Black Sheep Mentality

Hello, I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity
by Hal Niedzviecki (City Lights)

TV talent shows, e-diaries, yoga classes, tattoos: They're all about you. And much to the consternation of nonconformists, all these things and more are being mass-marketed as ways to proclaim individuality. It's reached a point where scruffy iconoclasts are befuddled to find that being an outsider is in. Hal Niedzviecki, a young, bright Canadian plagued by such thoughts, grapples with them in Hello, I'm Special, concluding that most people confronted by the relentless marketers of specialness decide that their only choices are to fight them or join them.

The joiners, such as auditioners for Canadian Idol, end up 'doing things not for the sake of doing them, but for the sake of creating a narrative about having done . . . something.'

The fighters fall into two categories. Some escape into a world of forced rigidity and anti-individuality via ultraconservative religion. Others, whom Niedzviecki dubs 'the originals,' remain true individualists by exiting the message-saturated culture and living in small, remote communities where meaningful connections are valued.

Of course, this isn't a realistic option for many of us, nor a sustainable one for all of us, and the best most people can do is be skeptical, savvy consumers of the 'I'm special' message. 'Just do it'? No, don't. -Keith Goetzman

Made To Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America
by Giles Slade (Harvard University)

The days of washing our hands of consumerism's throwaway ethos by dutifully sorting papers and plastics are over. A much bigger problem looms: the toxic mountains of electronic gadgets, or e-waste, piling up in landfills. How we came to this is the subject of Giles Slade's fascinating history of America's obsession with the 'new and improved' and the effluvia born of such progress. Slade traces obsolescence from 19th-century paper shirtfronts to today's ever-shrinking cell phones-all a testament to America's unique determination to embrace change. The angling of many barons of design, advertising, and industry is parsed here, but Slade is skeptical of those who see a conspiracy of ad men brainwashing us into mindless consumption. Consumers, he argues, must help avert disaster by making educated purchases and leveraging their buying power to bolster the Great Green Hope of ecofriendly products. -Hannah Lobel

Lives Of Mapmakers
by Alicia L. Conroy (Carnegie Mellon University)