Aha!

de Barbara Parker

The gist of AHA! is to show that what 21st century humans like doing most is tribal in nature and still based on getting one's DNA into the next generation. We love our car and get great satisfaction from the cell-phone, make McDonald's or Home Depot a roaring success, adore Oprah and tolerate elevator music because not enough generations have gone by to shake off ancient survival behaviour. Eleven chapters take an amusing look at some pretty basic impulses evolved for life in the savannah and how we indulge them today: we love to chew and drink while watching TV; we buy magazines stuffed with illustrated gossip about celebrities; we can't resist adding that pea-green blouse at 70% off regular price to our crammed closet. In the last chapter AHA! concludes that the print culture (though not print) is waning because focussing in solitude on black marks in a line is not the heritage of our still in-control past.-Trafford