Remote : Reflections on Life in the Shadow of Celebrity
Overview
In this truly one-of-a-kind book, the author/narrator--a representative, in extremis, of contemporary American obsession with beauty, celebrity, transmitted image--finds himself suspended, fascinated, in the remoteness of our wall-to-wall mediascape. It is a remoteness that both perplexes and enthralls him.
Through dazzling sleight of hand in which the public becomes private and the private becomes public, the entire book--clicking from confession to family-album photograph to family chronicle to sexual fantasy to pseudo-scholarly footnote to reportage to personal essay to stand-up comedy to cultural criticism to literary criticism to film criticism to prose-poem to litany to outtake --becomes both an anatomy of American culture and a searing self-portrait.
David Shields reads his own life--reads our life--as if it were an allegory about remoteness and finds persuasive, hilarious, heartbreaking evidence wherever he goes.
Winner of the PEN / Revson Award?
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9780299193645
- ISBN-10: 0299193640
- Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
- Publish Date: September 2003
- Dimensions: 8.72 x 5.28 x 0.47 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.51 pounds
- Page Count: 192
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