Karal Ann MarlingCritiques

This is a gorgeous confection of a book..."As Seen on TV" manages to plug directly into the more mundane fads and fashions of popular culture., In this entertaining and informative book, Marling uses a variety of visual icons of the 1950s to depict the decade as an ocean of vibrant color, movement and style...[She] is one of this country's strongest advocates of the study of popular culture. She is also one of our most eloquent analysts of the meanings to be found in objects. Her book's multilayered, dizzying descriptions...plunge the reader into a culture drunk on color and form. They testify to the complex cultural significance with which Americans in the postwar years invested commonplace objects and images. They also blur the lines between aesthetics and sociology...Marling's full and convincing interpretations of the objects under discussion exhibit both humor and empathy.,

"As Seen on TV" offers fresh, imaginative readings of individual artifacts, particularly Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book and television commercials for automobiles. Moving Beyond text to context, chapters on the ongoing spectacle at Disneyland and the one-time-only "Kitchen Debate" between Nixon and Khruschev provide suggestive rereadings of familiar topics. [The book] becomes most interesting when imaginatively leaping from one set of cultural products or practices to another. It glides from Mamie Eisenhower's 'New Look' to the 'Chemise' or 'sack dress'..

"As Seen on TV" draws on an extensive, eclectic array of sources: presidential archives, museum collections, business publications, scholarly accounts, popular histories, and even the responses of listeners to Professor Marling's appearances on radio talk shows,

This book is an invitation to celebrate the dawning of the world as television...[She] lovingly guides us through this landscape, the world of what design critic Thomas Hine called the "populuxe," glitz and glitter for the postwar masses...The whole period has found a sympathetic chronicler in Marling and her account of the influence of television on 1950s America makes for fascinating reading.,

"As Seen on TV" combines high seriousness and just plain fun. It's a pleasure to read...Marling is as mercilessly convincing as she is witty and bright. Her stinging portrait of the 1950s easily extends beyond that much-satirized decade, enabling us to see its primitive reflection in today's popular culture and mass markets., Irresistible...Marling's enthusiasm is refreshing, entertaining and imaginative. Her energy is infectious...She manages to make the decade that time forgot come alive.

In spite of being over thirty years old now, The Colossus of Roads is still a fascinating and thought provoking treatise on the origins and folkloric role of roadside attractions in the culture and history of the United States. I first read it ten years ago just before starting a masters program in history, and I found that the arguments and ideas introduced here shaped my interests in ways that I didn't even realized at the time.

In the Colossus of Roads, Marling takes on the bizarre and amusing topic of kitschy roadside attractions, seemingly a trivial, frivolous subject, and explores the deep web of meaning that connects them, from the commercial origins of Paul Bunyan and giant fish, to mini golf, to the “great” in the Great Gatsby. These modern “myths” of the American highway are the products of a rich mix of cultural influences that in the 20th century caused the citizens of small towns throughout the country, particularly the Midwest and especially Minnesota to build large, weird statues in order to draw the eye to their communities. Drawing together many disparate but linked elements from historical, literary, and sociological sources in its concise 120 pages, there are so many interesting threads to look into I think they could be the starting point for many researchers and novelists alike. There are certainly themes introduced here that could spark new and interesting research topics and I find that the rich tapestry of ideas are able to inspire all manner of stories.

Even as changes in technology make such oddities even more relics of the 20th century, I still feel that travel and place remain important in the North American milieu and the cultural geography of the continent. Colossus of Roads is a good starting place for anyone interested in the history of such kitsch along the transportation infrastructures of North America. In addition to it’s informative chapters, it’s bibliography is stuffed full of sources to seek out for even more. I do find myself returning to the Colossus of Roads again and again, obsessed by the breadth of this short but weighty book’s themes.½

Wide ranging and not focused on particular thing. Entertaining and light.

(Come inizia:) " Norman Rockwell è l'artista più amato d'America. Le sue opere sono state riprodotte su biglietti di auguri, calendari e, di recente, per pubblicizzare il reportage del disastro del World Trade Center del New York Times. Le copertine realizzate da Rockwell per il Saturday Evening Post (oltre 300) sono state raccolte e conservate da milioni di lettori fedeli, generazione dopo generazione...)

