Life in the Air

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: 'Life in the Air' is an interesting and innovative look at the culture of airports and flying. Gottdiener takes the social and cultural route of examining air travel in the technological age with wonderfully thought-provoking and vivid examples that illustrate the vagaries of frequent flying, airport lounges, travel etiquette and bi-coastalism. All in all, an provocative read for anyone interested in social or cultural geography as well as a new kind of urbanism besides all the aficionados of flight and airports.

Rating:
Summary: At last, a book on air travel culture.
Review: The most impressive thing about Life in the Air is its scope. There have been many books on the aviation industry, but we have been waiting until now for someone to take on the rather more perplexing nature of air travel culture (in the same way that scores of writers have explored automobile culture).

Indeed, the book's uniqueness and originality presents a problem for marketing. Under which bracket should it fall? Air travel anecdotes? Sociological study? Cultural prognosis? Disgruntled passenger? Ultimately, I would argue, it is all four rolled into one and that suggests its strengths and weaknesses. The latter would be exposed by any expert on airline catering, or labor, for example. Certainly the lack of primary research would leave some academics fuming. Equally, the use of personal evidence would undoubtedly worry those who like to see arguments framed around statistical spreadsheets.

I prefer to concentrate on the strengths, however. To repeat, it is the holistic nature of the work that makes it invaluable. Thinking `that has never happened to me' does not invalidate many of the arguments. The discussion on bi-coastalism hints at the time and space disorientation prevalent in many modern lifestyles. This is a brave, path-breaking book that raises more questions than answers. I hope other writers go on to answer them.

Rating:
Summary: At last, a book on air travel culture.
Review: The most impressive thing about Life in the Air is its scope. There have been many books on the aviation industry, but we have been waiting until now for someone to take on the rather more perplexing nature of air travel culture (in the same way that scores of writers have explored automobile culture).

Indeed, the book's uniqueness and originality presents a problem for marketing. Under which bracket should it fall? Air travel anecdotes? Sociological study? Cultural prognosis? Disgruntled passenger? Ultimately, I would argue, it is all four rolled into one and that suggests its strengths and weaknesses. The latter would be exposed by any expert on airline catering, or labor, for example. Certainly the lack of primary research would leave some academics fuming. Equally, the use of personal evidence would undoubtedly worry those who like to see arguments framed around statistical spreadsheets.

I prefer to concentrate on the strengths, however. To repeat, it is the holistic nature of the work that makes it invaluable. Thinking 'that has never happened to me' does not invalidate many of the arguments. The discussion on bi-coastalism hints at the time and space disorientation prevalent in many modern lifestyles. This is a brave, path-breaking book that raises more questions than answers. I hope other writers go on to answer them.

Rating:
Summary: The agony and the ecstasy of the frequent flyer
Review: This has the veneer of academic research, but it's not actually a sociological study despite being written by a professor. Gottdiener writes mainly of his own experiences as a frequent flyer, such as when he was approached by a prostitute at O'Hare, or snowed in at Logan, or became ill at Denver. These first-person narratives are coupled with observations of how people behave in airports and aircraft. The strongest part of the book is about how flying distorts our experience of space and time; the worst parts are where he descends into ranting about how awful flying can be, because of things like people who insist on reading during night flights (Hey, I do that - some of us can't fall asleep merely because they turned the lights off!).