The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural IconUniversity of Chicago Press, 1998 - 321 páginas For animals that have been dead millions of years, dinosaurs are extraordinarily pervasive in our everyday lives. Appearing in ads, books, movies, museums, television, toy stores, and novels, they continually fascinate both adults and children. How did they move from natural extinction to pop culture resurrection? What is the source of their powerful appeal? Until now, no one has addressed this question in a comprehensive way. In this lively and engrossing exploration of the animal's place in our lives, W.J.T. Mitchell shows why we are so attached to the myth and the reality of the "terrible lizards." Mitchell aims to trace the cultural family tree of the dinosaur, and what he discovers is a creature of striking flexibility, linked to dragons and mammoths, skyscrapers and steam engines, cowboys and Indians. In the vast territory between the cunning predators of Jurassic Park and the mawkishly sweet Barney, from political leviathans to corporate icons, from paleontology to Barnum and Bailey, Mitchell finds a cultural symbol whose plurality of meaning and often contradictory nature is emblematic of modern society itself. As a scientific entity, the dinosaur endured a near-eclipse for over a century, but as an image it is enjoying its widest circulation. And it endures, according to Mitchell, because it is uniquely malleable, a figure of both innovation and obsolescence, massive power and pathetic failure—the totem animal of modernity. Drawing unforeseen and unusual connections at every turn between dinosaurs real and imagined, The Last Dinosaur Book is the first to delve so deeply, so insightfully, and so enjoyably into our modern dino-obsession. |
Otras ediciones - Ver todo
The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon W. J. T. Mitchell No hay ninguna vista previa disponible - 1998 |
The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon W. J. T. Mitchell No hay ninguna vista previa disponible - 1998 |
Términos y frases comunes
Alien films alien visitors animal image animal of modernity artists attraction bipeds birds bones called Calvino Calvino's story Capek's Newts civilization clan Claude Lévi-Strauss commercial concept contrast cowboys creatures Dilophosaurus dino dinomania dinophiles dinosaur fascination dinosaur images dinosaur renaissance dinosaur stories Dinosauroid dinosaurology dinotopia dragon earth entific evolutionary extinction fantasy Fernflower ferocity fierce figure film folk taxonomy fossil french fry Gertie the Dinosaur giant giantism Gould human species icon Indian invention ITALO CALVINO Jurassic Park kind Last Dinosaur Book Last Thunder Horse late twentieth century living look Lost World mammals mass McDonald's metaphors modern totem monsters monstrous natural history museum object obsolete paleontologists popular Qfwfq question reptilian Reptilicus resurrection ritual Robert Bakker role rumor saur scientific scientists status Stegosaurus taboo taxonomy terrible lizards things Thunder Horse West tion totem poles Traditional totem animals Triceratops Velociraptor visual Waterhouse Hawkins