Customer Reviews

The Braindead Megaphone

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For the title essay alone, this is the nonfiction book of the year. Saunders coins this term "The Braindead Megaphone" for our mass media and the circus its made of everything from the OJ Simpson Trial to the War in Iraq - and how we end up thinking and talking about such events, from the most ridiculous to the most serious, in equivalent terms. Both the term and the essay are pretty much right on, and eminently useful...And you have to keep in mind that Saunders is hands down the funniest writer in the business - funny like Stewart or Colbert, but smarter and more humane, less of a shtick. BUT that essay is just the beginning. What follows is a series of essays that are basically the antidote to everything he diagnoses at the beginning - if the media is deadening us, Saunders finds ways to end-run it: he travels to the Middle East, to the Mexican border, and to Nepal, and he tells his stories with the expected charm and humor, but also with a surprising insight and honesty (I never thought he would admit to LIKING the Minutemen he meets - but it makes the whole essay so much more effective when he does). All told, it's just a brilliant book - exactly the book we should all be reading. It's not heavy-handed and it's so much fun to read, but it made me take events in the world more seriously, made me take a fresh look at things, made me think about how I treat people. Wow, that sounds really hokey, but it's true. It also made me laugh a lot.

Based on this collection, George Saunders joins David Foster Wallace on the bench of terrifically smart writers I admire tremendously and who seem like wonderful, funny, mensch-like people.... this sentence needs a but, so here it is:

BUT, whose very cleverness can sometimes sabotage their writing. Ultimately, an excess of cleverness marred 'In Persuasion Nation' for me, and the same is true of this collection.

There are some terrific pieces - the title essay, in particular, is a tour de force. I loved his analysis of the Barthelme story and the essay on Twain. The piece on Dubai and 'Thought Experiment' were great, but I think both have been anthologized previously, as I'd read each already. Although 'Buddha Boy' was well-written, the subject matter didn't interest me all that much.

'A Survey of the Literature', 'Ask the Optimist' and 'Manifesto' were considerably less successful, each bogging down in its own cleverness long before reaching a merciful end.

So, this collection stacks up pretty much like every David Foster Wallace collection I've ever bought (and I've bought them all) - two or three essays so brilliant they leave me breathless, three or four more that are good, but not great, and some that are just headache-inducing.

Except that generally Wallace's brilliance lands him a fourth star. Not the case for Saunders, for this book at least.

Insightful and funny at the same time. No one should miss this. I hadn't read anything by Saunders until my son told me about him. Like Sterling, as far as social and scientific commentary is concerned, he's way ahead of the curve. Not only that, he's extremely funny. I'm a voracious reader, especially science and science fiction.

If you've never read George Saunders, this is the one to begin with.

George Saunders is our most perceptive satirist of mass media and culture, and his New Yorker writings are among the best the magazine has to offer. That's why I found "The Braindead Megaphone" a complete and utter disappointment, and wonder if success has spoiled, and in fact destroyed this once great satirist. His observations are lame, and his now and then urgent callings for a better, more humane world that conforms with his Eastern Liberal tastes and values are annoying. Does he even try anymore?

This just seems to prove the difference between good fiction writers and good nonfiction writers. Saunders' fiction is wacky, hilarious, and profound all at the same time, which had led me to believe that this would be a good read. These essays, however, read like a middle schooler discovering that the world is corrupt for the first time. There's simply nothing particularly original, insightful, or even funny in there.

This is an uneven, and actually quite tiresome, collection of essays by a usually spot-on creative thinker. I expected more and was very disappointed by the pieces especially given what a great writer Saunders is.

I bought this book after hearing David Sedaris endorse it at a show of his I attended. Be forewarned, it is not anything like David Sedaris. I couldn't find the humor in most of it.
I seemed to drag on and generally amount to a lot of talking. A bit of a bore.
Could just be me. Book quality from seller though was just fine.

As an independent thinker and voter, I find political essays that vilify members of one party while venerating the other annoying, as I prefer more equal opportunity politician bashing. One-sided liberalmindedness is the case with several in this collection, including: The Braindead Megaphone, Ask the Optimist!, and The Great Divider. Fortunately, others, especially those on the subject of literature, are of a less inflammatory nature, and led me (which is something I love about books) to other stories, which I liked, and may not have read otherwise. That is to say, I'm glad that I read this thought-provoking set of essays, in spite of the fact that I disagreed with the content of several of them. Below, I've included, for a dozen of the selections: a brief synopsis, a telling excerpt, and the title of a book that reading the essay brought to mind.

The Braindead Megaphone
George W. Bush is the primary example of a Braindead Megaphone, that is, stupid person speaking loudly about something. (p 10) "So how did we get here? I think it went something like this: Elements on the right (Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc.) resuscitated an old American streak of simplistic, jingoistic, fear-based rhetoric that, in that post-9/11 climate of fear, infected, to a greater or lesser extent, the rest of the media." Fiasco by Thomas E. Ricks.

