Been reading No Logo, finally. Stole it from the bedroom of my 15-year-old cousin (take that capitalism). It’s pretty depressing. Trends that I’ve been avoiding since I was old enough to buy my own clothes (19) are given history and context and the appearance of unstoppability. Worse is the tarnishing of childhood memories and current fetishes.
She takes a pretty hard line with the Internet at large, but I suppose in the late 90’s it looked to be at the beginning of a descent into an unending wasteland e-zines and advertorials. Is it naïve to think things have improved since then; that the explosion of blogging software and non-commercial writing and social networking and user-driven content have given us something more than a marketeers paradise?
I’m only half way in, but so far every chapter is doom and gloom. I’m flagging and there’s no hope in sight.
Last night I noticed what I’d been using as a bookmark:
The joke’s on them though (I think). It’s from is a fake Chinese knockoff. I’m sure those guys pay the laborers twice as much. At least.