Customer Reviews

Arrested Development

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'Arrested Development' is a brilliant critique of the relationship between popular culture and today's society. Politicians with little to offer in the way of vision, turn to popular culture to try and look for a dynamism that they haven't got.

Calcutt's book exposes the superficiality of this embrace and the divisive consequences it has for today's society. The author also writes with great honesty about his own forays into pop culture and all of it's follies which many of us have fallen for in our youth.

The book puts forward the case for adulthood in an environment where it appears more desirable to remain a Peter Pan character espousing throwaway 'popstar' type attitudes rather than develop the critical faculties and reflective capabilities that come with maturity.

I was hoping for some insight into the reasons behind what appears to be an increasingly narcissistic attitude behind modern culture. Instead I found a frustrated pop star wannabe who rails at everyone and everything that prevented him from becoming a superstar. Calcutt is not a sociologist and this book prooves it. Rather, he comes across more like a pulp writer hacking away at a tell-all.
While there may be a shred of value in this poorly written attempt at explaining modern culture's woes, readers would be better served to look into James Cote's work, Arrested Adulthood.