cover

 

 

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'
Listen to Halton speaking at the Kansas City Public Library: Kansas City Public Library, January 8, 2009


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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

photo of author


                                               Eugene Halton                    photo by Gemma Halton begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting

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