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‘A beguiling vision of hope for the future.’ Time Out
‘Authenticity has always been seeping out of our lives…and yet…[it] has a habit of fighting back. David Boyle walks the front lines of the way between real and fake.’ Financial Times
‘Boyle joins a long line, from Plato to Keynes, who argue that our view of reality, whether the figurative shadows on a cave wall, or the numbers called on a trading floor, is a speculative froth that distracts us from a superior reality.’ Telegraph
‘An insightful, ambitious argument.’ Independent
‘A book beginning here could easily be another polemic against consumer capitalism, superficial politics and the influence of a cynical media. Though Boyle criticises all three, his argument is subtler than bestselling broadsides like Naomi Klein's “No Logo” or Michael Moore’s “Stupid White Men”…The guts of the argument are that we need to find a new set of relationships between democracy, individualism and capitalism… its wide range, well-written examples and lively style offer something for us all.’ Management Today
‘A bold attempt to pull together a thousand strands of modern nostalgia and unease and present them as a unified whole.’ Scotsman
Product Description
David Boyle guides us through the next big thing in Western living – the determined rejection of the fake, the virtual, the spun and the mass-produced, in the search for authenticity.
The charms of the global and virtual future we were all brought up to expect, where meals would be eaten in the form of pills and machines would do all our work, have worn rather thin. It's not that we don't want all the advantages of progress, we just want a future that manages to be local and real too.
Tracking the struggle for reality from Japanese theme parks to mock-Tudor villas and from Byron to Big Brother, ‘Authenticity’ explains where our reactions against spin and fakeness come from – and where they are going. The current revival of real food, real business, real culture flies in the face of expert opinion from politicians, economists, advertisers and big business – and they're having to run to keep up as our hype attention-span gets ever shorter.
Optimistic, witty, highly thought-provoking and packed with fascinating stories, Boyle’s search asks whether coolness is dead, how real reality is and whether realpolitik can ever change into real politics. He puts authenticity firmly on the map, lifting the lid on all the other symptoms of this powerful new phenomenon – revealing the unexpected force that looks set to change all our lives.
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The reason, it seems, is that the failed markets presided over by our age's corporate leviathans are culturally innoculated by their own business models from the real world. Their executives float above us in glass-walled office suites, business class flights and five star hotels and make decisions that roll out goods and services identically around the world, virtually regardless of local place and context. Meanwhile, the modern backlash, the quest for the real and authentic, is being met by individual artists, entrepeneurs and community activists who've never been inside a boardroom.
What makes the book so enjoyable is that Boyle is a great story teller. And, like the best, he loves his characters and empathises with their world. What also comes through is that the author is not just an observer. His insights come from someone who also actually 'does things' at the local level.
Reading authenticity is like being released into fresh air from a room where you have been suffocated by commercial fakery, lies and corporate desperation - a place where men in suits pursuade you of your own inadequacy, and then promptly sell you an answer to it.
So, feel the breeze, buy the book.
This is not a dreadful book, in fact it has a number of useful and interesting examples in it. But it is a very poor take on a fascinating and important phenomenon, and there are too many examples that are asserted rather than argued. The success of Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings etc. does not herald an escape into fantasy, apparently, but a reassertion of reality. Why? Because he has a quote to hand that says that storytelling is always about reality, that's why.
If you're happy to pick and choose, then you'll find much to use in here. If you want to be involved in an argument that you believe and feel you can add to, I fear you'll find that Boyle's tone and sudden assertions of fact are off-putting and distancing.
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