The Image of American Hyperbole | The New Yorker

Recently, trawling Instagram, I happened upon a picture captured by the still-life photographer Shana Novak, of the big-box chain Kmart’s recently redesigned plastic bag. The bag, pristinely white, its surface marked by forgiving wrinkles, is set against a subtle gradient-blue background that looks like the sky. It might have been tossed away and carried upward by the wind. “Life is ridiculously awesome,” it says, in two bubbly, bright-red fonts: a juicy cursive and a blocky, all-caps sans serif.