The New Mecca
(p 30) "A human being is someone who joyfully goes in pursuit of things, brings them home, then immediately starts to plan how to get more." (p 50) "...hearing about "moderate Islam," tells us nothing about the astonishing core warmth and familial sense of these Arab families. I think: If everybody in America could see this, our foreign policy would change." 102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn.

Thank You, Esther Forbes
(p 64) "[Esther Forbes, author of Johnny Tremain] did for [George Saunders] what one writer can do for another: awoke a love of sentences." (p 86 of JT), "It was a fine fall, days crisp and full of sparkle..." The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara.

Mr. Vonnegut in Sumatra
(p 78) "I'd understood the function of art to be primarily descriptive...Now I began to understand art as a kind of black box the reader enters. He enters in one state of mind and exits in another...What's important is that something undeniable and nontrivial happens to the reader between entry and exit." (p 82) "Massacres are bad, the death of innocents is bad, hate is bad, and there's something cleansing about hearing it said so purely." The Things They Carried by Timothy O'Brien.

A Brief Study of the British
Mocking a mockery of Americans for their (our) unworldliness. (p 96) "I would also like to extend a sincere thanks to everyone in the entire country of...of the UK. Or, you know, of, ah, England. That is to say, I guess-Britain?" The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Nostalgia
Tongue in cheek tale about the level of sex and violence in the media. (p 97) "I know what the problem is: I'm old. I came of age in a simpler sexual time." The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson.

Ask the Optimist!
"Dear Optimist: A few years ago, I inadvertently declared war on the wrong country. Also, I perhaps responded a little slowly to a terrible national disaster. Also, many of my friends are under indictment. Also, the organization of which I am in charge is all of a sudden in huge crushing debt. And I still have over two years left in my job. Advice? In Somewhat Over My Head, Washington, D.C." The passage refers to George W. Bush, but, sans the war part, it becomes equally applicable to Barack Obama. Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama.

Woof: A Plea of Sorts
Dog confesses a desire to bite more than the hand that feeds it. (p 124) "Did you know, though normally, "so, so sweet," I can bite as hard as...?" The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein.

The Great Divider
The border cannot be said to be (p 28) "rife with drug-related crime;" therefore, the US should have an open border with Mexico. (p 166) "Everywhere I go, the next town ahead is said to be the really dangerous town, the one that justifies all the cartel fears and border paranoia..." July 24, 2010 - Los Zetas seizes control of two U.S. ranches in Laredo.

Thought Experiment
This is a story about the nature versus nurture debate, what it means for the unfortunates, and, the author's admonishment. (p 172) "If, at the moment when someone cuts us off in traffic...we could withdraw from judging mode, and enter this other, more accepting mode..." Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

The Perfect Gerbil
Recounting Bartheleme's brilliant short story, "The School," Saunders provides an excellent example, but with significant spoilers! (p 176) "If you wanted a perfect, Platonic example of Action (rising), you'd be hard pressed to find a better on than Donald Barthelme's story, "The School." Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery."

In summary, lots of expectedly (they are essays, after all) biased thoughts on various topics, likely better tolerated by those who share Saunders' (Eastern Liberal) views. As to the four about books and stories (Johnny Tremain, Slaughterhouse Five, The School, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), the essays come with significant spoilers, so those who haven't yet read them best beware.

Saunders' mixed book of essays/stories is every bit as good as his previous books Civilwarland in Bad Decline and Pastoralia, only this book contains a lot of non fiction rather than just fiction. His essays on writers are clever, well thought out and articulate, as you would expect from a literature teacher. He writes about Esther Forbes, Kurt Vonnegut, Donald Barthelme, and Mark Twain with insight, wit and humility.

There is some fiction in the form of the part fiction/part non fiction article "A Brief Study of the British" detailing his book tour in Blighty. The other fiction stories: A Survey of the Literature, Nostalgia, Proclamation, Woof!, and PRKA are average at best but are very short pieces from 3 pages to 10. The best of the fiction is the story "Ask the Optimist!" which is about an optimistic columnist answering readers' queries. Easily one of the funniest pieces I've read by Saunders, it's one of the highlights of this book.

The best parts of the book though are the journalistic pieces that are about 30-40 pages each. The subjects are Dubai and its many luxury hotels; the border between America and Mexico; and a teenager from Nepal who has been meditating without food or drink for 7 months. Each of these were for me the best to read. Saunders' unique voice is a pleasure to read and his geniality and natural storytelling ability make these stories come to life effortlessly.

The other two essays "Thought Experiment" and "The Brain-Dead Megaphone" are think pieces on society. A bit condescending in places, they are nonetheless as well written as the other pieces in this book and as worth reading.

Overall, I cannot recommend this more. It's a fascinating read filled with nuggets of truth and beauty and humour and you can't do worse than this short read. George Saunders. Remember the name. Then pick up one of his books and find out why I wrote this review.

If you really like Pastoralia for its insanity and out of this world fantasy, then you may not like this book all that much. It had a lot of political rhetoric which was not blatant and obvious but it kinda was if you are smarter than average. There were some fun stories but overall, I was not super impressed with it. He needs to come out with another book with crazy stories that allow your mind to paint really fun vivid pictures of worlds that only Saunders could think up.