Shopping Cart Pantheism

by Jeanne Randolph

Overview

Glorifying consumerism as the de facto religion of our time, Shopping Cart Pantheism offers a preposterous yet challenging invitation to participate in commodity worship. As our narrator meanders the Las Vegas Strip, its sites and monuments become examples of Christian sainthood, miracles, worship, and dogma now transformed into icons of consumerism. Satiric, witty, and deeply insightful, Shopping Cart Pantheism reveals the fraught beginnings of the twenty-first century's most pervasive neurosis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781894037617
Publisher:	Arbeiter Ring Publishing
Publication date:	06/01/2015
Series:	Semaphore Series , #12
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Jeanne Randolph is one of Canada's foremost cultural theorists. She is the author of the influential book Psychoanalysis & Synchronized Swimming (1991) as well as Symbolization and Its Discontents (1997), Why Stoics Box (2003), and Ethics of Luxury (2007). Dr. Randolph is also known as an engaging lecturer and performance artist. In universities and galleries across Canada, England, Australia, and Spain, she has spoken on topics ranging from the aesthetics of Barbie to the philosophy of Wittgenstein.

Editorial Reviews

11/16/2015
The latest work of critical theory and literary fiction from cultural theorist Randolph (Ethics of Luxury) is both perplexing and delightful. Her writing is rooted in eclectic research and a deeply fertile imagination. Beneath the surface conceit of a deeply introspective travel diary from a trip to Las Vegas, the book's purpose is twofold: to map the interactions between Christianity and paganism as the world embraces consumerism, and to trace the origins of this shift to the enormous damage that the Cold War inflicted on the Western psyche. The tone remains funny, smart, and engaging as Randolph spins a kaleidoscope of vignettes of Vegas and intricately wrought meditations on materialist culture. Randolph's argument that material goods have become objects of worship in Western culture is all the more persuasive for its lack of judgment. Instead of chastising consumers, she compassionately positions product pantheism as a cure for what she terms "post-apocalyptic regression." Steeped in history, theology, and Freudian psychoanalysis, the book is intellectual but accessible, and a whole lot of fun. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Both perplexing and delightful, Jeanne Randolph's writing is rooted in eclectic research and a deeply fertile imagination... Funny, smart, and engaging, Randolph spins a kaleidoscope of vignettes of Vegas and intricately wrought meditations on materialist culture... Steeped in history, theology, and Freudian psychoanalysis, Shopping Cart Pantheism is intellectual but accessible, and a whole lot of fun.--Publishers Weekly

A witty, genre-bending narrative that joyfully combines social satire, cultural criticism and off-beat humour. Think of A Modest Proposal narrated by a woman who visits Las Vegas armed only with "an active subconscious and lots of nap time."--Méira Cook

From the Publisher