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The Great Brain Suck

And Other American Epiphanies

Eugene Halton author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:14th Nov '08

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Great Brain Suck cover

More and more information is pumped into our media-saturated world every day, yet Americans seem to know less and less. In a society where who you are is defined by what you buy, and where we prefer to experience reality by watching it on TV, Eugene Halton argues something has clearly gone wrong.Luckily Halton, with scalpel-sharp wit in one hand and the balm of wisdom in the other, is here to operate on the declining body politic. His initial diagnosis is bleak: fast food and too much time spent sitting, whether in our cars or on our couches, are ruining our bodies, while our minds are weakened by the proliferation of electronic devices - TVs, computers, cell phones, iPods, video games - and their alienating effects. If we are losing the battle between autonomy and automation, he asks, how can our culture regain self-sufficiency? Halton finds the answer in the inspiring visions - deeply rooted in American culture - of an organic and more spontaneous life at the heart of the work of master craftsman Wharton Esherick, legendary blues singer Muddy Waters, urban critic Lewis Mumford, and artist Maya Lin, among others.A scathing and original jeremiad against modern materialism, "The Great Brain Suck" is also a series of epiphanies of a simpler but more profound life.

"Witty, acerbic, and brilliant. Halton takes on truly basic philosophical issues, but unlike the great majority of cultural critics today, he is philosophically prepared and highly competent to do so. Halton's extraordinary work is nearly unique among current writers in its relevance, incisiveness, and philosophical power." - Bruce Wilshire, Rutgers University"

ISBN: 9780226314655

Dimensions: 24mm x 16mm x 2mm

Weight: 595g

336 pages