THE GREAT
BRAIN SUCK:
And Other
American Epiphanies
by
Eugene Halton
University of Chicago Press, 2008
To purchase online:
click
here
From the book
description:
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.
Here is a review by Andrew S. Hughes: Halton
Unclogs 'Great Brain Suck'
and one by Carol C. Bradley: The
Great Brain Suck: A Virtual Life or a Real Life
Listen to Halton on WCUR
Kansas City's The Walt Bodine Show: Walt
Bodine Show Archives, January 8, 2009
Listen to Halton speaking at the Kansas City Public Library: Kansas
City Public Library, January 8, 2009
And here are: Additional photos, music,
and info to the book
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
1. The Great Brain Suck
2. Out of the Fifties
3. Go Man Go
4. The Hunter-Gatherers' World's Fair
5. Life, Literature, and Sociology in Turn-of-the Century Chicago
6. Communicating Democracy: Or Shine, Perishing Republic
7. Lem's
Master's Voice
8. An American Epiphany in Nashville
9. The House on Mount Misery
10. The Art and Craft of Home
11. Europiphanies
12. The Last Days of Lewis Mumford
13. Teleparodies
14. His One Leg
Eugene Halton
photo by Gemma Halton begin_of_the_skype_highlightingend_of_the_skype_highlighting