Book
I don't normally read books, but I just finished a great one: The City & The City by China Miéville. Among other things, it's a deep exploration of taboo, consensual reality and urban culture. These are difficult subjects to write about, because examples tend either to push people's buttons or to be dismissed as outlandish. Either way, the points get lost. Mr Miéville avoids both problems by creating an urban world whose taboos, consensual reality and culture are not our own, but to which we can easily relate. Indeed we're forced to ask ourselves why it is that we can relate so easily to a world so alien, and to examine the universal nature of the underlying phenomena. I recommend it.