The Disappointment Artist by Jonathan Lethem

The Disappointment Artist by Jonathan Lethem

In a volume he describes as a series of covert and no-so-covert autobiographical pieces, Jonathan Lethem explores the nature of cultural obsession--in his case, with examples as diverse as western films, comic books, the music of Talking Heads and Pink Floyd, and the New York City subway. Along the way, he shows how each of these voyages out from himself have led him home--home to his father's life as a painter, and to the source of his beginnings as a writer. THE DISAPOINTMENT ARTIST is a series of windows onto the collisions of art, landscape, and personal history that formed Lethem's richly imaginative, searingly honest perspective on life as a human creature in the jungle of culture at the end of the twentieth century.
From a confession of the sadness of a Star Wars nerd to an investigation into the legacy of a would-be literary titan, Lethem illuminates the process by which a child invents himself as a writer, and as a human being, through a series of approaches to the culture around him. In The Disappointment Artist, a letter from his aunt, a children's book author, spurs a meditation on the value of writing workshops, and the uncomfortable fraternity of writers. In Defending The Searchers Lethem explains how a passion for the classic John Wayne Western became occasion for a series of minor humiliations. In Identifying with Your Parents, an excavation of childhood love for superhero comics expands to cover a whole range of nostalgia for a previous generation's cultural artifacts. And 13/1977/21, which begins by recounting the summer he saw Star Wars twenty-one times, slipping past ushers who'd begun to recognize me . . . occult as a porn customer, becomesa meditation on the sorrow and solace of the solitary movie-goer.

THE DISAPOINTMENT ARTIST confirms Lethem's unique ability to illuminate the way life, his and ours, can be read between the lines of art and culture.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780385512176
ISBN 10	0385512171
Titel	The Disappointment Artist
Autor	Jonathan Lethem
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Verlag	Doubleday Books
Erscheinungsjahr	2005-03-29
Seitenanzahl	149
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.