Mythomania: Tales of our times
Peter Conrad

• Wednesday 14 June 2017, 6.30PM to 7.20pm
• Free admission
  Booking required
• RCH/037, Ron Cooke Hub, University of York (map|getting to campus)
• Wheelchair accessible

Event details

Despite our culture’s proclaimed respect for scientific reason, we are no less bedazzled and bedevilled by myth than our remote ancestors. Join author Peter Conrad for an in conversation event as he examines the enduring place of myth in contemporary culture and society.

Roland Barthes first examined the mythical resonances of consumer products in the 1950s. Far from being demystified, consumerism has since morphed into a universal religion, its compulsory ritual of shopping essential to our economic survival. Myth has also invaded the political realm, as terrorists brandish black flags and recite theological mantras as they martyr themselves.

Drawing on his new book Mythomania and his much-praisedBBC Radio 4series, 21st Century Mythologies, Peter exposes the absurdity and occasional insanity of our godforsaken, demon-haunted contemporary culture. He casts his brilliant beam upon subjects from the Queen to the Kardashians, via Banksy, Nando’s, vaping, the vogue of the cronut, the mushroom-like rise of Dubai, the launch of the Large Hadron Collider, the growth of the Pacific garbage patch...

In Judge Judy, he shows us a matronly Roman goddess dispensing justice with a fly swatter. In the metamorphosis of Caitlyn Jenner from Olympic athlete and paterfamilias into idealised female form, he sees parallels to the deeds of the residents of Mount Olympus themselves. Finally, after surveying advances in biomedical engineering and artificial intelligence, he asks whether we might be on the brink of a post-human world.

About the speaker

Peter Conrad has written more than 20 books, including How the World Was Won: The Americanization of Everywhere; Creation: Artists, Gods & Origins; At Home in Australia; and Modern Times, Modern Places: Life and Art in the Twentieth Century, all published by Thames & Hudson.

Waterstones

Books will be available to buy from the Waterstones' stall at this event.

Supported by Ron and Barbara Cooke

Tickets