The Empire of Illusion Strikes Back
Okay, just so we’re all clear on this: Once upon a time, I proposed that we read the book “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” by Chris Hedges as a League Book Club selection. Something in that post infected the site with a virus, so Kain took it out back and shot it like Old Yeller. (Perhaps we were attacked by the Spectacle.) It is now gone. Let us never speak of it again.
Anyway, the suggestion still stands. I’ve picked up the book, as have some of you, and in a week or two, I’ll post some thoughts on the first chapter or two. Writers here are invited to post their thoughts on it as well, and our commenting denizens are invited to email me their notes that I can edit into a guest post or two. (If you send notes on buying Viagra over the internet, they might not appear here.) Mazel tov!
(If this post re-infects the site, I’ll probably be taken out back and shot myself. Hopefully, it will be okay.)
I have been told that it came in today.Report
@Jaybird, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the book.Report
@Rufus, I’ve started it.
How are we gonna do this? A thread dedicated to chapters 1-X, another for X-Y, and the last for Y-Z? One omnibus post?Report
Hedges is a brilliant writer and I find that I need to be on my guard as I read the book because it is not only so seductively written, but it also plays in to my elitist prejudices. I imagine that at least some readers here are similarly vulnerable. So critical thinking hats on, everyone, whether you like what you’re reading or not!Report
@Transplanted Lawyer, That was sort of my idea in suggesting it- I don’t know that I agree with him, but he’s a good enough writer that I have to work to disagree.Report
@Transplanted Lawyer, it is well written, I will obey the ground rules and stop there.Report
As a sidenote, the book ‘Love at Dawn’ that Dan Savage and Andrew Sullivan have been praising as of late might make an interesting future read after this one. I posted some preliminary thoughts on it (having not yet read it) over at my other blog and was impressed that the writers left interesting comments in response within a few hours.Report
My suggestion on Daniel Boorstin’s “The Image” published in 1961, is still a good suggested read in this area.
http://www.amazon.com/Image-Guide-Pseudo-Events-America/dp/0679741801Report
@Chic, I will second that one again. Another title that must come up in Hedges is The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord.Report
I’ve some rather lengthy thoughts upon completing the book available at my blog.Report
@Transplanted Lawyer, Good stuff. Could we re-post it here? (I’d have to ask Kain how to do that.)Report
@Rufus F., you’re welcome to do so. I fear it’s a little on the longish side at about 3,000 words.Report
@Jaybird, I’ve read the first three chapters and will probably finish tonight or tomorrow. So far, it seems to me like we could do both omnibus posts and individual chapter posts. Transplanted Lawyer’s post covers the whole thing and I’ll try to offer thoughts on the whole argument later on. Hopefully League writers will offer their thoughts too.
But each chapter seems to cover its own topic, so I’d also like to do some shorter posts on each; partly for people who take more time on each chapter or haven’t gotten the book yet, and partly because topics like pornography, the decline of university education and bad television strike me as interesting discussions in themselves.
Does that make sense, or is it too much Hedges?Report
@Rufus F., dude, I was afraid to ask for the thing you just suggested.
I shiver.Report
@Jaybird, Ah, you know, great minds. It’s also sort of called for by the format of the book: “hey, let me tell you all about why I’m pissed off on this topic! Hey, now, let me tell you why I’m pissed off on this very different topic! Okay, now…”Report