Today's post is on The Other Serious: Essays for the New American Generation by Christy Wampole. It is 288 pages long and is published by HarperCollins. It is a stand alone series of essays. The cover is white and black stripes in the shape of the American flag. The intended reader is someone interested in modern culture and essays. There is no sex, no language, and no violence in this book. The essays are written from first person perspective of the author. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- The essays in The Other Serious examine the signature phenomena of our moment: the way our lives contradict themselves, how exaggeration and excess seep into our collective subconscious, why gender is becoming more rather than less complicated, and how we interact with the material things that surround us. It is a book about the delicacy and bluntness of American life, how pop culture sticks its finger deeply into the ethical dilemmas of our time, and how to negotiate between the old and new, the high and low, the global and local, the sacred and profane. At the heart of these reflections lies a central question: What should you do when you don't know what to do?
Taken together, these essays comprise a razor-sharp critique of "the administrativesity" of contemporary American life- the idea that we exist in a constant state of escapism and self-prote4ction, fearing confrontation and embracing randomness and absurdity. These pieces investigate the writer's own way of thinking- putting forth new ideas, questioning them, and urging the reader to adopt the same spirit of re-examination. Full of sage advice and staggering insights, The Other Serious offers us a new understanding of the everyday.
Review- This was a very boring book. I could not you tell anything that I found interesting or insightful or staggering. I was bored for the whole book. There is nothing bad about this book, the author did not offend or annoy me but she did not inform or entertain me. She writes about everything from movies to how different ages interact with each other. The best thing I can say about this book is that she did not offend me. maybe i am just not the right reader for this book. If you like essays about philosophy and modern life then try this one. If not then skip.
I give this book a Two out of Five stars. I was given a copy of this book by HarperCollins in exchange for an honest review.
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