Blubberland The Dangers of Happiness

Welcome to Blubberland--a world of quadruple-garaged mansions, vast malls, gatedcommunities, stretch limos, and posh resorts. Blubberland is a place, but it is also a state ofmind: we expect to be happy (trophy house, SUV in the driveway, home entertainment system, pensionfund, cosmetic surgery), but in fact we've grown increasingly bloated, bored, and miserable. InBlubberland, award-winning critic Elizabeth Farrelly looks at our "superfluoussuperfluity," our huge eco-footprint, and asks why we find it so hard to abandon habits we knowto be destructive. Why can't we build human-scale cities, design meaningful public spaces, eatreasonable meals, and stop assaulting nature? Farrelly, trained as an architect, begins this storywith architecture, urban sprawl, and housing, but she does not end there. She also looks at"affluenza," childhood asthma, diabetes, addiction, beauty, ugliness, narcissism, climatechange, mega-churches, big box retailers, sustainability, depression, anorexia, and the links thatcollect all of these issues under the same roof--the roof, as it were, of the McMansion. As"big" becomes more and more pervasive, and success is seen in increasingly measurable andmaterial terms, the goal of happiness jeopardizes our survival. Blubberland is a smart, thoughtful,and stylish argument for turning things around. Elizabeth Farrelly is one of Australia's liveliestand most provocative writers on architecture and the environment. The winner of the CICAInternational Critics' Award, the Pascall Prize for Critical Writing, and the Marion Mahony GriffinAward, she is a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, a commentator on Australian television andradio, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Sydney.