Authors: John Leonard
ISBN-13: 9781565846432, ISBN-10: 1565846435
Format: Paperback
Publisher: New Press, The
Date Published: September 2000
Edition: (Non-applicable)
The conspiracies and fears fostered by the Cold War continue to poison our national psyche. New enemies, real or imagined, have fostered subcultures of fantasy and paranoia, and vertiginous proclamations of doom and transformation. In this new book, John Leonard shows how our great novelists and essayists can help us to find some sense and sanity amid the dull roar of tabloids, talk shows, and the Disneyfication of everything.
Cultural critic Leonard (Smoke and Mirrors, New Pr., 1997) has assembled a new volume of reflections on the best new literature and what it has to say about America today. The book is divided into five categories: Going Down with Atlantis, Falling Off the Pacific Rim, Mixed Media, American Identities, and Third World. Along the way, Leonard takes aim at the likes of The X-Files, Don DeLillo, PBS, Joan Didion, Thomas Pynchon, and Toni Morrison, to name a few. Throughout, he shows how great novelists and essayists can make sense of our often confusing and superficial culture. Readers will find a smorgasbord of ideas, sometimes outrageous but always thought-provoking. Leonard should be required reading for all those wanting to make sense of our times. Recommended for all libraries.--Ron Ratliff, Chapman H.S. Lib., Manhattan, KS Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Pt. 1 | Going Down with Atlantis | 1 |
Dreaming the Republic | 3 | |
Killing the Philosophers | 16 | |
Spooking the Horses of the Apocalypse | 41 | |
Lolita Lights Our Fire | 58 | |
Knee-deep in the Alien Corn | 68 | |
Tropic of Cancer | 81 | |
Pt. 2 | Falling Off the Pacific Rim | 87 |
DeLillo's American Jitters | 89 | |
Revenge of the Poisoned Twinkies | 103 | |
California Screaming | 117 | |
Didion Does NAFTA | 129 | |
Cyberpunk Rocks | 142 | |
Pynchon's Crazy Age of Reason | 156 | |
Let's Hear It For the Luddites | 165 | |
Pt. 3 | Mixed Media | 177 |
All the News That Gives Me Fits | 179 | |
Editors Anonymous | 192 | |
American Cassandra | 198 | |
Whose Television, for Which Public? | 207 | |
Pt. 4 | American Identities | 223 |
Mary Gordon's Father Runs Away from Home | 225 | |
Underground Gass | 233 | |
Amazing Grace | 240 | |
Morrison's Paradise Lost | 246 | |
Pt. 5 | Third Worlds | 255 |
Said's Culture and Imperialism | 257 | |
Doris Lessing Goes Back to Africa | 273 | |
At Oliver Tambo's Funeral, 1993 | 284 | |
Discovering David Grossman | 295 | |
Meeting David Grossman | 305 | |
Amos Oz in the Desert | 318 | |
Garcia Marquez, at War on Drugs | 330 | |
Eduardo Galeano Walks Some Words | 346 | |
Epilogue | 349 | |
Happy Bastille Day! | 351 |