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ajmcwhinney's review against another edition
4.0
The introduction to this text (not the one by Baudrillard) is pretty bad, but this is an excellent text if one wants to get acquainted with Baudrillard's early thought. Pretty clearly written and polemic
junyan's review against another edition
4.0
翻译不好。No need to say less is more, bc more matters nothing.
sampollard's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Considering the book was written in the 60s, it's still incredibly relevant today as consumerism has become even more deeply entrenched. A fascinating look into how consumerism capitalism commodifies everything, turning even our own bodies into objects. It should change the way you see the world.
edmondduong's review against another edition
4.75
Despite its considerably lower popularity among Baudrillard's works, Consumer Society is incredibly insightful in revealing the inner mechanisms of the current cultures and societies we live in. After its publishing in 1970, the ideas outlined by Baudrillard are surprisingly (or unsurprisingly?) not common knowledge despite its prescience about the way the world advances. Of course, Baudrillard continues to flesh out these ideas, culminating in his later works that focus more on the impacts of the pervasive impact of the consumer society on media and culture, while this book talks more about the material. However, seeing the evolution of his ideas as they come to fruition gives you insight into his thought processes.
Split into three parts, I feel that the first two parts, The Formal Liturgy of the Object, and The Theory of Consumption outshine the third, expressing more cogent ideas that are more than just baseless conjectures. In Part III, a few chapters are worth highlighting, The Drama of Leisure or the Impossibility of Wasting One's Time, The Mystique of Solicitude, and Anomie in the Affluent Society.
Being a book written in 1970 Paris, Baudrillard references things such as the Parisian drugstore that is very hard to be envisioned when you're not in the context. A cursory search on the web yields nought either. Yet, despite such obstacles, this book is worth trudging through. The Consumer Society has an advantage over his later works, being much more accessible to the public. The book flows much more smoothly, with the way the ideas being lined out being very logical and smooth. A general picture of this book can be easily formed by a reader who is perhaps less attuned to reading works regarding sociology. Its modernist structure (as opposed to post-modernist) allows one to grasp the ideas without having to re-read the book over again, especially if the person is not used to reading post-modern works. This is a book that is simply worth a read if you are interested in the idea of consumption and sociology.
Split into three parts, I feel that the first two parts, The Formal Liturgy of the Object, and The Theory of Consumption outshine the third, expressing more cogent ideas that are more than just baseless conjectures. In Part III, a few chapters are worth highlighting, The Drama of Leisure or the Impossibility of Wasting One's Time, The Mystique of Solicitude, and Anomie in the Affluent Society.
Being a book written in 1970 Paris, Baudrillard references things such as the Parisian drugstore that is very hard to be envisioned when you're not in the context. A cursory search on the web yields nought either. Yet, despite such obstacles, this book is worth trudging through. The Consumer Society has an advantage over his later works, being much more accessible to the public. The book flows much more smoothly, with the way the ideas being lined out being very logical and smooth. A general picture of this book can be easily formed by a reader who is perhaps less attuned to reading works regarding sociology. Its modernist structure (as opposed to post-modernist) allows one to grasp the ideas without having to re-read the book over again, especially if the person is not used to reading post-modern works. This is a book that is simply worth a read if you are interested in the idea of consumption and sociology.
bookishlysophie's review against another edition
4.0
This is not a read for those who are either not pursuing an academic degree concerning consumer societies or those who have enough of a passion for learning that they can commit to reading through some complex ideas and a very intricate text.
The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures produces some excellent ideas surrounding everything from sex, the body, violence and gender to the production of signs, key in discussing this topic on an academic level. It manages to avoid the trap of having its ideas stuck in time, despite being written long ago this book and its ideas are still relevant and therefore it is a fantastic read if you need inspiration for an essay.
That being said parts of the book do verge on being archaic, in this case they act as a means of reference to which you would need to apply your own examples.
This is not a simple book to read, I highly recommend reading the introductory chapter in order to grasp the concepts before delving into the actual book. That being said I have come out of reading this book with a much broader knowledge of the consumer society than that I had before, therefore the book was well worth the read.
The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures produces some excellent ideas surrounding everything from sex, the body, violence and gender to the production of signs, key in discussing this topic on an academic level. It manages to avoid the trap of having its ideas stuck in time, despite being written long ago this book and its ideas are still relevant and therefore it is a fantastic read if you need inspiration for an essay.
That being said parts of the book do verge on being archaic, in this case they act as a means of reference to which you would need to apply your own examples.
This is not a simple book to read, I highly recommend reading the introductory chapter in order to grasp the concepts before delving into the actual book. That being said I have come out of reading this book with a much broader knowledge of the consumer society than that I had before, therefore the book was well worth the read.
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