abstract:The Phantom Public is a book published in 1925 by journalist Walter Lippmann, in which he expresses his lack of faith in the democratic system, arguing that the public exists merely as an illusion, myth, and inevitably a phantom. As Carl Bybee wrote, “For Lippmann the public was a theoretical fiction and government was primarily an administrative problem to be solved as efficiently as possible, so that people could get on with their own individualistic pursuits” (48).
Like the Hunchback of Notre-Dame or thePhantom of the Opera, Hugo lives a secret life in a public place a rubbishy room up in the clockworks, where he tinkers with inventions old and new.
It has been nominated again this year and is up against Billy Elliot the Musical, ThePhantom of the Opera and Wicked for the BBC Radio 2 Audience Award - the only Olivier voted for by thepublic.