Volume 30, Number 10 · June 16, 1983
Making It
By Jonathan Lieberson
Hype
by Steven M.L. Aronson
Morrow, 399 pp., $15.95
'People no longer do anything with respect to what they're doing,' writes Mr. Aronson, 'they do everything with respect to that third eye, which is the eye of People magazine.' Our culture is 'sorely menaced' by what he calls 'hype,' 'the merchandising of a product—be it an object, a person, or an idea—in an artificially engendered atmosphere of hysteria, in order to create a demand for it or to inflate such demand as already exists.' Hype is a 'conspiracy' against a gullible American public, 'a force that makes a mockery of the human essence'; it debases our language and 'manipulates taste as it vitiates our power to discriminate.' These claims raise serious questions: How are careers and reputations inflated by publicity and promotion? Are critics of American culture correct that our conceptions of status and power are shaped by press agents and public relations men?
Review, 2825 words
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