The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves

The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves
ISBN-10
1551993473
ISBN-13
9781551993478
Category
Social Science
Pages
308
Language
English
Published
2010-04-06
Publisher
McClelland & Stewart
Author
Andrew Potter

Description

One of Canada's hippest, smartest cultural critics takes on the West's defining value. We live in a world increasingly dominated by the fake, the prepackaged, the artificial: fast food, scripted reality TV shows, Facebook "friends," and fraudulent memoirs. But people everywhere are demanding the exact opposite, heralding "authenticity" as the cure for isolated individualism and shallow consumerism. Restaurants promote the authenticity of their cuisine, while condo developers promote authentic loft living and book reviewers regularly praise the authenticity of a new writer's voice. International bestselling author Andrew Potter brilliantly unpacks our modern obsession with authenticity. In this perceptive and thought-provoking blend of pop culture, history, and philosophy, he finds that far from serving as a refuge from modern living, the search for authenticity often creates the very problems it's meant to solve.

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