Hyperinflation and Hyperreality: Thomas Mann in Light of Austrian Economics
With the worldwide collapse of socialism as an economic system, Marxism today stands thoroughly discredited as an intellectual position. Essay
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Beavis and Butt-Head Take Over Silicon Valley
With Beavis and Butt-head and King of the Hill, Mike Judge earned his place in pop culture history. His new HBO comedy Silicon Valley seems an unlikely follow-up to his earlier successes. Essay
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Inviting Evil In: Horror Stories and the Monstrous Double
From a vampire slinking through a dark forest, to the deformed creation of mad science, to a lumbering dinosaur in central London, to a radioactive mutation marching on Tokyo, to a reanimated mummy scheming to take over the world, to a giant ape atop the Empire State Building—we have met the monsters, and they are us. Essay
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Hamlet
Paul Cantor provides a new and clearly structured introduction and groundbreaking analysis of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy. Book
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Literature and the Economics of Liberty
The book argues that literature is one of the most powerful reflections of humanity's freedom, spontaneity, and creativity. Book
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Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization
In Gilligan Unbound, a distinguished Shakespeare scholar and literary critic proves once and for all that popular culture can be every bit as complex, meaningful, and provocative as the most celebrated works of literature-and a lot more fun. Book
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Invisible Hand in Popular Culture
In this groundbreaking work, Paul A. Cantor explores the ways in which television shows such as Star Trek, The X-Files, South Park, and Deadwood and films such as The Aviator and Mars Attacks! have portrayed both top-down and bottom-up models of order. Books
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Creature and Creator: Myth-making and English Romanticism
This book is the first systematic study of the creation myth as a Romantic form. Book
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Shakespeare's Theater
A study of the first example of “mass market” culture, and its intersection with aristocratic patronage. The importance of competition in artistic creation. Shakespeare as entrepreneur. The economics of the Globe Theater. Lecture 2
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The Economics of Painting: Patronage vs. the Market
The art market is the best understood form of commercial artistic creation. The importance of the studio system. Case studies include Michelangelo and Rubens. Answer to the riddle: “When is a Rembrandt not a Rembrandt?” Lecture 3
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The Economics of Classical Music
Classical music as a luxury good that only wealthy societies can support. Case studies include Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, and Wagner. The Church, the Court, and the Middle-Class Market for Sheet Music. Lecture 4
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The Serialized Novel in the Nineteenth Century
A study of the first form of culture mass-marketed as a commodity. The distinctive nature of print culture. Focus on Dickens. The art of the cliffhanger. Mass culture and artistic feedback. How the novel evolves over time. Lecture 5
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The Economics of Modernism
Modernist hostility to the marketplace. The return to patronage and the turn to the academy and government funding. Case studies include Ezra Pound and James Joyce, with some attention to modernist painting and music. Lecture 6
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Totalitarianism and the Arts in the 20th Century
Dictators as patrons of the arts: Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. Case studies include Dimitri Shostakovich. How to rub a dictator the wrong way. The ability of great artists to create even under totalitarianism is testimony to the resilience of the human spirit. Lecture 7
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The Rise of the Motion Picture
The great example of commercial culture. Most movies are of low quality, but the system as a whole still produces masterpieces. Academics were the last to recognize cinema as an art form. The studio system vs. the auteur. Critique of the Frankfurt School critique of mass culture. Lecture 8
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When is a Network Not a Network?
Television as the ultimate test case of commercial culture. It suffered heavily from government regulation at first; its progress depended on deregulation from the federal government. National Networks vs. Cable TV. In defense of Rupert Murdoch and Fox TV (The Simpsons and The X-Files). Lecture 9
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Conclusion: Culture as Pop Culture
The advantages and disadvantages of the market as support for the arts. Comparison with other systems. Toward a theory of media change. Video games and the future. The spontaneous order model. Lecture 10
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