Andrew Calcutt

Going beyond recent attempts to pigeonhole the information revolution as either the information highway to utopia or the devil's own dystopia, this book cuts through the furor surrounding the Internet and shows how the paradoxical aspects of new media are an expression of the inherent contradictions underlying society as a whole. Andrew Calcutt is an enthusiastic champion of the potential for new communications technology and a trenchant critic of the culture of fear and self-limitation which prevents its realization. At a time when events and social processes are often assumed to be beyond our control, he seeks to accentuate the positive capabilities of human beings and the technologies which we have created.

An A-Z of the Contradictions in Cyberculture

White Noise

Richard Shephard

What makes a novel cult?: drink and drugs; sex and rock 'n' roll?; a window on subcultures?; the ability to tap into the zeitgeist? This book provides an insight into the cult canon assessing 250 authors who have pioneered experiments in style and content, from Kathy Acker and Nelson Algren via Burroughs and Bukowski to Tom Wolfe and Irvine Welsh.

A Reader's Guide

Cult Fiction

From Acid Jazz to Peter Sellers, a quick-take who's who of British pop culture From the Swinging 60s and the mods, from the seventies and the punks to Generation E, Britpop and Cool Britain--the past 50 years have seen a steady stream of world-sweeping movements, trends, and styles come out of the British Isles. In this hip, fast-paced look at who's who and what's what of British popular culture, cultist Andrew Calcutt explores more than 200 key people, products, and phenomena in British popular culture. Calcutt deftly deconstructs hundreds of Brit Cult icons--such as Monty Python, J. G. Ballard, Nick Hornby, Martin Amis, Doc Martens, E-Type Jaguars, glam, and goth, Malcolm McClaren, Blur, Oasis, The Kinks, The Who, and the Stones--and identifies who or what they are, what they represent to us, and what they have, in turn, inspired. Each entry is a brief, stand-alone essay providing biographical details, analysis, observation, and opinion; but, taken together, the essays add up to a revealing portrait of the good (The Beatles), the bad (racist skinheads) and the ugly (football hooligans) of British pop culture in all its many facets.

Andrew Calcutt

Books

Your next favorite book is out there