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September 24, 2004
We can change the world!
The first two sentences of Kalle Lasn‘s, Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America™ are:
The book you’re holding carries a message that your first instinct will be to distrust. That message is, We can change the world.
Yeah! I think we really can!
I’ve had Culture Jam sitting on my bookshelf since it was published in 1999, but I never took the time to open it — my allegiance to the whole Culture Jammer ideal was already set at the time and I’ve always considered myself fairly learned on the concepts there within.
Well, why did I buy the book then?
For a few reasons. First, I was teaching a multimedia class at the time and the class text that I chose was, Jamming the Media: A Citizen’s Guide Reclaiming the Tools of Communication, by Gareth Branwyn (if you are into “media hacking” and would like a great guide to minimalist media tomfoolery and the history of multimedia in general, you should read this). I also told my class to read Neal Stephenson‘s The Diamond Age and K. Eric Drexler‘s Engine of Creation. In any case, I wasn’t going to let this class fall into the realm of “average experience” for anyone. So, I bought Culture Jam as reference for the class — which I never ended up using. The second reason that I bought Culture Jam was because I thought I might someday have reason to give it to someone who was interested in the subject of chenging our culture through media. This hasn’t happened yet. Lastly, I just always thought it would look cool on a coffee table.
I’m between books right now. I just finished Free Culture By Lawrence Lessig and I’m anticipating purchasing my next work of fiction. Free Culture was a great read, if not a little bit out-dated. Still I would suggest it to anyone who is interested in the history (and future, of course) of communications in our culture. Some of you may remember a recent Blog entry of mine that was inspired by this book (and don’t worry, I am conjuring up a followup entry — with pictures — so stay tuned).
Words can be inspiring and insightful and motivate us to action. I like books because of this. Books can also remind us of ideals and goals and feelings that maybe we sometimes forget about during “regular life.” As I read those first to lines of Lasn’s book this morning — however overstated or overheard they may be — I was inspired. I remember all of the things I was thinking about back in 1999 and all of the things I wanted to motivate others to think about.
In 1999, I was leaving a hectic lifestyle to return to school. I was teaching at the college that I got my first degree from in 1992. And I wanted to change the world. How? I didn’t know. But some of these books gave me a pretty good glimpse.
Posted at 12:36 pm
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thank you.
thank you.
thank you.
that was indeed a swell review of a fantastic book.
Adbusters has changed my life . . . or at least my perceptions of the mental environment.
doug () - September 24, 2004 at 6:08 pm
