The Sky is Falling!: The Unexpected Politics of Hollywoods Superheroes and Zombies

(Paperback)

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A bestselling cultural journalist takes us on a wild ride through pop culture, showing how it paved the way for today's extreme politics Are Batman and 24's Jack Bauer heroic loners defending our way of life - or right-wing vigilantes attacking it Is Avatar just a National Geographic version of Star Wars or a passionate assault on capitalism And what about Game of Thrones - sword and sorcery fantasy, or lesson in mainstream politics In The Sky is Falling! bestselling cultural critic Peter Biskind takes us on a dizzying ride across two decades of pop culture to show how the TV and movies we love have taught us to love political extremism. Welcome to a darkly pessimistic, apocalyptic world where winter has come, the dead are walking, and ultra violence, revenge and torture are all in a day's work. Welcome to the new normal.

Reviews

A Sunday Times Book of the Year * - *
Compulsively readable ... a thoughtful, entertaining and occasionally profound critical study of the texts that entertain, move and, sometimes, shape us * Spectator *
Excellent critical writing ... Biskind's pastiche of right-wing paranoia is spot on * Irish Times *
Biskind's wide-ranging arguments offer considerable food for thought * London Review of Books *
The Sky is Falling! is not only insanely readable, it demonstrates how the way for Trump and all kinds of fundamentalists was paved years ago by apparently apolitical popular culture. This is a book about the seismic change at the very heart of today's society, and a book for all those who want to know exactly what a mess we're in. -- Slavoj iek
Peter Biskind's kaleidoscopic deep dive into the symbiotic relationship between the narratives of popular entertainment and our political culture had me talking out loud to myself. You'll never look at your favorite movies and TV shows the same way again. And you shouldn't. -- Steven Soderbergh
Funny, intelligent and frightening ... What happens when pop turns to pulp When "nothing entertains but disaster" When "democracy has all but dissolved in the acid rain of money" Read this marvellous book and find the answers -- Michael Wood
A breathless compendium of storylines and audacious analysis ... touching on worthwhile questions about how film and TV shape our sense of history and how the world works. Pop culture has become pulp culture... which superhero will come to our rescue * Times *
The only thing better than seeing a good movie is reading what Peter Biskind has to say about it. Who else can explicate the hidden politics of movies and make you laugh out loud at the same time -- Barbara Ehrenreich
The great chronicler of Hollywood in the late twentieth century turns his critical eye to the cinema and television of the twenty first. Essential reading -- Colin MacCabe
A bold, witty, and brilliantly argued analysis of the role pop culture has played in the rise of American extremism -- Ruth Reichl
Your book was . . . like a bag of pot, with me saying, 'I'm not gonna smoke.' But I was insatiable -- Quentin Tarantino on EASY RIDERS, RAGING BULLS

Author Bio

Peter Biskind is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, a writer for Esquire, and the author of the classic bestsellers Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and Down and Dirty Pictures. He lives in upstate New York.