Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter I
2. Contents VII
3. Acknowledgments IX
4. 1 Trash and Literature 1
5. 2 The Critical Context 14
6. PART 1: CASE STUDIES
7. 3 Star Wars and The Faerie Queene 29
8. 4 The Trash Talk Show 38
9. 5 Friends, Seinfeld, and Days of Our Lives 44
10. 6 Tragedy, the Enquirer, and the Critics 58
11. PART 2: VALUES
12. 7 Advertising and Utopia 77
13. 8 The Shopping Mall and the Formal Garden 91
14. 9 Playboy and The Book of the Courtier 101
15. 10 Cosmopolitan and the Woman's Coming-of-Age Novel 117
16. PART 3: HISTORY
17. 11 Star Trek, Gulliver's Travels, and the Problem of History 139
18. 12 The Great Books in Vietnam 153
19. 13 Matthew Arnold Meets Godzilla 175
20. Works Cited 179
21. Index 185