Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

Unspoken Rules in Uncertain Times

With the eyes of the world on the U.S. due to our recent historic election I find myself reflecting on how the world sees us as a country. Sometimes an outsider's perspective can reveal a lot about the ways that we choose to live our lives. Here are a few titles that examine the often unspoken rules (some unbending, others surprisingly flexible) that govern our cultural and physical landscape.

Local publisher Graphic Arts Books is partly responsible for the prolific Culture Shock! series. Titles cover countries from all over the world but you'd have to read Culture Shock!- USA to find out that, "Americans can form relationships very quickly, but they don't often go deep. We constantly encounter new people we will never see again. Therefore we don't need to worry that our familiarity will entice them to become burdens to us." Author Esther Wanning provides useful insights into generalized American society as well as tips for those adjusting to life in the U.S. that might equally provide an opportunity for introspection for people already steeped in our culture. She even includes a quiz and a list of DOs and DON'Ts which are particularly useful: DO Arrive 10-15 late for a dinner party! DON'T try to bribe police or other officials!

Portland author Chuck Thompson's Smile While You're Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer is part expose and part thriller. Thompson may have burned some bridges in writing this book but what he reveals about the inner machinations of the travel writing industry will make you think twice about the effects of globalization the world and on the casual traveler and how those experiences differ from what is depicted in our travel magazines. The stories that appear here are more gritty, visceral and sincere than anything he could have gotten published as a travel writer. They detail experiences of a human scale. These are stories of one man making sense of the constraints of his chosen profession and the world at large simultaneously. Humorous and touching, Thompson's writing says much about an important way that we take in information about the world around us and about what we might find if are willing to challenge ourselves to experience travel on a more intimate level.

Few would argue with the idea that these are uncertain times. With so much public dialog focused on politics and culture I sometimes turn to science as a source of assurance. Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory is great popular science writing because it takes very recent, very challenging scientific developments and presents them in an easy to understand, entertaining fashion. I'll admit that there is some irony in recommending this book as a source of certainty in uncertain times since the discoveries described within it build on theories that embrace chaos, unpredictability and concepts of physics which feel quite surreal when compared to our everyday life. However, Greene's descriptions of reality at its most essential, profoundly minute level fill me with a sense of awe and possibility that is invigorating. Truly, these are the rules we live by. Nova produced a two DVD set that serves as a fun companion piece.

Political Advertising

A presidential election always seems to create a lot of news, especially as Election Day approaches. I'm sure you've seen and/or read an awful lot about McCain, Obama, their speeches, their policy ideas, and their campaigns. So even if you're interested in politics, you might be getting a little tired of hearing about it all! I can tell you, I'm definitely feeling ready for a new set of headlines. But, all the news I've seen about the presidential campaign — including a recent episode of local radio call-in show Think Out Loud — has made me wonder a bit, lately, about the history of political advertising. How did campaign advertising get started? Is it a twentieth century phenomenon? Are there ads from the past that really changed the course of a campaign, and if so, what were they like?

The Living Room Candidate — a multimedia exhibit from New York City's Museum of the Moving Image — collects hundreds old television and internet commercials for presidential candidates from Eisenhower and Stevenson in 1956 to McCain and Obama in 2008. It's fascinating to see how much advertising has changed over this fifty year time span, and the exhibit also provides election return maps, a list of related websites, and more.

What about ads that focus on issues, rather than candidates? Revolutionary Tides: The Art of the Political Poster, 1914-1989, by Jeffrey T. Schnapp, is a gorgeous coffee-table sized book with page after page of posters from around the world, produced for mass audiences and featuring nearly every important political topic from posters encouraging people to buy war bonds and military recruitment posters to posters promoting public health and literacy.

And, a bit further afield, Arthur Asa Berger's Ads, Fads, and Consumer Culture analyzes advertising's affects on popular culture. Berger devotes an entire chapter to political advertising, but also discusses many other types of advertising, examines the culture of consumption, and considers how advertising works as a venue for communication.