America has gotten into ugly moods before, but never as today. In taking us on a guided tour of American acrimony, Peter Wood traces the roots of anger's triumph in our social and political world. He examines the liberating bromides of psychotherapists, the bellicosity of the war between the sexes, the broadsides of the ethnic separatists, and the jeremiads of fundamentalists of all stripes. A Bee in the Mouth is a provocative dissection of an alarming phenomenon.
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About the Author
Peter Wood has written for 'Partisan Review' and other publications. He is a Professor of Anthropology and Associate Provost at Boston University.
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23 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
We all ishare the same hive,
By
This review is from: A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now (Hardcover)
Bee Review
Daniel L. Henry A National Public Radio interview with rhetoric and anthropology professor Peter Wood convinced me that I should read A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now. A rhetorician myself, I was charged by the notion of a respected colleague taking on the pervasive volcanism that currently flows through American communication behavior. My feelings toward vitriol, especially the steroidal indignation that Wood claims is in vogue--approximates that, I imagine, of most NPR listeners. It sounds to me like the claxon call of cultural implosion. Unlike most, however, I take copious notes. When Aristotle wrote The Rhetoric in 250 B.C., he called it the "art of using all available means to persuade." Those who admit to being rhetoricians acknowledge our devotion to the argument--its causes, impacts, and implications. Scholars know to examine equally the messages arising from prominent camps, say Democrats and Republicans, or developers and environmentalists. It's a conversation. You scaffold on the messages of the other. Rhetoric happens when you give your reasons for going to a specific movie, present yourself in an interview, or explain to your teenager why she can't use the car this weekend. It takes at least two for a rhetorical tango. A bee in one mouth can provoke hives in others. The opening chapters of A Bee in the Mouth touch on many of the causes and mouthpieces contributing to our national dysphoria--the 2000 presidential election, religion, Iraq, popular music, Rush Limbaugh, Al Franken, Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson. I can buy that. After he adequately establishes his thesis that we have a serious communication breakdown, Wood declares that his "aim is neither to cure anger nor enhance its undoubted pleasures. Rather, I want to describe our new anger in contrast to our older habits of emotional restraint and then to explain how it became so widespread and so intense in American life." As I turn the pages, however, a bilious sensation arises in my gut--the way I feel whenever it hits me that I've been duped. Peter Wood is accurate, I believe, in suggesting that starting in the 1950s, a counterculture reinvigorated a national tradition of protest speech, some of which became institutionalized as baby-boomers aged. The author wallows in shock talk and angry lyrics. He describes Al Gore's "bloated face" and Hillary Clinton's "New Anger theatrics." It started with Allen Ginsberg and the Beats, Wood posits, then the "Howl" swept up war protesters, druggies, greenies, feminists, musicians, atheists, relativists, writers, New Age philosophers, entertainers, intellectuals, rappers, scientists, filmmakers, politicians, and communists. Oh yeah, and Joseph Campbell and Ben Cohen. All enemies of the Way It Used to Be. Right. I am a white, Christian guy living in a rural Alaskan town. I hear that line of thinking a lot. I used to think it was just a product of basic paranoia and fear of change. Now there's a book that proves it. Missing is a scholarly eye to the role of traditional conservatives in the rhetoric of anger. Omitted is any textual analysis of the Fox attack dogs, Limbaugh, Coulter, O'Reilly; or the effect of the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s. Jerry Falwell, Billy Graham, and the Christian Coalition used the anger borne of ebbing power to broadcast a fundraising rhetoric that proved so effective as to swing a vast voting demographic into an Evangelical army. Righteous anger fuels whatever campaign Wants Our Nation Back now. The evidence spills from the airwaves, but that evidence never makes these pages. Draped in academic robes, A Bee in the Mouth turns out to be a tool of the very rhetoric it pretends to study. Author Peter Wood has done some thinking on the subject, and has written a book solemnly tracing the link between New Anger and New Age. But he overlooks the delicate dance of messages, that we choose ways of expressing anger based on the acts of others, and, that Right or Left, we all share the same hive.
15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An intriguing title, perfect for classroom discussion.,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now (Hardcover)
A BEE IN THE MOUTH: ANGER IN AMERICA NOW considers issues of 'social anger', or how the anger in American society has become not only excessive but glorified. College-level collections strong in social sciences in particular will find here a unique survey of evidence of the 'new anger' dominating American culture, from politics to music. Chapters analyze how this anger has manifested itself throughout society, how it affects relationships, ideals and goals, and how it differs from 'anger' of the past. An intriguing title, perfect for classroom discussion.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Very Large Bee,
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This review is from: A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now (Hardcover)
Peter Wood's study of anger and self-righteousness, 'A Bee in the Mouth,' may go unnoticed by many big time book reviewers, but the topic is central to American public life today. Nothing better explains the acrimonious divisions between Democrats and Republicans when they get to Washington (at home they are more civil). Nothing explains better angry music and the cage combat of Spike TV. Finally, nothing will be a more reliable corrective to the current divisions in our society, which we will have to resolve over the next decade.
America is in a 1960s-like moment, only more so. We are spending too much and we can't make the payments any longer. Public unions are becoming a public problem. This, rather than the racial and social divisions of fifty years ago, will dominate public debate, and this book is the key to understanding the rhetoric you will hear. It will also help all of us to calm ourselves down. Wood's book concludes with a call for 'Cooling off,' long overdue. Get it. Read it. You will be a better person for it, and America will be a happier place if more of us take Wood's message seriously. Wight Martindale
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