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“Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers” by S. Maasik and J. Solomon is a critical analysis of American popular culture. The cultural study is performed through semiotics. The work deals with the culture of American consumption, signs of advertising, forms of the culture, American film culture (the first section of the book), and cultural constructions (the second section of the book).
Popular culture is presented in the book as the integrity of cultural principles open to decoding by semiotic techniques. The conceptual framework provided by the authors is directed at proving the fact that semiotics as a field of critical theory was intentionally developed for the interpretation of cultures and their signs.
In this paper, we will analyze the problem of consuming passions going by the author of the corresponding section.
The first thing the author mentions in work is that the person may be characterized according to the things he or she buys. The reader’s attention to the issue is attracted at once by posing a rather difficult question. We are asked to compose a list of items we are able to buy. What will it be like? Also, the author asks us to create an annotated list of the things we do own. The reader is expected to analyze the importance of these issues and conclude about the way they reflect the reader’s personality. The author drives at the direct connection between the consumer’s purchases, his or her personal culture, and the consuming American culture as a whole. The purchases are considered as signs that the consumer uses to signal the world about oneself.
Every particular purchase is an element of the cultural system; the laws of this system are determined by the development of the culture. The significance of this system is rooted not in the usefulness of this or that product but in the symbolism that it conveys. The consumer’s task is to decipher his or her purchases and possessions to understand better oneself and the whole society. While decoding this system, one should keep in mind that there is a difference between the fashion on this or that thing and the functions it performs.
An interesting illustration is presented by the author for the reader to understand the interconnection between the purchases and culture. First, the author studies the history of cell phones. It comes out that invented as “car-phones” and originally used only by business people, cell-phones turned into a characteristic feature of the modern popular culture. The thing is that nowadays cell-phone is not a simple index of a human’s well-being, but of his or her personal culture as a whole. No one would deny the fact that cell phones have penetrated our life and have considerably modified it. It often happens that we become absolutely dependent on these small things, and this dependence does not positively influence our life full of surprises.
The author’s complaint is that the usage of cell phones has changed people’s understanding of the private space they have at their disposal. We do realize that we treat public space as our private one, thus neglecting the interests of people around us. So, on the one hand, cell phones are a sign of modernization that took place in American society, and, on the other, they are a sign of a sort of degradation characteristic for modern Americans. Moreover, the use of cell phones increases people’s becoming mistrust, as these devices help the users to spy for each and every action of others.
Similar findings are reached by the author when analyzing the importance of the pagers and invasion of music snatchers – all of them may be regarded as signs of cultural development that influence it both positively and negatively.
The author’s reflection of the way the customer’s culture has changed during the decades also presents much interest to the reader. It is difficult to deny the difference between the cultural values that dominated during this or that decade. We do realize that our personal assumption of this or that thing changes depending on the fashion that dominates in society. And we should confess that we always look for some know-how when we get to know about its appearance. Looking at the picture the work is supplied with, we see ourselves in the long queue of people whose eyes are shining with the desire to buy something new. We realize that this passion for overwhelming shopping is poisonous but can do nothing about it. We become victims of numerous marketing strategies, and this is a real problem of the present day. How not become misled by various advertisements offering new and new items? How to go outside and remain a customer whose interests and ideas are carefully considered and implemented?
These are the main questions we should find answers to. We are a part of the consuming system, so let us become a significant part of it at last. Our culture urgently needs customers capable of critical thinking. This seems to be the main message of the work under consideration.
Works Cited
Maasik, Sonia, and Solomon, Jack. Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006.
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