Consuming Desires, C

Consider this paradox: Ecologists estimate that it would take three planets Earth to provide an American standard of living to the entire world. Yet it is that standard of living to which the whole world aspires.

In Consuming Desires, award-winning writer and social commentator Roger Rosenblatt brings together a brilliant collection of thinkers and writers to shed light on the triumphs and tragedies of that disturbing paradox. The book represents a captivating salon, offering a rich and varied dialogue on the underlying roots of consumer culture and its pervasive impact on ourselves and the world around us. Each author offers a unique perspective, their layers of thoughts and insights building together to create a striking, multifaceted picture of our society and culture.

Jane Smiley probes the roots of consumerism in the emancipation of women from household drudgery afforded by labor-saving devices and technological innovation; Alex Kotlowitz describes the mutual reinforcement of fashion trends as poor inner-city kids and rich suburban kids strive to imitate each other; Bill McKibben discusses the significance, and the irony, of defining yourself not by what you buy, but by what you don't buy.

The essays range widely, but two ideas are central to nearly all of them: that consumption is driven by yearning and desire-often unspoken, seemingly insatiable-and that what prevents us from keeping our consumptive impulse in check is the western concept of self, the solitary and restless self, entitled to all it can pay for.

As Rosenblatt explains in his insightful introduction: "Individualism and desire are what makes us great and what makes us small. Freedom is our dream and our enemy. The essays touch on these paradoxes, and while all are too nuanced and graceful to preach easy reform, they give an idea of what reform means, where it is possible, and, in some cases, where it may not be as desirable as it appears."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-215) and index.

Roger Rosenblatt is a journalist, author, playwright and teacher. As an essayist for Time magazine, he has won two George Polk Awards, and awards from the Overseas Press Club and the American Bar Association, among others. His television essays on PBS for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour (now the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer) have won him the George Foster Peabody Award and the Emmy. He is the author of six books, including his most recent, "Coming Apart: A Memoir of the Harvard Wars of 1969" (Little, Brown, 1997).

Introduction / Roger Rosenblatt — One world of consumers / William Greider — What's wrong with consumer society? : competitive spending and the "new consumerism" / Juliet Schor — Consuming for love / Edward N. Luttwak — False connections / Alex Kotlowitz — Oh, Isaac, oh, Bernard, oh, Mohan / Bharati Mukherjee — Consuming nature / Bill McKibben — A news consumer's Bill of Rights / Suzanne Braun Levine — When we devoured books / Andrâe Schiffrin — Movies and the selling of desire / Molly Haskell — The ecology of giving and consuming / David W. Orr — It all begins with housework / Jane Smiley — Equipoise / Martin E. Marty — Can't get that extinction crisis out of my mind / Stephanie Mills.