Thursday, June 11, 2009

June 11, 2009 - Mythologies

Mythologies is a book by Roland Barthes, which is currently high on my reading list. The book is a collection of essays examining the tendency of contemporary social value systems to create modern myths.
For example - Barthes describes the image that has been built up around Red wine and how it has been adopted as a French national drink, how it is seen as a social equaliser and the drink of the working class, partly because is seen as blood-like and points out that very little attention is paid to red wine's harmful effects to health, but that it is instead viewed as life-giving and refreshing in cold weather it is associated with all the myths of becoming warm, and at the height of summer, with all images of shade, with all things cool and sparkling.

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