Overview

Las Vegas, says William Fox, is a pay-as-you-play paradise that succeeds through its collective ability to fantasize our desire for vast wealth and the excesses of pleasure and consumption that go with it. In this context, he examines how the city's culture of spectacle has obscured boundaries between art and entertainment, public and private interest, and consequently has diminished the power of unembellished nature and the arts to teach and inspire us.Available now for the first time in paperback, """"In the Desert of Desire"""" offers unique insight into the increasing commercialization of nature and culture across America, and the ways Las Vegas has manipulated them to achieve ever-higher levels of extravagance and spectacle.

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9780874177275

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Reviews

In the Desert of Desire is a remarkable book. It deserves a wide readership, especially among students and scholars concerned with tourism, spectacle, and the American West. It should be required reading for those concerned with Las Vegas. - C. Richard King, Journal of the West As I tagged along on his zigzagging explorations...I felt the exhilarated giddiness of one of those long, winding nocturnal rambles through the Strip itself. - Marc Cooper, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Author Information

William L. Fox is the author of six nonfiction books on the cultural geography of the American Southwest, more than a dozen books of poetry, and is currently at work on a book about scientific and artistic images of the Antarctic. His poems have appeared in more than 60 magazines and journals, and he edited the West Coast Poetry Review for many years. He is the Western States Arts Federation literature consultant.

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