Contains essays which demonstrate that writing on popular culture can be both thoughtful and heartfelt. It includes Barney Hoskyns' classic "NME" piece written at the time of "Thriller".
Sweetening The Pill questions the truth of all that we have come to believe about the birth control pill and asks whether, under the cover of liberation, hormonal contraceptives have oppressed women.
Abandoning Heidegger's pious references to Holderlin and the Greeks, Harman develops a new philosophical mythology centered in such Lovecraftian figures as Cthulhu, Wilbur Whately, and the rat-like monstrosity Brown Jenkin.
The powerful evidence-based analysis of current affairs led the author to question the basic myth of Western benevolence: from schoolroom experiments in democracy, exposure to radical ideas at home, and a mercy mission while at sea; to an unexpected encounter with former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.