The Great Brain Suck: And Other American Epiphanies
by Eugene Halton /
2008 / English / PDF
10.3 MB Download
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.
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.
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,
A scathing and original jeremiad against modern materialism,The Great Brain Suck
The Great Brain Suck is also a series of epiphanies of a
simpler but more profound life.
is also a series of epiphanies of a
simpler but more profound life.
