tell us more about him than about his subjects. A semiotician who has taught at several colleges, Blonsky gave up books to confront reality in TV studios, porn shows, ad agencies, and lectures by Umberto Eco. But he avoids Iowa pig farms, Harvard classrooms, and Quaker meetings, where his myths might have come unstuck. White teases him by suggesting that his myths are more enjoyed than believed, and readers will probably agree.
- Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
- Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
