Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Ebook319 pages8 hours
The Great Brain Suck: And Other American Epiphanies
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
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.
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.
Related to The Great Brain Suck
Related ebooks
Envisioning Power: Ideologies of Dominance and Crisis Scientific Americans: The Making of Popular Science and Evolution in Early-twentieth-century U.S. Literature and Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Folk: Music, Modernity, and the Political Imagination Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEdgar Allan Poe and the Masses: The Political Economy of Literature in Antebellum America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Colonialism and the Emergence of Science Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radical Will: Selected Writings 1911-1918 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Symposium on Epic of John Adams and the French-American Quasi War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlues, Ideology, and Afro-American Literature: A Vernacular Theory Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Sense of Things: The Object Matter of American Literature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myths That Made America: An Introduction to American Studies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Word Toys: Poetry and Technics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRadical Affections: Essays on the Poetics of Outside Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Humanities and the Dream of America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDisorienting Fiction: The Autoethnographic Work of Nineteenth-Century British Novels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRestless Nation: Starting Over in America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsComposing Cultures: Modernism, American Literary Studies, and the Problem of Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthnography in Today's World: Color Full Before Color Blind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica's Communal Utopias Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Utopian Vistas: The Mabel Dodge Luhan House and the American Counterculture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Medieval America: Feudalism and Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Culture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedievalist Comics and the American Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWriting the Republic: Liberalism and Morality in American Political Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fugitive's Properties: Law and the Poetics of Possession Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Philosophy Americana: Making Philosophy at Home in American Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5States of Emergency: Essays on Culture and Politics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Trouble with Nature: Sex in Science and Popular Culture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bourgeois Interior Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFire in the Stone: Prehistoric Fiction from Charles Darwin to Jean M. Auel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Social Science For You
My Secret Garden: Women's Sexual Fantasies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Witty Banter: Be Clever, Quick, & Magnetic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Women Don't Owe You Pretty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All About Love: New Visions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent's Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Reset: And the War for the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Denial of Death Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Don't Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Human Condition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The January 6th Report Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
Andrea Wulf on Magnificent Rebels: The First Romantics and The Invention of The Self 0% found this document usefulAndrea Wulf on The Invention of Nature, Part 1: Humboldt's Naturegemälde 0% found this document usefulPhrenology & Crime in 19th Century America 0% found this document usefulS4 E8: Who Owns Our Cultural Heritage? — Museums, Repatriation, and Appropriation 0% found this document usefulBaldwin v Faulkner 0% found this document useful
Related articles
Freedom of Thought The American ScholarArticle
Freedom of Thought
Mar 4, 2019
Oxford University Press, 220 pp., $18.95 REAL PRESIDENTS READ BOOKS. When the Library of Congress was destroyed in the War of 1812, the former president Thomas Jefferson offered his collection to replace it, commenting that “I do not know that it co
4 min readMetaphysical Influences Fortean TimesArticle
Metaphysical Influences
Jan 25, 2024
11 min readSeven Books That Will Make You Smarter The AtlanticArticle
Seven Books That Will Make You Smarter
Nov 28, 2022
5 min readWho Said Science and Art Were Two Cultures? NautilusArticle
Who Said Science and Art Were Two Cultures?
Nov 17, 2021
On a May evening in 1959, C.P. Snow, a popular novelist and former research scientist, gave a lecture before a gathering of dons and students at the University of Cambridge, his alma mater. He called his talk “The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revo
8 min readCommentary: Why Would Anyone Want A Paleo Diet? We’re Desperate For Half-truths About Human Origins Los Angeles TimesArticle
Commentary: Why Would Anyone Want A Paleo Diet? We’re Desperate For Half-truths About Human Origins
Apr 4, 2024
4 min readA Leap Into The Unknown Country LifeArticle
A Leap Into The Unknown
Jan 25, 2023
5 min readRefracting History | Stories In Digital And Print British Columbia HistoryArticle
Refracting History | Stories In Digital And Print
Mar 4, 2021
British Columbia’s history is told through multiple lenses. We must seek out diverse perspectives, continually reframe the ways in which we understand the past, and carefully choose formats for sharing stories. Should a particular story be told in pr
6 min readOK Doomer: Why Spengler Matters The Critic MagazineArticle
OK Doomer: Why Spengler Matters
Apr 27, 2023
PERIODS OF UPHEAVAL ALWAYS bring their own prophets, divining doom or salvation for those around them and for the world at large. We have our fair share today, with various tellers of dire fortune warning of imminent environmental apocalypse, technol
7 min readThe Intoxicating Other Worlds of the Encyclopedia Literary HubArticle
The Intoxicating Other Worlds of the Encyclopedia
Aug 13, 2019
8 min readPage-Turners New Mexico MagazineArticle
Page-Turners
Nov 21, 2023
8 min readFrom Isaac Newton to the Genius Bar: Why it’s time to retire the concept of genius. NautilusArticle
From Isaac Newton to the Genius Bar: Why it’s time to retire the concept of genius.
