[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”160258821X” locale=”us” height=”333″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EFouosHZL.jpg” width=”216″ alt=”Brett Robinson” ]The Mac Myth
A Review of
Appletopia: Media Technology and the Religious Imagination of Steve Jobs
Brett Robinson
Hardback: Baylor Press, 2013.
Buy now: [ [easyazon-link asin=”160258821X” locale=”us”]Amazon[/easyazon-link] ] [ [easyazon-link asin=”B00E9FV48Y” locale=”us”]Kindle[/easyazon-link] ]
Reviewed by Adam P. Newton
Apple. Macintosh. Steve Jobs. iAnything. You’d have to be raising barns deep in Amish country, paddling the depths of the Amazon River Basin, or living on a far-flung Pacific island to not be familiar with the products made by the Apple brand. Even if you don’t use that technology, you probably have a very specific opinion about why you’ve never adopted any of those devices. I have hacker IT friends who only operate off undiluted Linux kernels, and even those folks have an iPhone or use iTunes for their digital music. And if you especially love Mac products, you’re lucky if detractors will let you off the hook by merely calling you a “fanboy” – the unlucky get told they’re members of a cult.
With his investigation into the religious ideas and philosophies that powered the big-picture worldview and day-to-day operations of Steve Jobs, Brett T. Robinson examines the life of this powerful innovator, inventor, and technological prophet. Appletopia serves as a pleasant though occasionally superficial discussion of how Jobs integrated artistic ideals into scientific exploration and marketing savvy to create a pop culture “event” in a world that’s become quite jaded toward larger meta-stories.
The book makes great hay of the concepts introduced in its lengthy subtitle. It’s no secret that Jobs attempted (and occasionally succeeded) to integrate the principles of Buddhism into how his company operated and his customers experienced his products. Anytime you hear someone rave about how “intuitive” the User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) are on a Mac, that’s because Jobs trusted his customers to utilize their common sense to operate his devices – and that’s something brought over to the West from Eastern thought.
Robinson then proceeds to provide explanations outlining how those same principles were introduced into how Apple marketed itself, its products, and its ethos. He talks about Jobs’s use of myth and story to talk about his company and what the company can do for its customers that other companies cannot. He parses a range of examples from Apple’s history, starting from the early ads like the iconic “1984” where Apple is billed as a computer that frees you from an automaton-like existed in front of an IBM computer, to the exuberant dancing performed in iPod ads, and all the way through the “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” commercials. All of these efforts serve to showcase Jobs’s beliefs and practices about the world around him through the lens of selling a computer.
Where the book veers into frustrating territory is when Robinson begins to rely too heavily upon the thoughts, ideas, opinions, and research of others. Yes, there’s nothing new under the sun, and sure, I will always support a well-researched tome, but I never thought something akin to “I’ve never heard or thought that about Jobs or Apple before.” When you have 18 pages of footnotes and a 13-page bibliography for a 100-page book, it had better be an engaging read, or it just might come across as a well-written master’s thesis.
Moreover, I quibble with the way the book’s information is presented – the arc is mostly historical in nature, rather than topical, which means we’re forced to make the connections between products and campaigns on our own. I’m a sucker for good context to the content I’m reading, but those components need to be presented coherently and with some keen insights and instruction before it can make sense to me. Specifically, chapters 2 and 3 discuss the iPod and iPhone respectively, splitting the discussion of the technology and the religious underpinnings that determine how we feel about the devices. Instead, those 2 chapters should have been combined into one chapter that discusses the various intersections between religion and technology, not a “case study” into each device and how Jobs’s beliefs and practices influenced each of them.
The book hits its stride in Chapter 4 (entitled “Technology and Religion: Where the Physical and Metaphysical Meet”). Here, the author delivers the clearest media critique of the “cult of Mac,” including appearances from Andy Warhol, Marshall McLuhan, and others. It also represents the fullest explanation of the metaphysical and religious into Jobs’s technology dreams. This good chapter also lays bare the failings of the IT compatriots – when you have good media analysis, but it’s segregated from the historical development of the technology, you’re going to arrive at a dry history with no overarching determinism.
