Miller John R. - Egotopia: Narcissism and the New American Landscape

Egotopiaexplains why individual political and economic interests
have eclipsed aesthetic considerations in the rampant billboards, malls,
and urban sprawl of the New American Landscape.

Egotopia begins where other critiques of the American landscape end:
identifying the physical ugliness that defines and homogenizes Americas
cities, suburbs, and countryside. Believing that prevailing assessments
of the American landscape are inadequate and injudicious, John Miller calls
into question the conventional wisdom of environmentalists, urban planners,
and architects alike. In this precedent-shattering examination of what
he sees as the ugliness that is the American consumer society, Miller contends
that our aesthetic condition can be fully understood only by explorers
of the metaphoric environment.

Metaphorically, the ugliness of Americas great suburban sprawl is the
physical manifestation of our increasing narcissism- our egotopia. The
ubiquity of psychotherapy as a medium promoting self-indulgence has deified
private man as it has demonized public man. The New American Landscape,
Miller argues, is no longer the physical manifestation of public and communal
values. Instead it has become a projection of private fantasies and narcissistic
self-indulgence. Individual interests and private passions can no longer
tolerate, nor even recognize, aesthetic concerns in such a landscape dedicated
to uncompromising notions of utility.

**