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Rating: "All that glitters is not gold" O.T.
Never before has the definition of "crappy book" been so accurate and politically correct.
Back in 1998, our prophet/photographer/advertiser and provocateur Oliviero Toscani, after the Benetton adventure that brought him so much fame, popularity, and glory, gave birth to "CACAS" (on behalf of editions Taschen, no less!): a sort of Encyclopedia (!) with the classification of all (or almost all) human and animal feces, complete with large, well-detailed photographs and serious captions.
A large luxurious hardcover book, translated into German, English, and French that aims to fill a gap in publishing but ultimately is just an unpleasant display of vomitable feces and exaggerated turds on double pages (in color but strictly on a white background, as Toscani's style dictates) which simply aim to be yet another gratuitous provocation of little substance, made to make people feel disgusted and scandalized by such a vision. Practically 90% of the Italian population.
I generally like provocations and love when I'm stimulated by excessive or out-of-the-ordinary books (see the reviews on DeBaser for the book "against women" here or on "The Magical Power of Your Mind" here, just to give two examples) but when I find myself in front of insignificant and frankly boring books like this one (with the pretense of doing something for intellectual purposes, no less!), my mind goes to that entire slew of publishers, managers, companies, or advertisers who get fooled by the endless provocations of someone like Oliviero Toscani who, while he may be a wizard of visual effect and imagery, at the "content" level he strikes me as a cunning schemer who has figured out how to generate curiosity and interest around everything he does.
In this world of cunning-foxes with no scruples or qualms, I can only commend him (for his ability to engage people and his absolutely enviable dialectic), his staff, and his press office, while a demerit goes to all those who fall for his almost childish trickery, paying the photographer big sums and buying books like this one, absolutely useless and not even that provocative.
Luckily, I bought it at a stall for €2 (and not for the cover price of 25!!) or I would have been mad at myself for falling for it like a fool.
Great crappy book, no doubt about it.
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