Alexander reviewed Love and Let Die by John Higgs
review of love and let die
3 stars
it's a history of the uk from after the second world war to the present day and at the same time a history of the Beatles and the James Bond franchise. and it's filled to the brim with details and anecdotes about production and personnel of both pop cultural monuments.
a specality of higgs' concept of telling the story is the use of "death drive"' and "love"', borrowed in a vast sense from Freud's psychology. he applies these concepts as well on the personal lifes as on the society in whole. therefore he is able to connect the layers and to pin a certain quality to decisions and developments.
as long as the main characters with their background and careers are part of their peer, there is nothing wrong with it. although i'm not sure, how much use it is either. but as soon as they lose this connex, there …
it's a history of the uk from after the second world war to the present day and at the same time a history of the Beatles and the James Bond franchise. and it's filled to the brim with details and anecdotes about production and personnel of both pop cultural monuments.
a specality of higgs' concept of telling the story is the use of "death drive"' and "love"', borrowed in a vast sense from Freud's psychology. he applies these concepts as well on the personal lifes as on the society in whole. therefore he is able to connect the layers and to pin a certain quality to decisions and developments.
as long as the main characters with their background and careers are part of their peer, there is nothing wrong with it. although i'm not sure, how much use it is either. but as soon as they lose this connex, there are simply short biographies with an odd stressing on childhood and seperately there are events, which took place. but there are still a lot of interesting thoughts along the text.
i would say, it's an essay (or a couple of it), forced to be a book. but if you enjoy reading about the Beatles and James Bond --i do-- and a lot of pop culture...