Description: Let's Entertain: Life's Guilty Pleasures brings together artists who focus their work on the edge of entertainment, not simply to amuse or engage an audience, but also to reflect on a current major social phenomenon: the spectacularization of quotidian experience, from sports and politics to the management of cultural institutions (the box-office syndrome). Playing with pastiche and simulation, these artists expose the contradictions, illusions, and utopian dreams of what 30 years ago came to be called the "Society of Spectacle". However, they acknowledge that we are no longer passive witnesses to the blurring of high and low culture but captive protagonists, obliged to find our way through the fog. This major collection of interdisciplinary essays by several notable cultural critics examines the many issues surrounding the relationship between art and entertainment. Drawn from various fields of expertise -- cultural studies, design, architecture, economics, philosophy -- these eminent writers address topics as varied as the films of David Lynch, customizing the body, entertainment retail, celebrity politics, and the return to pleasure. Beautifully designed and produced, this combination of engaging texts and visuals will appeal to a diverse audience attuned to the interrelationships of contemporary culture.

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