Evil Paradises: Dreamworlds of Neoliberalism

Despite a firm aversion to edited books, I picked this beauty up for the Mike Davis name and it did not disappoint. While a few pieces wander into the uber-technical or the borderline psychedelic, most plot an accessible middle course and drive home a severe look at our ferocious and irrational future. The common theme of essays planetary in reach is a nouveau bunkerization, in which turbo-capitalism's vicious few winners ostentatiously gird themselves against a sea of presumed hoods, Robin and otherwise. A work like no other, Evil Paradises captures bitter life in the face of this increasingly indelicate segregation, even while stirring the anxiety of those reading from the sunny side of the wall. Angry yet intelligent, hard yet understated, Davis takes an artists brush to the overall arrangement, suggesting in the end that jazz, were it a non-fiction anthology, might just wear a purple cover.

Critiques on the world, pointing out the falsity in the spaces we dwell in and occupy, analyzing the world around us...it's what I love. This anthology is gorgeously written and edited by the always awesome Mike Davis. I've bought it 3 times because I keep lending and/or losing it.

Brilliant book.

Mike Davis is a favorite author but not in this particular book to which he contributed but a single piece. Frightening case studies of the worst of human ingenuity in such as Dubai architectural and financial exoticism. Other chapters by other writers only add to a depressed feeling about evolving human community and its physical enclosures.

I enjoyed Davis's "City of Quartz" about Los Angeles, and I thought I'd enjoy this collection of essays, edited by Davis. The problem with a collection of essays is that there is no common style and no common approach to the book's theme. On the positive side, there is always something that each person will like, and at least a few essays will strike a chord with anyone interested enough to open the book.The theme - and it's a loose one - is that the world's nouveaux riches are creating poorly designed communities that isolate them from the broader society, and in the long run, these communities are not in anyone's self-interest, not even the self-interest of the people who live in them. For Americans, the archetype of this phenomenon is the gated suburban development in which McMansions sit on overly-spacious plots of land. Numerous countries, especially those with the worst income inequalities, are copying the phenomenon of the gated community, in which the well-to-do try to isolate themselves from their fellow citizens.Here are the topics covered by these essays: New luxury suburbs in Egypt, Iran, Dubai, China, Hong Kong, South Africa, Nicaragua, Hungary, Columbia, and Brazil. Several essays are about the US from various angles, covering Minneapolis, Sun City (Arizona), Orange County (California), and Richmond (Virginia). There are essays about Ted Turner's rural landholdings in New Mexico and elsewhere, self-aggrandizing museums in the US, the fad of experiencing monastery life for brief visits, and an essay about planned "floating utopias" in international waters.Some of the essays are excellent (e.g., the essay about Hong Kong, or the saga of of the man arrested for being on a "public" sidewalk in Richmond), while others are hodgepodges of leftist jargon. But as a totality, this book doesn't hang together as well as it might. Also, some of the authors wander far from the intended theme. It's fascinating to read about conflicts between the TV mogul, Ted Turner, and his rural neighbors, or to read about millionaires' museums as monuments to themselves, but the overall cohesiveness of the book is harmed.

I have ever and I mean EVER, purchased. Wish I had never made the decision to try to stomach it, my only greater wish is that I could get my money back because it coulda gone to a political group i dont support. This is why I never read books like this because opinion is not truth, just cuz you say it alot or in a book.I think that this was written with an untrue heart. There is only dislike bordering on hatred for rich people. The mid east examples are comparing the 9/11 guys to our rich people in USA which isnt ok. that is why this book crossed over line for me. why scare evryone telling them that there is one mor sameness with terorists and bad people. isnt that gonna scare them away from what is true. thats a bad thing! we are jealous of them too but coveting is a sin. Freedom is like a present. If it is taken from us because of sinful reasons thats twice as bad. the style of book is not my favorite, but i am turned off by the "facts" of it the most. I will stick to my romance and naughty books.

I love reading about the evils of neoliberalism, and I'm attracted to the notion that architecture reflects the ideology that commissions / produces it...so this book should have been right up my street. Sadly, it proved to be a real disappointment. While each of the essays focused on one or another aspect of international dysfunctional neoliberalism, the corrupting influence of this ideology on the built environment was often tacked on as an afterthought. A few essays failed to mention it at all.It wasn't all bad - the penultimate essay, 'Floating Utopias' by China Miéville stood out, and if the book had ended at that I probably would have been charitably minded to award a generous three stars. But the whole thing was ruined by the final essay, a wantonly pretentious piece of deconstructivist guff about...who knows...a real throw-the-book-on-the-floor ending, hence the two stars. Sorry

Ever felt unfettered capitalism is wrong, but you just can't put your finger on why? This book gives you every argument for why that feeling is right. It's super clever but totally compelling.