Curtis White’s new book on what ails our cultural life is a sharply aimed critique. He writes that “our films, our news media, even the academic world of which he’s a part, have all conspired to eliminate the space for imagination and thought, the space in which people could envision a better life or any alternative to the status quo. The creations of Spielberg, Disney, and their ilk, “are pre-emptive efforts to saturate the field in which the imagination might do its work. This is the televisual deluge. This is communication as domination. We drown at the bottom of Hollywood’s ocean, and all we ever wanted was a single glass of pure water.”