Karal Ann Marling is an art historian at the University of Minnesota whose specialty is American visual culture. (She has also written a book on the Minnesota State Fair.) Merry Christmas! is thus a book which delves deeply into the history of the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, the Christmas card and wrapping paper, among other manifestations of the secular side of American Christmas. It must have been fun to research and write this book -- poring over old issues of Harper's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, visiting the Hallmark Archives and the Coca-Cola Museum -- all things I'd love to do myself. Marling writes interestingly and has selected numerous illustrations, carefully described in the text to help the reader see things in the pictures that might have been missed in a cursory glance.
An extra fillip was added to this book for me, since Marling understandably brings in a fair bit of Minneapolis commercial Christmas history, particularly from Dayton's Department Store. After years of taking the children to the Dayton's Christmas auditorium show, I enjoyed learning more about its history. There was even a section on Santabear! Marling does not mention the Holidazzle Parade, although she does have a section on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The book was published in 2000, so perhaps the Holidazzle (an evening parade with costumed volunteers) was too new to make it in.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Christmas and American culture. It took me all through the Christmas season, read in short breaks from other activities, and I learned many interesting facts. I also learned to see many familiar sights in a new way.

A quick preview of Merry Christmas! Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday by Karal Ann Marling made me think that this was someone's dissertation. The book has 442 pages (which includes 67 pages of endnotes, a six-page index, and four pages of acknowledgements) and few illustrations, all of which are in black-and-white. It was published by Harvard University Press. It turns out I wasn't too far from the truth. Marling is currently a professor in both art history and American studies at the University of Minnesota, and a "well-known specialist in American culture."

In her preface, Marling states that the book is "about the visual and material culture of Christmas in America." In nine (long) chapters, Marling discusses various aspects of the American Christmas such as gift wrap, decorations (greenery, lights, ornaments, toy villages), trees, Santa Claus, and retail (window displays, parades, and store Santas), and their evolution over time.

She uses period illustrations from magazines and advertisements to illustrate many of her points. Some of these are included in the book, but many are not; they are only described. This was a weakness of the book, in my opinion, as I really wanted to "see" what she was talking about. None of the included illustrations are in color (even though, for example, Norman Rockwell's famous Saturday Evening Post covers were done in color).

At times the writing feels forced and dry, as if Marling was trying to include every bit of research she did in the book, and more illustrations would have helped relieve this (plus made some of her points better). However, I suppose including more illustrations would have made the book even longer than it is. I particularly liked the last two chapters, on greeting cards and gifts and on Christmas songs, movies, and television specials.

The thing to keep in mind is that this book was issued as part of the exhibition put together by the Henry Ford Museum, so you know you’re getting a book that is trying to do a number of things. And it does all these things okay, and no one of them excellently. The best part is probably the production values. While just a paperback, the quality of the content is on par with any other coffee table book – excellent graphics, nice mix of words and pictures, and just generally pleasing. The part that the book only does okay on is the actual content. For the fan, you will probably not see anything you haven’t seen before – in the stories or the pictures (although there were one or two pictures that were new to me.) And, because it is an exhibition piece, it also does a little analysis of culture. Just as with the other parts, interesting, but nothing new.

And, for what it’s worth, I’m not convinced the facts are all straight. There were a couple of things that made me think, “Wait, that doesn’t sound right to me”. I didn’t feel like doing the work to research the accuracy, but I did find one that was definitely wrong. There are a series of conception drawings for Fantasyland. Included is a proposal for a Shoot the Chutes ride with Monstro. The caption indicates this is the Storybook Land Canal boats. True, Monstro winds up being the first thing on the Storybook Land Canals ride, but it is not what this drawing pictures. If you’re wrong on one thing, everything starts to be suspect.

So, a pretty book that has decent stuff, but nothing new, and some questionable facts. Oops.

This is the catalog to the exhibit by the same name, created by the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. This is one of the best exhibits I've ever seen. It started in Michigan, moved to Oakland, California, and then to Japan.

When I read most essays analyzing Disney, I am tempted to think the authors grew up as prototypes of Rowling's Crabbe and Goyle. The essayists point out with glee how "false" Disney theme parks are when compared to reality. And they hope their academic betters (their Malfoys) nod their heads in approval, and approve with a diry smirk the fact that one of their cronies shoved the class weakling down the stairs. Obviously, theme parks mirror reality poorly. Just like The Ice Man Cometh portrays bar patrons that none of us could ever imagine meeting - the essence of certain realities are distilled at the parks to create environments that are pleasing and enjoyable to the consumer. The collector of these essays understands that - and presents both the mocking essays, and their rebuttals. But it is clear that, overall, he understands that the parks are designed to serve a simple purpose: make us happy during our vacations.

And if it takes a few hundred pages to do that, it is only because so many stupid things have been written that miss this point.

Highly recommended for the serious student of Disney or Amusement Parks.