Oct 16, 2014
Geniuses are a dying breed. And yet, they seem to be all around us. We live at a time when commentators speak without irony of “ordinary genius” and claim to find it everywhere. From the “genius bar” at the local Apple Store to bestselling books that
8 min readFunerary Facts Fortean TimesArticle
Funerary Facts
Sep 9, 2021
An Archæological History of Burial Grounds, Graveyards and Cemeteries Lorraine Evans Pen & Sword 2020 Hb, 216pp, £19.99. ISBN 9781526706676 Human funerary practice is as varied as every other aspect of culture, and the rites practised by one culture
8 min readA Racist Message Buried For Thousands Of Years In The Future The AtlanticArticle
A Racist Message Buried For Thousands Of Years In The Future
Oct 24, 2018
7 min readHow the Cold War Trickled Down to Midcentury Record Albums Literary HubArticle
How the Cold War Trickled Down to Midcentury Record Albums
Oct 5, 2017
5 min readHarnessing Ancient Sensitivity Fortean TimesArticle
Harnessing Ancient Sensitivity
Dec 1, 2022
Adventures in 40,000 Years of Consciousness Charles Foster Profile Books 2022 Pb, 400pp, £10.99, ISBN 9781788167185 Charles Foster’s first best-seller – Being a Beast (2016), widely praised as a “strange masterpiece” – had a premise that was hard to
11 min readWhy Do So Many Scientists Want to be Filmmakers? NautilusArticle
Why Do So Many Scientists Want to be Filmmakers?
Mar 22, 2018
For the past five years, Nautilus has asked scientists what they would be if they weren’t a scientist. I can now report what, above all, they want to be. “Film director,” says physicist David Deutsch. “A filmmaker,” says neuroscientist Antonio Damasi
9 min readThe Common Genius of Lincoln and Einstein: The president and the physicist teach us a lesson about moral genius. NautilusArticle
The Common Genius of Lincoln and Einstein: The president and the physicist teach us a lesson about moral genius.
Oct 30, 2014
Abraham Lincoln would still be remembered today as a self-taught prairie prodigy and an astute political operator who crushed the Confederate uprising, even without the Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the end of slavery. Albert
6 min readWhen Scientific Data Shapes Climate Literature Literary HubArticle
When Scientific Data Shapes Climate Literature
Jun 15, 2020
4 min readAllen Ginsberg’s Definition of the Beat Generation Literary HubArticle
Allen Ginsberg’s Definition of the Beat Generation
Apr 20, 2017
4 min read10 College Courses to Read Along With This Semester (From Your Couch) Literary HubArticle
10 College Courses to Read Along With This Semester (From Your Couch)
Sep 6, 2017
7 min readHow Capitalism Shaped Our Modern Image of Dinosaurs Literary HubArticle
How Capitalism Shaped Our Modern Image of Dinosaurs
Oct 20, 2020
3 min readFrom Our Readers ARCHAEOLOGYArticle
From Our Readers
Nov 30, 2021
Sincere thanks for the fine article titled “Gaul’s University Town” appearing in the November/December 2021 issue of ARCHAEOLOGY. Such discoveries of ancient days give testimony to the knowledge and advancements on which current European societies ar
2 min readDisrupting Canadian Myths POV MagazineArticle
Disrupting Canadian Myths
Sep 7, 2022
7 min readLetters The American ScholarArticle
Letters
Sep 1, 2020
5 min read5 Books Making News This Week: “Best of” Season Edition Literary HubArticle
5 Books Making News This Week: “Best of” Season Edition
Dec 5, 2017
7 min readA Room For The Ages The American ScholarArticle
A Room For The Ages
Jun 1, 2023
On an early spring day in March, I drove 800 miles, from Brooklyn to Atlanta, to see a room I knew I could never enter. In the basement of Oglethorpe University's Phoebe Hearst Hall lies a locked room—20 feet long, 10 feet wide and 10 feet high—that'
5 min readThe Obama Portraits Have Had a Pilgrimage Effect The AtlanticArticle
The Obama Portraits Have Had a Pilgrimage Effect
Feb 12, 2019
7 min readA History of the Evidence The Paris ReviewArticle
A History of the Evidence
May 3, 2017
8 min readStories of Slavery, From Those Who Survived It The AtlanticArticle
Stories of Slavery, From Those Who Survived It
Feb 9, 2021
25 min readOn the Resolute Nihilism of a True End Times Classic Literary HubArticle
On the Resolute Nihilism of a True End Times Classic
Jun 11, 2020
10 min read
Reviews for The Great Brain Suck
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Great Brain Suck - Eugene Halton
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1