The Great Dismissal : Memoir of the Cultural Demolition Derby, 2015-22

"Longtime scholar and critic Henry Sussman deploys anecdote, reportage, memoir, and a pilgrimage to major intellectual stops along his trajectory in marshaling the disbelief and dismay prompted by the rise of anti-intellectualism in the past few decades and reflected most disturbingly in Donald Trump's ascension to the US presidency. All the usual suspects are present and accounted for: fragmentation and polarization of the public sphere, to some degree facilitated by digital communications and social media; the decline of impartiality and a sharp increase in self-interested interference in politic, legal, and cultural spheres; the normalization of pathological narcissism in public life; the blanket dismissal of scientific findings and their counterparts in the domain of the humanities and social sciences. In retracing his own intellectual and experiential steps, Sussman revisits many of his lasting inspirations, including Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Immanuel Kant, and J. Hillis Miller. The result is an intellectual meditation on 'the great dismissal, ' in public and political life, of venerable and vital humanistic traditions, ethics, and ways of thinking"-- Provided by publisher Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Figures November 18, 2020. Postal October 6, 2020. Apocalypse Red, Apocalypse Blue December 12, 2020. Confederacy of Zombies October 18, 2019. Protests, Curtailment of Bus Service, Queens June 7, 2020. Atlas of Vanished Places February 10, 2021. Requiem to Disinterest January 27, 2020. New Feudal Lords Chapter 8: Thanksgiving, 2021. Partisans of Writing: Mayer with Derrida April 1, 2018. Welcome to the Great Dismissal! August 15, 2020. Co-lateral Dommages December 31, 2020. What on Earth to Do with the Bodies? August 30, 2018. Midterm Enigmas for Progressives December 8, 2021. Partisans of Writing. Tobin Smith February 19, 2022. Politics of Entertainment May 24, 2020. Sikhs and Other Cabbies November 15, 2020. Electronic Ticks and Leaden Bubbles June 13, 2019. Three Deer in a Development Near Harrisburg, PA Labor Day, 2021. Partisans of Writing. Shoshanah Zuboff March 15, 2022. Partisans of Writing. Adam Serwer February 14, 2022. University of the Street May 15, 2022. This Thing That Dwells within Us June 27, 2022. Dismissal Day. The Strange Loop of Identity Politics January 23, 2023. I Was There Bibliography Acknowledgments INDEX Veteran scholar and critic Henry Sussman deploys anecdote, reportage, and memoir to lament and scrutinize the rise of anti-intellectualism in the past few decades. How are we to reckon with the decline of impartiality and sharp increase in self-interested interference in politic, legal, and cultural spheres; the normalization of pathological narcissism in public life; and the blanket dismissal of scientific findings and their counterparts in the humanities and social sciences? In retracing his own intellectual and experiential steps, Sussman revisits many of his lasting inspirations, including Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Immanuel Kant, and J. Hillis Miller. The result is an intellectual meditation on 'the great dismissal,' in public and political life, of venerable and vital humanistic traditions, ethics, and ways of thinking.