While I don’t generally want to comment on books — there are enough people doing that, especially when it comes to Dharma books — I did want to let you know my thoughts about “Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity,” by Anne Elizabeth Moore.
Got this book to pass the time while visiting with relatives in a particularly slow (and conservative!) corner of the world — and I couldn’t be more glad that I did. A.E.M. is an excellent writer (I knew her from the late great mag Punk Planet), and what she’s talking about — how independent and punk culture is being co-opted by the advertising and marketing industries — is totally fascinating.
It’s fascinating in and of itself, but also, the implications of what she’s talking about are crucial in terms of what The Worst Horse examines via our “Dharma-Burgers
,” which are of course our looks at “Buddhist imagery and ideas in the marketing of goods, services, and schlocky crap.” (You may also want to read the Horse’s article touching on co-optation, here).
Reading “Unmarketable,” you can pretty easily extrapolate from the original subject matter, and form a clear vision of just how deep and insidious the marketing-world’s influence really is (or at least could be) becoming in the Buddhist world — and even, vice-versa.
But the book is also just a great read. It might be a little depressing for all its Orwellian revelation, if Moore wasn’t such a good and fun and honest writer. But she is.
Anyway… just had to tell y’all.
