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Summary: A Classic Analysis of Visual Culture
Review: Ewen's historical examination of visual culture is one of the most important books published in the past decade. It offers readers an incisive approach to the interpretation of visual language and has had a profound impact on thinking in the fields of art, architecture, design and cultural history
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Summary: Dry
Review: Ewen's research may have been extensive, but this doesn't make up for the fact that this book reads like he had to put in a SAT word every five lines just to prove that he can "write." Don't get me wrong, I've heard him speak, and his speech is not what this book is: dry, intellectual boredom.
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Summary: A fascinating look at our culture
Review: For many years there have been lots of books appearing about visual culture. Most have little to say, but this one presents a clear, historical analysis of the power of images in our lives. Beautifully written and profound.
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Summary: Simply great
Review: I first learned of this book when I heard Ewen give the keynote address at the American Institute of Graphic Arts convention in San Antonio in 1989. As a practicing designer the book gave me critical insights into my work and its impact on society. I've just read the new edition of All Consuming images and my eyes were opened once again. The new material is simply great. This book a major contribution to contemporary thought.
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Summary: Ewen describes how image overcomes substance in America.
Review: In All Consuming Images, Stuart Ewen evaluates how style has affected the various domains of society, the politics of style, and the ability of style to bring about a universal way of seeing things in our society. In today's consumer society, it is common to observe a free occupation with style, appearance, and image. This obsession with style has become so overwhelming that it has begun to affect the way we value ourselves and those we come in contact with. Ewen describes how each style transforms as time goes by, and each new culture has a different way of viewing things. Ewen explains that style is an individual circumstance, each person has a different perspective and a different way of expressing themselves through style. Ewen examines how there is a struggle to move up the social ladder, and style was a component for this upward movement. Middle class individuals were now able to present an image of containing wealth that they may not really have possessed. In the society of mass produced goods, people began to use stylized items as a personal "identity kit"(Ewen, 70). Stuart Ewen also discusses the idea of "less is more". He relates this concept to architecture, clothing, and women's obsession with being thin. Ewen began by describing how women began to leave the home more often, and society began to impose higher expectations on body ideals. Female bodies were portrayed as being perfectly thin in all aspects of the media. Ewen ends his book by explaining how the world we live in is more concerned with image and appearance than substance. Individuality within a person has become invisible if it does not include some aspect of style. Style in our country has emerged at such a rapid pace and at such a large scale. As new images and styles are presented, we must remember what is thoroughly important, the self within. Ewen concludes by stating that "there must be a reconciliation of image and meaning, a reinvigoration of a politics of substance"(Ewen, 271).
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Summary: Power and Beauty
Review: In this book the author presents a readable yet profound analysis of the historical roots our present day visual environment. I never before appreciated the extent to which power is routinely turned into beauty.
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Summary: A real eye-opener
Review: Just read the new edition of All Consuming Images. A great read, It's beautifully written and makes amazing sense of our often confusing visual culture.
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Summary: Eye Opening...
Review: Simply amazing. After reading this book, I am more aware than ever of the images in my life, the silent and persuasive language they speak. Living in the U. S., especially, this is an ideal travel guide through the virtual reality that surrounds us. The style autobiographies are wonderful.
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Summary: A weapon you can use for your own advantage.
Review: This book is a powerful tool. It is eye-opening and thought-provoking. While giving you some insight and a point of view to look around you with a better focus, it lets you better know yourself.The author examines the power of the image in our society, showing how, with the birth of photography, the image of an object became more important than the object itself. Ewen reminds us how style, images and propaganda affect our lives, by making people dissatisfied with the things they have (houses, cars, razors, sweatshirts), still good and useful and efficient, but lacking in the newest touch -- to make you buy what you don't need. There are a few ads discussed, so you can learn how to analyze ads on your own. You'll find how appearances work, so you can get rid of them. Use your critical thought and read this book with a grain of salt. As an example, the author - to make his point - quotes Karl Marx three times. While Marx, the father of Communism, certainly influenced the lives (and especially the deaths) of millions of people, much research shows that he deliberately collected false data to write his book... Also (see pages 186-187) the author somewhat condems the spread and use of computers and machines. I just don't agree, here. The advent of computer, for example, made my job as a pharmacist much easier. And I have to thank the Internet and the computing power of machines if I can run my publishing house and if I'm able to get in touch with people around the world who share my interests. Please remember that this book is a history of the role of image and style in western societies - especially the USA one - and that the author is a Professor: in my opinion, a few chapters are not much interesting, because they don't give the reader information he can use. I usually underline the books' parts I find more interesting, and I write down in a separate sheet the page number where the underlining occurred and why I did it. This is one of my most underlined books! A few quotations from the book follow. I think they shed light on its value. "Every element of politicians' public lives, every utterance, every countenance, every policy statement, every carefully chosen background setting is routinely passed through the image mill. Focus groups are staged, public perceptions painstakingly monitored, chiefly for the purpose of generating what one knowing "New York Times" reporter has termed "more potent propaganda."". "Crowds have always undergone the influence of illusions. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master." "To (...) modern architects of persuasion, independent public deliberation was something to be avoided at all cost. In its apparent capacity to advance a worldview in a bedazzling moment, and to stun the public mind into submission, the image was conceived to be an effective antidote to critical thought." "In a highly mobile society, where first impressions are important and where selling oneself is the most cultivated "skill", the construction of appearances becomes more and more imperative. If style offers a representation of self defined by surfaces and commodities, the media by which style is transmitted tend to reinforce this outlook in intimate detail. They continually offer us visible guideposts, reference points to draw upon, against which to measure ourselves." "As style becomes information, information becomes style. Nowhere is this trend more evident than in television news. "Newsroom" sets are styled to create the look of a command center, to offer an imagistic sense of being "plugged-in" to what is happening, to convey authority. Television journalists are selected and cultivated for their looks, their screen presence. From an authoritative, medium-shot vantage point, sitting behind a formidable desk, the anchorperson is constructed to transmit an appearance of incorruptibility, and of omniscience. On occasion, the camera moves in for a close-up, to impress a connotation of gravity upon a story, to show the audience that this newsperson "cares". From opening logo to sign-off, all information, all stories are filtered through a veil of appearances."
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Summary: Confusing, very intellectual
Review: When I first read this book, I was 18, a freshman in college. I had spent the entirety of my existance under the fishbowl of advertising. Although I had seen styles come and go, I really didn't understand enough to truly fathom what Ewen was saying. This, I think is Ewens's primary weekness. He comes off as attacking something that most people don't really see as existing. Fasion and style are too easily made straw men. Especially important is that fasion and style are usually under some sort of attack, either for using sex to interest people, for promoting an unrealistic standard of beauty, or even as the ultimate cause of violence and poverty when people murder others for their shoes or their coats. It is far too easy to mistake Ewen's attack on style as an attack on having aesthetic values at all. His use of fascist and proto-fascist sources as examples of the evil of style also weakens his work, as it looks like he is trying to create a "slipperly slope" argument between Vouge and Mien Kampf. Ultimately, I would say the book is worth reading, but only if one is looking for a way to better express what one already feels. If you are looking for something that will change minds, this is not the book.
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