Synopses & Reviews
From the author hailed by the New York Times Book Review for his “drive-by brilliance” and dubbed by the New York Times Magazine as “one of the countrys most eloquent and acid-tongued critics” comes a ruthless challenge to the conventional wisdom about the most consequential cultural development of our time: the Internet. Of course the Internet is not one thing or another; if anything, its boosters claim, the Web is everything at once. Its become not only our primary medium for communication and information but also the place we go to shop, to play, to debate, to find love. Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion in life online doesnt just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture, in ways with which we havent yet reckoned. The web and its cultural correlatives and by-products—such as the dominance of reality television and the rise of the “bourgeois bohemian”—have turned privacy into performance, play into commerce, and confused “self-expression” with art. And even as technology gurus ply their trade using the language of freedom and democracy, we cede more and more control of our freedom and individuality to the needs of the machine—that confluence of business and technology whose boundaries now stretch to encompass almost all human activity.
Siegels argument isnt a Luddite intervention against the Internet itself but rather a bracing appeal for us to contend with how it is transforming us all. Dazzlingly erudite, full of startlingly original insights, and buoyed by sharp wit, Against the Machine will force you to see our culture—for better and worse—in an entirely new way.
Review
andldquo;A beautiful, brilliant, and persuasive reading of G Marx as crypto-nihilist. A necessary and pulse-quickening work (utterly bereft of jargon or self-seriousness), linking Aristophanes to Kafka to Beckett to Groucho to Woody Allen to Amy Schumer.andrdquo;andmdash;David Shields, author of Reality Hunger
Review
andldquo;Lee Siegelandrsquo;s brilliant analysis of the glorious, scary, beyond-funny humor of Groucho and his brothers made me feel as if I were watching their movies for the first time. In this hugely enjoyable and stimulating book, Siegel shows how Groucho became an impossibility: an immortal comedian.andrdquo;andmdash;Ian Frazier, author of Great Plains and On the Rez
Synopsis
A trenchant examination of an iconic American figure that explores the cultural and psychological roots of his comic genius
Synopsis
Born Julius Marx in 1890, the brilliant comic actor who would later be known as Groucho was the most verbal of the famed comedy team, the Marx Brothers, his broad slapstick portrayals elevated by ingenious wordplay and double entendre. In his spirited biography of this beloved American iconoclast, Lee Siegel views the life of Groucho through the lens of his work on stage, screen, and television. The author uncovers the roots of the performerandrsquo;s outrageous intellectual acuity and hilarious insolence toward convention and authority in Grouchoandrsquo;s early upbringing and Marx family dynamics.
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The first critical biography of Groucho Marx to approach his work analytically, this fascinating study draws unique connections between Grouchoandrsquo;s comedy and his life, concentrating primarily on the brothersandrsquo; classic films as a means of understanding and appreciating Julius the man. Unlike previous uncritical and mostly reverential biographies, Siegelandrsquo;s andldquo;bio-commentaryandrdquo; makes a distinctive contribution to the field of Groucho studies by attempting to tell the story of his life in terms of his work, and vice versa.
About the Author
LEE SIEGEL is the author of the essay collections Falling Upwards, Not Remotely Controlled and winner of the 2002 National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey with his wife and son.