[dave146]

What is Richard Rhodes´ Cupcake Land about?

My tutor said something about it... And I want to find out what it is.

[tickle]

Thomas Frank wrote 'Cupcake Land", not Richard Rhodes. Here is a review (could be Rhodes reviewed it somewhere along the line, but not this time).

Cupcake Land is a metropolis built entirely according to the developer's plan, without the interference of angry proles or ethnic pols as in nearby Kansas City. Cupcake Land encourages no culture but that which increases property values; supports no learning but that which burnishes the brand; hears no opinions but those that will further fatten the cupcake elite; tolerates no rebellion but that expressed in haircuts and piercings and alternative rock. You know what it's like even though you haven't been there. Smooth jazz. Hallmark cards. Applebees. Corporate Woods. Its greatest civic holiday is the turning-on of the Christmas lights at a nearby shopping center -- an event so inspirational to the cupcake mind that the mall thus illuminated has been rendered in paint by none other than Thomas Kinkade.

Google Thomas Frank and you will find out that his other books explain this one. If you are curious enough about it, you will.

I know this is homework, davel46, and we don't usually answer homework questions, but I was curious myself.

And, please don't type 'wanna'. Correct is WANT TO.

[dave146]

This is not homework, and Thomas Frank didnt write it. I think you are mistaking it for "Whats the matter with Kansas"... I am confident that R.Rhodes wrote it. PS: what´s the problem with "wanna" - I want to know.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

[HistorianChick]

Rhodes coined the term "Cupcake Land" as a nickname for Johnson County, Kan. in a 1987 Harper's magazine article titled "Cupcake Land: Requiem for the Midwest in the Key of Vanilla."

This is all I could find about it - "it" being "cupcake land" by Richard Rhodes. Cupcake land. Requiem for the Midwest in the key of vanilla, By Richard Rhodes (Harper's Magazine)

"Wanna" is just slang for "want to. Poor grammar/use of slang sometimes comes across as childish and not "learned." I think that may have been why it was assumed that this question was a homework assignment. Most kids post questions directly from their papers because they don't want to do the legwork themselves. It's kind of refreshing to have a student really want to know about something, rather than just finding an answer.

[dave146]

I am able of doing my homework myself... He used it as an example in a discussion... Too bad I don´t have a Harper´s account, I wish I could read it. It looks so interesting.