{"product_id":"pretend-were-dead-annalee-newitz-9780822337454","title":"Pretend We're Dead: Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture","description":"In \u003ci\u003ePretend We're Dead\u003c\/i\u003e, Annalee Newitz argues that the slimy zombies and gore-soaked murderers who have stormed through American film and literature over the past century embody the violent contradictions of capitalism. Ravaged by overwork, alienated by corporate conformity, and mutilated by the unfettered lust for profit, fictional monsters act out the problems with an economic system that seems designed to eat people whole.\u003cp\u003eNewitz looks at representations of serial killers, mad doctors, the undead, cyborgs, and unfortunates mutated by their involvement with the mass media industry. Whether considering the serial killer who turns murder into a kind of labor by mass producing dead bodies, or the hack writers and bloodthirsty actresses trapped inside Hollywood's profit-mad storytelling machine, she reveals that each creature has its own tale to tell about how a freewheeling market economy turns human beings into monstrosities. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNewitz tracks the monsters spawned by capitalism through b movies, Hollywood blockbusters, pulp fiction, and American literary classics, looking at their manifestations in works such as Norman Mailer's \"true life novel\" \u003ci\u003eThe Executioner's Song\u003c\/i\u003e; the short stories of Isaac Asimov and H. P. Lovecraft; the cyberpunk novels of William Gibson and Marge Piercy; true-crime books about the serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer; and movies including \u003ci\u003eModern Times\u003c\/i\u003e (1936), \u003ci\u003eDonovan's Brain\u003c\/i\u003e (1953), \u003ci\u003eNight of the Living Dead\u003c\/i\u003e (1968), \u003ci\u003eRoboCop\u003c\/i\u003e (1987), \u003ci\u003eThe Silence of the Lambs\u003c\/i\u003e (1991), and \u003ci\u003eArtificial Intelligence: AI\u003c\/i\u003e (2001). Newitz shows that as literature and film tell it, the story of American capitalism since the late nineteenth century is a tale of body-mangling, soul-crushing horror.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Annalee Newitz\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0822337452\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780822337454\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Duke University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/17\/2006\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.74lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.26h x 6.10w x 0.57d\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Annalee Newitz","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44070862717183,"sku":"9780822337454","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_a562fad3-9d00-4bd3-af01-e876528991d2.jpg?v=1685432767","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/pretend-were-dead-annalee-newitz-9780822337454","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}