Cool Rules: Anatomy of an Attitude

FOCI

by Dick Pountain, David Robins

Cool Rules introduces the reader to a new cultural category. While the authors do not claim to have discovered Cool, they believe they are the first to attempt a serious, systematic analysis of Cool's history, psychology, and importance.

The contemporary Cool attitude is barely 50 years old, but its roots are older than that. Cool Rules traces Cool's ancient origins in European, Asian, and African cultures, its prominence in the African-American jazz scene of the 1940s, and its pivotal position within the radical subcultures of the 1950s and '60s. Pountain and Robins examine various art movements, music, cinema, and literature, moving from the dandies and flâneurs of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through to the expropriation of a whole cultural and psychological tradition by the media in the 1980s and '90s. What began as a rebellious posture adopted by minorities mutated to become mainstream itself. Cool is now primarily about consumption, as cynical advertisers have seized on it to create a constantly updated bricolage of styles and entertainments designed to affect the way people think about themselves and their society.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[smallwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

覺得這本書算是一種文化輸出的過程

『酷』的概念算是一種反叛和尊重個人化的結合，權威和保守不能產生『酷』，偶有不錯的商業妥協卻也不能存留許久（例如牛仔褲品牌雙L :P）

也有提到女性表演者在時代下面對的困境 (Billie Holiday、Nina Simone)和使用『酷』的方式應對

編排方式很有 Zine 的感覺，但字型大小和顏色讓閱讀體驗不好且吃力

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very well-written and factual, and it'll leave you analyzing the Cool aspects of pretty much everything for years to come. The amount of analysis that went into writing this is astounding. This is definitely not a light, casual read, but worth it if you have the endurance. I read this book for a college English class.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Continuando minha pesquisa sobre modas, tendências, sobre aquilo que está no hype e mexe com as pessoas, me deparei com este livro que analisa o avanço (?) do cool na sociedade. Para os autores do livro, o cool é um estado de espírito. Ele é mais do que estar na moda ou estar de acordo com as mais novas tendências é, um estado de estar antenado no que é mais novo no mundo, mas ao mesmo tempo também não estar se importando com isso. Claro, as definições de cool, bem como de moda, tendências, hype, daquilo que está em voga entra sempre em uma dicotomia entre se importar/não se importar, comercial/experimental. artístico/consumista, novo/velho, vintage/trendy. As modas são cíclicas, isso já sabemos, mas o próprio conceito de moda é cíclico do ponto de vista que ele muda, ele é negociado, como uma identidade, a partir daqueles que controlam o que é e o que não é cool. Essa é uma pergunta muito mais difícil de ser respondida e que é abordada muito de leve nesta publicação. De qualquer forma, o livro traz uma bela repescagem do que é o cool e de como ele evoluiu desde a África pré-histórica, passando pelo blue e jazz até os anos 1990, quando foi publicado. Muito bom!

[Linnea · Rating 5 out of 5]

A random find I stumbled across in the Cambridge library, Cool Rules was a book unlike my usual reads. Written more like an extended essay than a novel, Cool Rules was a surprisingly enjoyable book that nourished my interest for both national and international history, popular culture (film, music, art...), and race relations. Also a quick read, I know I will pick it up again to further analyze its insightful commentary.

[Roxy · Rating 3 out of 5]

How they only mentioned the UK mod movement once, in passing, is beyond me.

[Floyd Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I am digging this....

[Charlie Kester · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nonchalance, its origin in the silent defiance of the conquered or enslaved.

I found this a very persuasive explanation.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read good and insightful

[Thomas B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Utterly fascinating. Accessible but very westerncentric and dismissive of what could or is considered cool in other societies and cultures.