Humiliation (Big Ideas//Small Books) [Paperback]

Wayne Koestenbaum (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 2, 2011 | Series: Big Ideas//Small Books

Wayne Koestenbaum considers the meaning of humiliation in this eloquent work of cultural critique and personal reflection.

The lives of people both famous and obscure are filled with scarlet-letter moments when their dirty laundry sees daylight. In these moments we not only witness the reversibility of “success,” of prominence, but also come to visceral terms with our own vulnerable selves. We can’t stop watching the scene of shame, identifying with it and absorbing its nearness, and relishing our imagined immunity from its stain, even as we acknowledge the universal, embarrassing predicament of living in our own bodies. With an unusual, disarming blend of autobiography and cultural commentary, noted poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum takes us through a spectrum of mortifying circumstances—in history, literature, art, current events, music, film, and his own life. His generous disclosures and brilliant observations go beyond prurience to create a poetics of abasement. Inventive, poignant, erudite, and playful, Humiliation plunges into one of the most disquieting of human experiences, with reflections at once emboldening and humane.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This literary ‘topping from the bottom’ is the funniest, smartest, most heartbreaking yet powerful book I’ve read in a long time.” —John Waters

“Humiliation runs like a rash over the body of all of Wayne Koestenbaum’s work; here, he directly addresses the feeling, and the result is one of my favorite recent books: psychologically astute, verbally pyrotechnic, bottomlessly provocative, surprisingly funny, and immensely sad. An extraordinary meditation on nothing less than—I don’t know how else to say it—the human condition.” —David Shields, author of Reality Hunger

About the Author

WAYNE KOESTENBAUM has published five books of poetry, one novel, and six books of nonfiction. A graduate of Harvard and Princeton, he is a distinguished professor of English at the CUNY Graduate Center and also a visiting professor in the painting department of the Yale School of Art.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Picador; First Edition edition (August 2, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312429223
• ISBN-13: 978-0312429225
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #325,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard to categorize July 17, 2011

By M. Hyman VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book. I primarily decided to read it because of the quote from John Waters who, when I was growing up in Maryland, was a bit of a not-yet-discovered cultural icon. Having said that, midway through the book I still wasn't sure what to expect from the book. It is a quirky set of short paragraphs relating to humiliation, in one form or another, or sexual tendencies and obsessions, or art, or struggle, or all of the above. It is sometimes written with a heavy intellectual tone, with the word play perhaps taking more value than the words, and at other times it is direct or even shocking, and throughout it bounces through various topics roughly organized around themes of humiliation.

It is, thus, a sort of collection of very short essays or musings, and it isn't clear how one would characterize it.

would i recommend it to others? i don't know. it is sometimes hard to read, sometimes endearing, sometimes capturing, sometimes dull, sometimes pompous, sometimes erotic, sometimes... sometimes a little of everything

21 of 28 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Small, half baked ideas-not that small a book June 29, 2011

By Julie H. Rose

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Humiliation is one of the books in Picador's "Big Ideas small books" series of "provocative short books inviting us to rethink our biggest ideas."

Nice idea. The books entitled Violence and Time fit well into this framework. Yes, violence and time are both pretty big ideas. Who decided that humiliation was a Big Idea? Hmm. Maybe an editor who said something like, "Wayne, write about whatever you like." Wayne Koestenbaum likes humiliation, and so it's a Big Idea.

Humiliation (the book) may be provocative, but it is nothing more than that. Koestenbaum wrote the very good "The Queen's Throat," but Humiliation reads like the sleepy self-indulgent musings of a horny voyeur with no action at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. There's some clever turns of phrase, but it's all so much ado about nothing much at all, indeed one very small idea that, at nearly 200 pages, is much too long indeed.

This review, written by a non-writer with a bad toothache, is about as intellectual and well composed as the book. This book deserves no more than that, for frankly, this kind of sloppy, snarky writing is tired. It's also tiring.

Frightening the horses has been done to death. I'm not shocked by this book, for I've read Genet, Dennis Cooper, and DeSade. Our cultural propensity for enjoying both our own and other people's public humiliation and redemption from it is an interesting topic (though is it Big?) It would have been far more interesting, however, and truly provocative, if Koestenbaum actually answered some of the questions he asked, such as why he enjoys reading the desperate pleas for sexual humiliation on Craigslist. But no, he merely observes from a distance, as if languidly exposing himself and others for their transgressions means something. It does not. He only begs the question, "Why was this book published?" and "Is this the state of intellectual inquiry in 2011?"

Lastly, Buddha's first noble truth was not humiliation. To turn Buddhism into yet another piece of evidence of the majesty or essential nature of humiliation is sheer silliness; nothing intellectual or even clever about it.

On second thought, there may be a bit of merit in this book insofar as it caused me to ask myself the questions that went unanswered. Should I amend my review? No. I can't recommend paying for Koestenbaum's lazy writing nor Picador's extensive marketing. Skim the book at a bookstore. If this topic interests you, read Genet, DeSade, Cooper, and yes, even Craiglist. I'm sure your own musings will be at least as interesting than Mr. Koestenbaum's (though John Waters will not congratulate you on them).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Reminiscent of Bernhard, with a touch of actual humor July 31, 2011

By J from NY VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Wayne Koestenbaum's "Humiliation" is an alternately hilarious and depressing book--his fixation on the term itself translates into a brilliant little novel (certainly not for everybody) which calls to mind a blend of Thomas Bernhard's Gargoyles: A Novel
and Mina Loy's [[ASIN:0876858531 Insel]. The character is subject to, indeed, humiliation after humiliation: feelings of shame, pain, etc are explored to virtually no end. Ultimately, though, Kostenbaum is not a doom sayer--he uses the most uncanny and embarrassing situations to reveal that we most embarassment comes from within, not without. A good novel.