When I set out to write a book about the natural history of breasts, I knew I'd have to answer some awkward questions about my book topic. At a...
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Another engrossing and fun read in the land of the strange and weird. Ronson is a master at writing about the extremes of human behavior while making his quest reliable, entertaining, and educating.
Sociologists have long had a reputation of being poor writers. This probably goes back at least to Talcott Parsons, who was full of jargon, discursive, unintelligible, and dismal. However, Erving Goffman is not only a sociologist with something profound and eerie to say, but one of the most distinctive stylists in the English language. He is everything Parsons was not. No one can duplicate his style, which is direct, sublime, and diamond-like. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was his first book and probably his masterpiece. It has never been out of print and has been continuously assigned to college students since its publication in 1959. It should not be read only by students. I have read it at least three times.
The book is difficult to describe. Goffman uses seemingly mundane (but fascinating and often funny) examples from everyday life to show how we act as if on a stage with roles to perform and many ways of performing them. It makes its points as much from Goffman's unique style as from what he leaves out (namely any discussion of whether there is anything more to face-to-face interaction than the comic-drama we act in). Summaries cannot do it justice. Be prepared for a wild ride, and, if you're sensitive, and willing to apply Goffmanesque insights to your own interactions with others, your I.Q. will increase by several points at least. You certainly will never experience human interaction the way you did before you read this amazing work.
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Ghost World reads really well as a screenplay. It is an edition well worth having even if you own the original book by Clowes. I use it to improve my french and spanish by putting the DVD on in those languages and then following along in the English-language screenplay. Not everyone's cup of tea, perhaps, but it sure does beat memorizing verbs and congugating them.
An early (1960) study, but the co-author is Donald Richie, who went on to become the pre-eminent critic of the master Ozu and one of the best overall critics of Japanese film.
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ronald has commented on (5) products.
The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson
ronald, January 19, 2012
Another engrossing and fun read in the land of the strange and weird. Ronson is a master at writing about the extremes of human behavior while making his quest reliable, entertaining, and educating.The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman
ronald, October 14, 2011
Sociologists have long had a reputation of being poor writers. This probably goes back at least to Talcott Parsons, who was full of jargon, discursive, unintelligible, and dismal. However, Erving Goffman is not only a sociologist with something profound and eerie to say, but one of the most distinctive stylists in the English language. He is everything Parsons was not. No one can duplicate his style, which is direct, sublime, and diamond-like. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was his first book and probably his masterpiece. It has never been out of print and has been continuously assigned to college students since its publication in 1959. It should not be read only by students. I have read it at least three times.The book is difficult to describe. Goffman uses seemingly mundane (but fascinating and often funny) examples from everyday life to show how we act as if on a stage with roles to perform and many ways of performing them. It makes its points as much from Goffman's unique style as from what he leaves out (namely any discussion of whether there is anything more to face-to-face interaction than the comic-drama we act in). Summaries cannot do it justice. Be prepared for a wild ride, and, if you're sensitive, and willing to apply Goffmanesque insights to your own interactions with others, your I.Q. will increase by several points at least. You certainly will never experience human interaction the way you did before you read this amazing work.
(1 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P Pierce
ronald, January 1, 2010
Chapter one is great: the creation museum has a dinosaur with a saddle on it!(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
Ghost World: A Screenplay by Daniel Clowes
ronald, November 1, 2008
Ghost World reads really well as a screenplay. It is an edition well worth having even if you own the original book by Clowes. I use it to improve my french and spanish by putting the DVD on in those languages and then following along in the English-language screenplay. Not everyone's cup of tea, perhaps, but it sure does beat memorizing verbs and congugating them.The Japanese film: art and industry,
ronald, August 23, 2006
An early (1960) study, but the co-author is Donald Richie, who went on to become the pre-eminent critic of the master Ozu and one of the best overall critics of Japanese film.