Home :: Books :: Audiocassettes  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes

Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Bad: Or the Dumbing of America

Bad: Or the Dumbing of America

List Price: $32.95
Your Price: $32.95
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Bad but not BAD
Review: Morris Berman makes reference to Fussell's BAD, or the Dumbing of America in his treatise for monastic preservation of our culture, The Twilight of American Culture. I was inspired by Berman's text and so sought out Fussell's. It's been a long time since I heard Dennis Miller or George Carlin "rant," but Fussell's book reminded me of a pretentious version of their work. Not that he didn't make me laugh aloud several times in recognition of the foibles that make our society tick. It's just that in the wake of reading Berman's book, I had expected a more penetrating treatment of a very real problem: the calcification of the idea of our culture sans the content. (courtesy of Spengler)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: We have met the enemy & he is us.
Review: Professor Fussell enjoys railing against snobs & elitist. It is very evident, he is one. This audio version starts out hilariously but after a while turns into an angry rant: about everything. It is not the level of the Dennis' Leary & Miller & it is not focused. But it is still funny. Somtimes I think I was laughing at him not just his material. Not much in his world is bad. It is BAD. We all laugh, somtimes at ourselves, we deal, & most of us are happy. Professor Fussell is sad. Or is that SAD?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: An entertaining read, but...
Review: The guy's a curmudgeon, albeit an entertaining one. All right, it's fun to diss waiters who tell you they'll be right back with your drink (to paraphrase: "of course you will, it's your JOB, now do it and shut up!") and it's fun to beat up on corporations and other big organizations that foist BADness upon the public. On the other hand, we wouldn't GET so much crap if we as a nation didn't place such an emphasis on price (bargain-hunters looking for low price at the expense of service, selection and quality; connoiseurs buying anything costly for prestige). The purveyors of BAD are merely catering to a ready audience. Mostly the book comes off as yet another rant about how the younger generation doesn't respect tradition and is leading society to Hell in a handbasket, a topic that was covered adequately by a certain Greek philosopher some centuries ago. Also, is it just me, or are nearly all his BAD politicians Republicans

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: almost too entertaining
Review: This book -- by the same Paul Fussell who wrote "Poetic Meter and Poetic Form," a classic in the field of poetry -- is almost TOO hilarious, in the same way that audiences would laugh profusely at a play of George Bernard Shaw's without realizing the seriousness that lay underneath. He indicts just about everything that is phony in American society -- which is to say, he indicts just about everything in American society, period. This book is out of print? Well, that should prove something.... It's an entertaining book, but I wouldn't give it a "10," for then I would be doing exactly what Fussell condemns.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Only for unapologetic elitists
Review: This book contains enough good points and valuable criticism of modern American culture that it's a shame that it's value is marred by flaws and excessive generalizing. Paul Fussell also wrote Class, a very funny and witty analysis of the supposedly nonexistent American class structure. In Bad, Fussell invents a whole new category: "BAD" --all capitals-- is distinguished from the merely "bad." In the latter category are things from which we don't expect much. BAD, on the other hand, applies to people, objects, ideas and actions that are phony and pretentious.

Many of Fussell's points are well taken and hard to argue with. The focus of modern "higher" education on athletics at the expense of academics; the silly pretensions of "gourmet" restaurants; the lack of intelligence displayed in blockbuster movies; the incoherent babble of much contemporary language...there is a lot to recommend here. The problem is, Fussell gets carried away and ends up undermining his own argument by equating BAD with whatever doesn't conform to his own tastes and idiosyncrasies. In the chapter on architecture, for example, he is contemptuous of almost anything built in the last fifty years without any real basis other than personal taste. Again, his often valid critique of modern language (e.g. euphemisms, corporate jargon and overly complex signs) ends up getting diluted by his picayune insistence on perfect grammar, even in poetry (I can agree that most of the poems he quotes are BAD, but to say that poetry must be grammatical is silly). Fussell's opinions on music border on the bizarre. Wagner, Leonard Bernstein, Andrew Lloyd Webber, along with all reggae music are, we are informed, all BAD, while Beethoven and Brahms are dismissed as "B" composers. It is remarks like these that detract from the book's general thesis.

He takes many potshots at whole cities and regions, which ends up making him sound like just another urban elitist who looks down on anyone who doesn't live on one of the coasts. Finally (at least for the purposes of this review), his critique of "BAD beliefs" is so inclusive as to leave me wondering what he thinks it's good to believe in. He thoroughly despises anything new age but he also gets in his digs against religious fundamentalists and materialism. What does that leave? I'm afraid Fussell takes refuge in the kind of highbrow skepticism that mocks whatever isn't sanctioned by the so-called experts.

Many of Fussell's observations in BAD are important ones and go to the heart of what's wrong with today's culture. The ubiquity of mindless pop culture, sports and advertising and the overall anti-intellectual climate is something to be truly concerned about. Unfortunately, he couldn't resist throwing too wide a net and including many things that aren't so bad. This book comes very close at times to being an example of what it is criticizing. If you are going to equate BAD with snobby and pretentious, it's best not to come across as too much of a snob yourself. All in all, not a BAD book, but not quite GOOD either.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An intelligent, witty, often scathing commentary on society
Review: This book is an insightful, tongue-in-cheek look at American society. Fussell argues that American culture elevates many tacky, tasteless or outright dumb phenomenon to the level of "BAD" by promoting them as elegant, luxurious, intelligent or otherwise desirable. The author examines many realms in which this occurs, including advertising, airlines, banks, hotels (the mint on the pillow phenomenon does not go unscrutinized), books, poetry, beliefs and ideas. BAD... or, the Dumbing of America is a delightful book, full of sardonic wit and astute observations

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I'd rather be a curmudgeon than a drooling moron drone
Review: This book is for preaching to the converted, but Fussell's impeccable vehemence that Americans get their heads out of their asses and 1) foster some common sense and 2) get the Nike and Coca-Cola tattoos removed from their foreheads (my words) and 3) try to stop what little culture (pop culture doesn't count here) America has from spiraling down the drain of apathy, ignorance, and love of the asinine is all right by me. Just because Fussell isn't the first person to point out how stupid people are doesn't lessen his argument---there still are idiots out there, aren't there, Mr. Kendall? A gazetteer for the pissed


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates