{"product_id":"big-mall-9781552454725","title":"Big Mall","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA phenomenology of the mall: If the mall makes us feel bad, why do we keep going back? In a world poisoned by capitalism, is shopping what makes life worth living?\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn less than a century, the shopping mall has morphed from a blueprint for a socialist utopia to something else entirely: a home to disaffected mallrats and depressed zoo animals, a sensory overload and consumerist trap.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKate Black grew up in North America's largest mall: West Edmonton Mall - a mall on steroids. It's the site of a notoriously lethal rave for teenagers, a fatal rollercoaster accident, and more than one gun-range suicide; it's where oil field workers reap the social mobility of a boom-and-bust economy, the impossibly large structure where teens attempt to invent themselves in dark Hollister sales racks and weird horny escapades in the indoor waterpark. It's a place people love to hate and hate to love - a site of pleasure and pain, of death and violence, of (sub)urban legend.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCan malls tell us something important about who we are? Blending a history of shopping with a story of coming-of-age in North America's largest and strangest mall, \u003ci\u003eBig Mall\u003c\/i\u003e investigates how these structures have become the ultimate symbol of late-capitalist dread - and, surprisingly, a subversive site of hope. Ultimately, a close look at the mall reveals clues to how a good life in these times is possible.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Speaking as a child of PacSun and Hot Topic myself, \u003ci\u003eBig Mall\u003c\/i\u003e is like a madeleine dipped in Orange Julius. Like a mall, the book itself has a lot of everything, a sublime mix of memoir, history, and cultural criticism. Kate Black is a learned Virgil in the consumerist Inferno, always avoiding the obvious and leading us to surprising connections--oil, suicide, Reddit, squatters, dolphins. Whether malls fill you with nostalgia or horror, this book will change your relationship to the world we've constructed around us.\" - \u003cb\u003eTony Tulathimutte, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePrivate Citizens\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Before there was Instagram, there was the mall. But what happens when a seasonless, tacky, fantasyland is all you knew growing up? How does one embrace a genuinely fake experience? Or to be more precise, a fake but genuine experience? Kate Black's \u003ci\u003eBig Mall\u003c\/i\u003e is a smart, sentimental, and perspective-shifting look at the outsized role that big malls play in modern life. Love 'em or hate 'em, one thing's for sure: after reading this book, you'll never look at a mall in the same way again.\" - \u003cb\u003eZiya Tong, Science broadcaster \u0026amp; author of \u003ci\u003eThe Reality Bubble\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Coach House Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/13\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781552454725\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 184\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/04\/2023\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Kate Black","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43418378010805,"sku":"9781552454725","price":16.11,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_57069b35-59ce-4d5c-b850-283099f34ba3.jpg?v=1703004738","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/big-mall-9781552454725","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}