The other serious
Subtitle: [essays for the new American generation]
By: Christy Wampole
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
ISBN-13: 9780062320353; 9780062320360
Subjects: Social values; Social conditions; Civilization; History
Other titles: Essays for the new American generation
Work titles: Essays
Description: " The Other Serious: American Essays contains a motley assortment of reflections on the United States as anomaly. Among the many maneuvers in this collection are: A close reading of the light-obsessed "Star-Spangled Banner" alongside the gory French national anthem; an analysis of Jim Henson's "Labyrinth" (1986) as a cryptofeminist fantasy; various forms of praise for oldness, dirt, and boring things; a eulogy for the messy humanity in Richard Linklater's Slacker (1991); and reflections on awkwardness, distraction, the North-South divide, the legacy of the Enlightenment in America, and Apple's goal to make its products totally invisible. Above all, this assemblage of essays proposes a framework for approaching life in our muddled nation with a joyful seriousness"--
Table of contents: title: Introduction: A Heavy Life or a Light One; title: The Glare of the Enlightenment; title: The Great American Irony Binge; title: The Patina of Things; title: On Distraction; title: The Emotive Spectacle; title: Intergenerational Conversation; title: Toward A Sterile Future; title: Southern Niceness; title: On Awkwardness; title: Treat Your Country Like Your Child, Not Your Parent; title: The Metaphor of Masking Tape; title: You Have No Power Over Me; title: The Bad Serious; title: The Other Serious; title: Postscript: The Lightness of the Ladybug.