[AVC]≡ PDF Free Hello I'm Special How Individuality Became the New Conformity Hal Niedzviecki 9780872864535 Books

Hello I'm Special How Individuality Became the New Conformity Hal Niedzviecki 9780872864535 Books

Download As PDF : Hello I'm Special How Individuality Became the New Conformity Hal Niedzviecki 9780872864535 Books

Hello I'm Special How Individuality Became the New Conformity Hal Niedzviecki 9780872864535 Books

As popular culture critique this is an intriguing narrative. However, it's so hipster and kitschy in the attitude I found it hard to relate, despite my sympathies that lean towards some of the ideals. I feel like it's a book that could have been written better 20 years ago. All that said, the guy can write and that made up for my misgivings.


Tags : Hello, I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity [Hal Niedzviecki] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <div> Hal Niedzviecki is one of the wisest, funniest and most acute cultural critics writing today. —Naomi Klein,Hal Niedzviecki,Hello, I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity,City Lights Publishers,0872864537,Media Studies,Multicultural Education,Popular Culture - General,Conformity,Conformity.,Individuality,Individuality.,Popular culture,Popular culture.,Anthropology - Cultural & Social,Cultural studies,EDUCATION Multicultural Education,Essays,Pop Arts Pop Culture,SOCIAL SCIENCE Essays,SOCIAL SCIENCE Media Studies,SOCIAL SCIENCE Popular Culture,Social Science,Social ScienceAnthropology - Cultural & Social,Social ScienceEssays,Sociology,rebellion against society; individuality and religion; reality TV; pop culture; self-help industry; "you can do anything" myth; paradox of individualism; cultural analysis; hipster culture; mainstream vs. alternative culture,rebellion against society;individuality and religion;reality TV;pop culture;self-help industry;"you can do anything" myth;paradox of individualism;cultural analysis;hipster culture;mainstream vs. alternative culture,Social ScienceAnthropology - Cultural & Social,Social ScienceEssays,Pop Arts Pop Culture,Social Science,Sociology,Cultural studies

Hello I'm Special How Individuality Became the New Conformity Hal Niedzviecki 9780872864535 Books Reviews

At one point in your life you have wanted to be a rock star/celebrity. Don't lie, I know this. This is the book for you - this is the book to try to figure out what is wrong with you to dream of having such a lifestyle. And also to figure out why you are never satisfied, always longer for a bigger and better thing.

'Hello, I'm special' is not a perfect book - it's a highly disorganized collection of ideas that go from amusing to disagreeable yet this is one of those books that will get the brain juices going - it will make you kind of smarter. This can be an important book if you leave yourself open to the ideas that what you believe could be false - a difficult thought in this age where everyone is so special.
I love infotainment reads, and this book is a good example of C+ quality in this genre. As I see it, this book sets out to characterize individuality as a value central to modern life, and does a great job of providing the reader of evidence of this again, and again, and again. By the last third of the book, it became a chore to hear the same argument rehashed with little elaboration.

The greatest downside to this book was that Niedzviecki implies throughout that valuing individuality as highly as he believes contemporary culture does is a bad thing, but absolutely fails to convince the reader on this point. Individuals interviewed by the author offer allusions to their "feeling lonely/disconnected/etc.," and this is the sum total of the evidence that the author is willing to supply to prove the negative effects of contemporary trends.

I think that the most effective thing that this book could do to improve itself is bring in empirical evidence and theory from psychology. A great wealth of discussion about the effects of media consumption on behavior, imitation, reward and punishment, etc. exist in psychology, and tying these lines of thought into "Hello, I'm Special" would have made this book better. The book, as it is, is pure journalism pretending to be cultural theory. (Here it is an ideal read if you like to say "hey, I could write this malarkey!" to yourself and close friends).

Up until the last forty or so pages, I was amused and getting a little bored. At about this point in the book, Niedzviecki decides that going without the conveniences of our cushy modern lives and actually "suffering" like real bushmen is the remedy to the problem of modern existence! So, to re-cap the author's argument exposure to media leads to imitation, therefore we should all feel guilty for having running water. I can only assume that this derailed logic has its roots in the author's personal problems (e.g. I hate my life, therefore I want to hurt myself). Wow, a little juvenile and embarrassing for our cultural theorist, but I kept reainding. Right after giving Niedzviecki the benefit of the doubt big time, he then hits me with a combination condemnation/ laudatory hailing of "protesters" and "activists." I was like what is going on here? This dude failed to fully develop his pretty good initial argument/topic, so then just totally abandons it to discuss some irrelevant personal fascination of some other topic. The book, as compelling and fun to read as it was for the first 100 pages, became unreadable and I put it down with about 20 pages left to go.

Verdict stoner rant.
Mr. Niedzviecki begins with an interesting subject main stream culture has co-opted rebellion. The anecdotes and the witticisms are fine when he tones down on the condescension, but the book suffers from deep flaws.

He leaves terms such as pop culture and rebellion ill-defined. However, I gathered that main stream culture is something that the reader does not be a part of. Once he lays out his argument that the main stream has co-opted rebellion, his arguments loop endlessly between the wish to get away from pop culture and the inability to do anything that does not lead back to being pop culture. Instead of trying to find a third path out of his binary sorting of "pop vs rebel", his definitions broaden until his narrative becomes diffused and nearly directionless at points.

At several points, he touches on historical writing on individuality and masses, but fails to capitalize on these opportunities to deepen his argumnt or break the loop that he has built.
In the spirit of "I'm Special," I would suggest that people take the reviews (positive and negative) with a grain of salt, read the book, and draw your own conclusions. Niedzviecki is simply presenting an insightful, albeit inconvenient, commentary on our society.

Niedzviecki has done a good job distancing from and reporting on our self-centered (North American) culture; that he's Canadian probably gives him the detachment he needs. It's uneven in places, but there are too many brilliant insights to simply dismiss it. For example, in the chapter called "The Search for Home," he discusses the backlash against the "I'm Special" culture in the form of the neo-traditional movement

"The neo-traditionalists--from downshifter to right-to-lifer--seek an escape from a society that compels loneliness by placing the highest values on individual achievement. Middle-class joiners also seek to be born again into yesterday, stripped of their fears and uncertainties, protected from the ravages and confusions of the shaper-shifting present." (page 157)

"Hello, I'm Special" is an interesting, disturbing. and challenging collection of essays--I highly recommend it.
As popular culture critique this is an intriguing narrative. However, it's so hipster and kitschy in the attitude I found it hard to relate, despite my sympathies that lean towards some of the ideals. I feel like it's a book that could have been written better 20 years ago. All that said, the guy can write and that made up for my misgivings.