Humiliation (BIG IDEAS//small books)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.72 (835 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0312429223 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 184 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-11-30 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
We can't stop watching the scene of shame, identifying with it and absorbing its nearness, and relishing our imagined immunity from its stain, even as we acknowledge the universal, embarrassing predicament of living in our own bodies. His generous disclosures and brilliant observations go beyond prurience to create a poetics of abasement. With an unusual, disarming blend of autobiography and cultural commentary, noted poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum takes us through a spectrum of mortifying circumstancesin history, literature, art, current events, music, film, and his own life. In these moments we not only witness the reversibility of "success," of prominence, but also come to visceral terms with our own vulnerable selves. Wayne Koestenbaum considers the meaning of humiliation in this eloquent work of cultural critique and personal reflection.The lives of people both famous and obscure are filled with scarlet-letter moments when their dirty laundry sees daylight. Inventive, poignant, erudite, and playful, Humiliation plunges into one of the most disquieting of human experiences, with reflections at once emboldening and humane.
A graduate of Harvard and Princeton, he is a distinguished professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center and also a visiting professor in the painting department of the Yale School of Art.. WAYNE KOESTENBAUM has published five books of poetry, one novel, and six books of nonfiction
M. Hyman said Hard to categorize. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book. I primarily decided to read it because of the quote from John Waters who, when I was growing up in Maryland, was a bit of a not-yet-discovered cultural icon. Having said that, midway through the book I still wasn't sure what to expect from the book. It is a quirky set of short paragraphs relating to humiliation, in one form or another, or sexual tendencies and obsessions, or. Reminiscent of Bernhard, with a touch of actual humor Wayne Koestenbaum's "Humiliation" is an alternately hilarious and depressing book--his fixation on the term itself translates into a brilliant little novel (certainly not for everybody) which calls to mind a blend of Thomas Bernhard's Gargoyles: A Noveland Mina Loy's [[ASIN:0876858531 Insel]. The character is subject to, indeed, humiliation after humiliation: feelings of shame, pain, etc are explored to virtually no end. Ult. julesinrose said Small, half baked ideas-not that small a book. Humiliation is one of the books in Picador's "Big Ideas small books" series of "provocative short books inviting us to rethink our biggest ideas."Nice idea. The books entitled Violence and Time fit well into this framework. Yes, violence and time are both pretty big ideas. Who decided that humiliation was a Big Idea? Hmm. Maybe an editor who said something like, "Wayne, write about whatever you like." Wayne Koestenbaum likes
“This literary ‘topping from the bottom' is the funniest, smartest, most heartbreaking yet powerful book I've read in a long time.” John Waters“Humiliation runs like a rash over the body of all of Wayne Koestenbaum's work; here, he directly addresses the feeling, and the result is one of my favorite recent books: psychologically astute, verbally pyrotechnic, bottomlessly provocative, surprisingly funny, and immensely sad. An extraordinary meditation on nothing less than--I don't know how else to say it--the human condition.” David Shields, author of Reality Hunger