{
    "id": 294124,
    "slug": "mythomania-tales-of-our-times-from-apple-to-isis-peter-conrad",
    "nstc": null,
    "title": "Mythomania : tales of our times, from apple to isis",
    "subtitle": "Tales of Our Times, From Apple to Isis",
    "collection_title": null,
    "collection_part_number": null,
    "annotation": null,
    "description": "Despite our culture\u2019s proclaimed respect for scientific reason, we live in a society  that is no less bedazzled-and bedevilled-by myth than those of our remote ancestors.  Roland Barthes first examined the mythical resonances of consumer products in the  1950s. Far from being demystified, consumerism has since morphed into a universal  religion, its compulsory ritual of shopping essential to our economic survival. Myth has  also invaded the political realm, as terrorists brandish black flags and recite theological  mantras as they martyr themselves.      <br /> Peter Conrad\u2019s exhilarating book exposes the absurdity and occasional insanity  of our godforsaken, demon-haunted contemporary culture. Conrad casts his brilliant  beam upon subjects from The Queen to the Kardashians, via Banksy, Nando\u2019s, vaping,  the vogue of the cronut, the mushroom-like rise of Dubai, the launch of the Large  Hadron Collider, the growth of the Pacific garbage patch... In Judge Judy, he shows us  a matronly Roman goddess dispensing justice with a fly swatter. In the metamorphosis  of Caitlyn Jenner from Olympic athlete and paterfamilias into idealized female form,  he sees parallels to the deeds of the residents of Mount Olympus themselves. Finally,  after surveying advances in biomedical engineering and artificial intelligence, he asks  whether we might be on the brink of a post-human world.     ",
    "imprint": null,
    "language_code": "eng",
    "original_language_code": null,
    "page_count": 240,
    "duration_seconds": null,
    "publication_date_first": "2016-08-09",
    "publication_date_latest": "2016-08-19",
    "cover_url": null,
    "editions": [
        {
            "isbn": "9780500292587",
            "product_form": "BB"
        }
    ],
    "ratings_count": 0,
    "read_count": 0,
    "review_count": 0,
    "favorite_count": 0,
    "reading_status_read_count": 0,
    "reading_status_reading_count": 0,
    "reading_status_want_to_read_count": 0,
    "rating_average": null,
    "ratings_distribution": {
        "1": 0,
        "2": 0,
        "3": 0,
        "4": 0,
        "5": 0
    },
    "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:11:33+00:00",
    "updated_at": "2025-10-28T00:22:36+00:00",
    "publisher": {
        "id": 31,
        "slug": "thames-hudson-ltd",
        "name": "THAMES & HUDSON Ltd",
        "created_at": "2025-09-19T12:41:21+00:00",
        "updated_at": "2025-09-19T15:11:59+00:00"
    },
    "contributors": [
        {
            "id": 174000,
            "slug": "peter-conrad",
            "key_names": "Conrad",
            "names_before_key": "Peter",
            "prefix_to_key": null,
            "contributor_role": "A01",
            "readable_contributor_role": "Author"
        }
    ],
    "genres": [],
    "subjects": [
        {
            "scheme_identifier": "32",
            "scheme_version": null,
            "main_subject": false,
            "subject_code": "680",
            "created_at": "2025-09-19T13:11:33+00:00",
            "updated_at": "2025-09-19T13:11:33+00:00"
        }
    ]
}