¡°It¡¯s been my most controversial book yet,¡± W. David Marx says, sipping a coffee in a bright and airy Harajuku cafe. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter how much you can steel yourself to getting negative reviews ¡ª it¡¯s not fun to read them.¡±
To be clear, Marx¡¯s new book, ¡°Blank Space,¡± is a cultural history of the 21st century with the simple but persuasive thesis that, under advanced global capitalism, radical forms of cultural innovation are scarcer than ever before. It has earned praise from notable outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and NPR. But Marx¡¯s viewpoint is biting and incisive, and it has inspired rancor from fandoms of the artists and cultural movements he critiques.
He wasn¡¯t pessimistic at the start of the project, which was intended to chronicle the art and culture that emerged from the first quarter of the century. But by the time he got to the 2020s, he says he was thinking to himself: ¡°Wow, this really went terribly.¡±
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