Decoding Glamour

Former Reason editor Virginia Postrel's book The Power of Glamour has just been published, and the reviews I've seen so far have been very favorable. Here is Kirkus, for example:

Glamour, she argues, is not equivalent to luxury and cannot be bought; instead, it depends on the object in question and its audience's imagination and desire. "It is not a product or style but a form of communication and persuasion," she writes. "It depends on maintaining exactly the right relationship between object and audience, imagination and desire. Glamour is fragile because perceptions change." In two- to three-page sections, Postrel unpacks so-called icons and archetypes, including princesses, superheroes, makeovers and cities like Shanghai, and judges each on its illusory powers and pitfalls.

You can read the rest of that piece here, and you can read a feminist take on the text in The New Inquiry here. We'll be publishing an excerpt from the book in the January Reason, so keep an eye out for that.

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