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Product Description
Written originally for a special issue of the New Yorker in 1978 and reissued here with a new Foreword by the author, Within the Context of No Context is George Trow's brilliant exposition on the state of American culture and 20th century life.
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First Sentence
"Within the Context of No Context," the essay republished now in this book, ends with the following paragraphs: When I was very young-four years old, that is, and five-it was my habit in the late afternoon to stand at a window at the east end of the living room of my family's house, in Cos Cob, Connecticut, and wait for my father to come into my view. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
"Within the Context of No Context," the essay republished now in this book, ends with the following paragraphs: When I was very young-four years old, that is, and five-it was my habit in the late afternoon to stand at a window at the east end of the living room of my family's house, in Cos Cob, Connecticut, and wait for my father to come into my view. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was thrilled to hear that this strange, brilliant book is being reissued. It's one of those books people press on their friends saying, "You should read this -- *really.*" My own copy has long been gone, pocketed by an acquaintance whom I pressed it on in an excess of generosity. The book itself is hard to describe. It's an elegant personal meditation on (among other things) the decline of WASP society, the effects of television and celebrity on American culture, and the author's inability to wear a fedora without crushing embarrassment. If memory serves, there's also a second essay about producer Ahmet Ertegun and his assistant David Geffen -- this was long before David Geffen was *David Geffen* -- that didn't seem as good at the time but may now seem prescient. Trow's elliptical, lapidary style gives you some of the dizzying feeling you get from David Foster Wallace, though his work is a lot shorter and more terse. Terrific stuff.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Trow's prose, terse at times, yet nevertheless powerful, offers an extremely insightful critical review of the insidious nature of the media in contemporary american culture. Trow's main focus centers upon the vast distance which television has created between the individual (the grid of intimacy) and society (the grid of two-hundred million). Trow proposes that television has provided individuals with what appears to be a comfortable context in which to organize their lives yet that context is merely a facsimile of life. Trow's discussion is truly eye-opening. As individuals, we are forced to grapple with the force of the media in our own lives. For example, Have we allowed television to form our thoughts and opinions, leading to automaton conformity? Ultimately, in a society in which the media dominates our lives, Trow's work alerts us to the dangers of becoming lost amidst a collective media-- while it may seem alarming, what we perceive as a comforting context may in actuality be the stark reality of nothingness.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
George W. S. Trow is a former writer for the National Lampoon who I assume is trying to grow up at the "old age" of 55. Frankly, he was a better Lampoon writer. It isn't so much that what he's saying is untrue (yes, TV is banal and yes, it may be ruining us) but his attempt at creating a flashy and interesting prose style gets in the way of his message and makes one think there may not be much of a message, after all. There are far too many other books that treat the subject matter better than this to bother with this tiresome tome. A slim volume indeed...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Hate it with all my guts
Some people are born writers; others, natural stylists. Some people come into the world with the enviable ability to philosophize; others are blessed with a no less enviable gift... Read more
Published on 24 Feb 1998
Splendidly disjointed
I will go out on a limb, John Irving notwithstanding, to say this book tends toward the silliness it seeks to describe. WTCONC is an almost gratifying read. Read more
Published on 8 Jun 1997
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