The end of solitude : selected essays on culture and society

Deresiewicz, William 1964- (author.).

Summary: "What is the internet doing to us? What is college for? What are the myths and metaphors we live by? These are the questions that William Deresiewicz has been pursuing over the course of his award-winning career. The End of Solitude brings together more than forty of his finest essays, including four that are published here for the first time. Ranging widely across the culture, they take up subjects as diverse as Mad Men and Harold Bloom, the significance of the hipster, and the purpose of art. Drawing on the past, they ask how we got where we are. Scrutinizing the present, they seek to understand how we can live more mindfully and freely, and they pose two fundamental questions: What does it mean to be an individual, and how can we sustain our individuality in an age of networks and groups?"--

Record details

ISBN: 9781250858641
ISBN: 125085864X
ISBN: 9781250125545
Physical Description: print
xiii, 302 pages ; 25 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2022.
Copyright: ©2022

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

The end of solitude -- Solitude and leadership -- Faux friendship -- Culture against culture -- The girl with the high-speed connection -- The ghost in the machine -- All in a dream -- The disadvantages of an elite education -- The neoliberal arts -- The defunding of the American mind -- On political correctness -- Change your mind first : college and the urge to save the world -- Why I left academia (since you're wondering) -- Heal for America -- On the beach -- In memoriam -- Generation sell -- Heroes -- Just friends -- Seeing things -- The true church -- Arms and the man -- Latter-day saint -- The maker's hand -- Upper middle brow -- Food, food culture, culture -- The platinum age -- Merce Cunningham : celestial mechanics -- Mark Morris : home coming -- Studies show arts have value -- Alfred Kazin : fiery particle of spirit -- Harold Rosenberg : the individual nuisance -- Harold Bloom : the horror, the horror -- Clive James : letter to the twenty-first century -- Mark Greif : facing reality -- Hunting the whale -- How's that again? -- Birthrights -- A Jew in the Northwest -- The limits of limits -- Parade's end -- Day of atonement.