Rated "the best" on the Web in political satire by Yahoo's Internet Life, American Newspeak brings doubletalk up to date for the 21st century. An Internet favorite for many years, as well as a popular regular column in Z Magazine, Newspeak already has a large club of fans and admirers. Now the book is sure to awaken whole new audiences to the grim but gripping reality of how far our culture has gone in the direction of Orwell's 1984.
Focusing on the "twin towers of alienation"-corprations and bureaucracies-author Wayne Grytting scavenges through the crevices of the popular media to reveal countless gems of doublespeak propagated by the spin doctors of the "emerging new world consumerist order." Specifically focusing on the insinuation of advertising into every square inch of our cultural life, Grytting re--digests the news, providing uniquely thoughtful, humorous and caustic commentary on specific examples of the best PR that money can buy. Between the laughs lies a more serious analysis of the mechanisms of distancing, disconnection and denial, and examples of humorous forms of protest designed to penetrate the layers of false consciousness. A final "Groucho Marxist Response" calls for using more satire, parody and play to subvert the indifference that has colonized our way of life, and to connect directly with people instead of simply being oppositional.
Sure to appeal to the politically active young people mobilized by WTO protests, as well as to educators, labor and community organizers, and cynical old Sixties activists, American Newspeak will also penetrate the mainstream.Wayne Grytting is a long-time Alaskan fishing skipper with a '60s background in anti-war activism. He now teaches special education students in Seattle. He began writing "American Newspeak" columns on the Internet in 1996, which were then regularly featured in Z Magazine.