Ultimately, Brett Robinson’s Appletopia reads more like a straight-forward marketing text with a bit of religiosity thrown in for good measure. What I wanted from this book was a fresh query into Jobs’s influences upon the development of technology, how we talk about those things, and personal insights from the author regarding technology, religion, and culture. Unfortunately, while it’s a pretty good study of the “Mac Myth” as fomented by Jobs’s love of his religious beliefs, the book merely reads as a decent primer to the way that Steve Jobs used a few Buddhist ideas to market his technology a bit differently than others.
C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
 Reading for the Common Good From ERB Editor Christopher Smith "This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." -Karen Swallow Prior Enter your email below to sign up for our weekly newsletter & download your FREE copy of this ebook! |
Understanding Christian Nationalism [A Reading Guide] |
 Most Anticipated Books of the Fall for Christian Readers!
|
 Hilarious One-Star Customer Reviews of Bibles |
![Gary Scott Smith - Strength for the Fight [Review]](https://englewoodreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Strength-for-the-Fight-130x130.jpeg "Gary Scott Smith - Strength for the Fight [Review]")
![Marilynne Robinson - Reading Genesis [Feature Review]](https://englewoodreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Reading-Genesis-130x130.jpeg "Marilynne Robinson - Reading Genesis [Feature Review]")
Mr. Newton (or should I call you Mr. Hamilton?). Thanks for your spunky review of the book. Although, I would encourage you to get the last name of the author right when reviewing his book otherwise your read of it comes off as rather “superficial.”
Given your organization’s religious orientation, it would have been interesting to hear about the deeper connections that exist between technology and spirituality that are explored throughout the book. If you read this as a marketing book about Apple, I’m afraid you missed the point.
I suppose you show your cards when you say “What I wanted from this book…” That’s not what a reviewer (with an audience) is supposed to say. That’s what a blogger says to himself while wearing a fuzzy bear hat. It’s like reviewing a craft beer and saying what you really wanted was a lemonade. A sophisticated review pays attention to the harmony of the resonant notes in the work itself – it doesn’t go wandering in search of other ideas.
The book claims to make connections between what, until now, have been loose strands suggesting an oblique connection between Apple, technology and spirituality. The book’s rhetorical analysis weaves together the semiotics of the Apple ads with the broader historical and cultural connections between how we mediate the world and what we believe. It’s a connection that goes back to the Greeks, hence the need for secondary research.
Thanks for reviewing the book, Mr. Newberry. I hope your readers are more discerning.
Mr. Newton (or should I call you Mr. Hamilton?). Thanks for your spunky review of the book. Although, I would encourage you to get the last name of the author right when reviewing his book otherwise your read of it comes off as rather “superficial.”
UPDATE: Thanks for the speedy correction! Maybe mistakes don’t live forever online!
Given your organization’s religious orientation, it would have been interesting to hear about the deeper connections that exist between technology and spirituality that are explored throughout the book. If you read this as a marketing book about Apple, I’m afraid you missed the point.
I suppose you show your cards when you say “What I wanted from this book…” That’s not what a reviewer (with an audience) is supposed to say. That’s what a blogger says to himself while wearing a fuzzy bear hat. It’s like reviewing a craft beer and saying what you really wanted was a lemonade. A sophisticated review pays attention to the harmony of the resonant notes in the work itself – it doesn’t go wandering in search of other ideas.
The book claims to make connections between what, until now, have been loose strands suggesting an oblique connection between Apple, technology and spirituality. The book’s rhetorical analysis weaves together the semiotics of the Apple ads with the broader historical and cultural connections between how we mediate the world and what we believe. It’s a connection that goes back to the Greeks, hence the need for secondary research.
Thanks for reviewing the book, Mr. Newberry. I hope your readers are more discerning.