Main entry:

Miller, John, 1946 March 11- author.

Title & Author:

Egotopia : narcissism and the new American landscape / John Miller ; with a foreword by Ashley Montagu.

Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, [1997]
©1997

Description:

xvi, 167 pages ; 23 cm

Notes:
Includes index.
Dark satanic malls -- The New Man: mimesis and immanence -- The New American Landscape: ego and Egotopia -- The myth of travel and the necessity of motion -- The aesthetics of the New Man: Beauty R Us -- Billboards: dominant visual modality of the New American Landscape -- The commercialization of public space -- The American landscape that might have been -- The innate Philistinism of the environmental movement -- Democracy, therapy, and the triumph of bad taste -- Breaking the spell: The future of the New American Landscape.
Current Copyright Fee: GBP2.60 0.

Summary:

"Egotopia begins where other critiques of the American landscape end: identifying the physical ugliness that defines and homogenizes America's cities, suburbs, and countryside. Believing that prevailing assessments of the American landscape are inadequate and injudicious, John Miller calls into question the conventional wisdom of environmentalists, urban planners, and architects alike. In this precedent-shattering examination of what he sees as the ugliness that is the American consumer society, Miller contends that our aesthetic condition can be fully understood only by explorers of the metaphoric environment. Metaphorically, the ugliness of America's great suburban sprawl is the physical manifestation of our increasing narcissism--our egotopia. The ubiquity of psychotherapy as a medium promoting self-indulgence has deified private man as it has demonized the public man. The American landscape, Miller argues, is no longer the physical manifestation of public and communal values. Instead, it has become a projection of private fantasies and narcissism--a plastic, protean phantasmagoria that exists to stimulate aggregate levels of consumption through ever-changing modalities of seduction and anesthetization. The New American Landscape is designed to nurture the emerging New Man, who will create and sustain his identity through the consumption of goods, services, and psychotherapies. Individual interests and private passions can no longer tolerate, nor even recognize, aesthetic concerns in such a landscape dedicated to uncompromising notions of utility. According to Miller, the political and economic interests of the New Man have assumed aesthetic manifestation, the broader culture re-created in his own image. No longer a product of public and communal values, the New American Landscape exists independently of history. In such an age, the aesthetics of the American landscape are not the function of collective memory and tradition, but of the raw and emotive assertion of our naked and shameless selves." -- Provided by publisher

ISBN:

0817309012 (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780817309015 (cloth ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Landscapes United States History 20th century.
Landscapes United States Psychological aspects History 20th century.
Narcissism Social aspects United States History 20th century.
Paysages États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle.
Paysages États-Unis Aspect psychologique Histoire 20e siècle.
Narcissisme Aspect social États-Unis Histoire 20e siècle.
Civilization
Landscapes
Landscapes Psychological aspects
Narcissism Social aspects
Narzissmus
Siedlungslandschaft
Ästhetik
Landschappen.
Narcisme.
United States Civilization 1970-
États-Unis Civilisation 1970-
United States
USA
landschap
landscape
esthetische waarde
aesthetic value
kwaliteit
quality
zelfbesef
self perception
eigendunk
self esteem
individuen
individuals
persoonlijkheid
personality
geschiedenis
history
vs
usa
Psychology (General)
Psychologie (algemeen)

Form/genre:

History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 192645
Call No.: ID BH301.L3 M55; ID:97-B3729
Status: Available