Includes index.

Pt. 1. Mass Culture: Apocalypse Postponed.
1.1. Apocalyptic and Integrated Intellectuals: Mass communications and theories of mass culture.
1.2. The World of charlie Brown.
1.3. Reactions of Apocalyptic and Integrated intellectuals: Then (1964).
1.4. The reactions of the Author: Now (1974 and 1977).
1.5. Orwell, or Concerning Visionary Power. 1.6. The Future of Literacy --
Pt. 2. Mass Media and the Limits of Communication.
2.1. Political Language: The use and abuse of rhetoric.
2.2. Does an Audience have Bad Effects on Television?
2.3. Even as Mise en sc’ÛÎåne and Life as Scene-setting.
2.4. The Phantom of Neo-TV: The debate on Fellini's Ginger and Fred --
Pt. 3. The Rise and Fall of Counter-cultures.
3.1. Does counter-culture exist?
3.2. The New Forms of Expression.
3.3. On Chinese Comic Strips: Counter-information and alternative information.
3.4. Independent Radio in Italy.
3.5. Striking at the Heart of the State? --
Pt. 4. In Search of Italian Genius.
4.1. Phenomena of This Sort Must Also be Included in Any Panorama of Italian Design.
4.2. A Dollar for a Deputy: La Cicciolina.
4.3. For Grave Received.
4.4. The Italian Genius Industry.

Apocalypse Postpone is the anguished portrait of Western culture on the brink of self-destruction, by one of the world's foremost writers. With consummate ease, Umberto Eco provides simultaneously both a perfect attack on and an apology for mass culture. Exploring such exotica as la Cicciolina, Charlie Brown, George Orwell, Fellini, Chinese and American comics, as well as appraising illiteracy, the state of the counterculture and his own reaction to the media's consumption of his work, he exposes contemporary mass culture both as mankind's nemesis and as its salvation.