Hiding

The age of information, media and virtuality is transforming many aspects of human experience. This is an investigation of the postmodern world which critically examines a wide range of contemporary cultural practices. The postmodern world, Taylor argues, is a world of surfaces, and the postmodern condition is one of "profound superficiality". For many cultural commentators, postmodernism superficiality is a cause for despair. This book, however, shows that the disappearance of depth in postmodern culture is actually a liberation replete with creative possibilities. It examines fashion advertising, and the contemporary preoccupation with body piercing and tattooing, asking whether these practices reveal or conceal. Phrenology and skin diseases, the "religious" architecture of Las Vegas, and the limitless spread of computer networks are all covered in the scope of this study. It attempts to show that postmodernism has provided a new sense of the superficial, one in which the issue is not the absence of meaning, but its uncontrollable, ecstatic proliferation.