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Spectacle

 (Phaidon; 256 Pgs.; $49.95)

This may be the first coffee-table-styled book to draw comparisons between the Nuremberg rallies, the Oscars, Kim Jong Il's military parades and King Kong. Among the observations proffered: Vegas titan Steve Wynn argues that new technologies have raised the bar for complexity and sophistication; David Zolkwer of Jack Morgan Public Events maintains that the human element becomes increasingly important as the scale of spectacle increases; and helmer Julie Taymor explores how spectacle's power comes from defying laws of every sort.

What's more, Rockwell, a former actor and the architect behind the Kodak Theater, the W New York and Nobu, argues that the need for spectacle is something innately human. In interview after interview, he reiterates the book's main theme: that we feel most human when we are confronted with awe and completely outside ourselves.

In other words, in this age of increasing isolation, Rockwell argues convincingly that we need spectacle now more than ever. "In matter of style," writes Rockwell, "excess is no error. To revolt against reserve is necessary."

However, the tome continually falls short of the intellectual depth that Paul Virilio, Susan Sontag, Jean Baudrillard and Norman Klein have already brought to the subject. The radical thinker Guy Debord, who argued that spectacle engenders widespread passivity and thus is something to be avoided, gets a mere mention.

Rockwell does expose the dark side of mass entertainment, mostly by interviewing folks like John Waters, who gags when he hears the word "spectacle." "Spectacle brings out patriotism," explains Waters, "something that I generally find incredibly suspicious and offensive, even through I do love America."

Nonetheless, the amply illustrated book tackles a rich subject, suggesting that a documentary on the same subject would be spectacular to say the least.