A Mind of Summer: Post-Punk Dispatches From a Post-Structuralist World [Paperback]

Erik Grayson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 27, 2006

Sometimes humorous, sometimes mordant, always passionate, A Mind of Summer is Grayson's look at life in an era when everything is "post-something".

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Tight Curtain Press (January 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977489701
• ISBN-13: 978-0977489701
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,586,077 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting collection, August 1, 2006

By 

Bookgrrl (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Mind of Summer: Post-Punk Dispatches From a Post-Structuralist World (Paperback)

Erik Grayson manages to combine skepticism, criticism, and disillusion with bureaucracy into a uniquely positive, ultimately redeeming perspective about higher education and cultural life in the United States. Though some essays in this collection are stronger than others, I would say the book is consistently interesting. Grayson tackles subjects as varied as higher education (particularly in the humanities), Americans abroad, literature, film, religion, and media, all with the same gently skeptical approach. In the end, Grayson's book is an interesting commentary on (and from) whatever generation comes between X and Y. It may not be required reading on college campuses, Erik Grayson's essays never claim to be earth-shattering treatises on our deepest philosophical concerns. Instead, Grayson presents his ideas in a friendly, engaging tone, often admitting his limitations while quietly offering food for thought. There's a "take it for what it is" feel about "A Mind of Summer," never pretending to be anything more than a young man's thoughts about the world in which he lives. In the end, you may find yourself agreeing with much of what Grayson writes (like me) or disagreeing with him. Either way, by not seeking to shatter the earth with overwhelming bursts of profundity, Grayson cracks the ground beneath our feet just enough to get us thinking about the things that will shatter it. I am particularly fond on his essay on the implications of hourly versus salary wages and find his thoughts on religion and academia untainted by the popular prejudices and politicized stances prevalent among many people in and around the arts.

Also included in the book is a moving history of a small city in New York. There's a real kindness in Grayson's treatment of the memories of the elderly people he interviews in the oral history concluding the book. After reading the oral history, one can't help feeling an urge to preserve one's own local stories.

Overall a fun, easy read and just maybe a worthwhile one, too.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Check it out!, October 25, 2009

By 

Judith L. Hockley - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Mind of Summer: Post-Punk Dispatches From a Post-Structuralist World (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book! It's full of great insights and stories that are laugh out loud funny. The true gem, though, is in the history of Binghamton. I only wish it were longer!

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grayson's Gaze: Road Map to the World, September 13, 2007

By 

Max E. Guttman "metaphysical man" (new york) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Mind of Summer: Post-Punk Dispatches From a Post-Structuralist World (Paperback)

Grayson has given us the mandate, and we will follow him!

We are on the way to "Final Victory", a notion that Grayson reveals to us in his writing, initially sporadically, but as the text unfolds, those two words declare the strength and signify the meaning of his vistas.

Success is in the hands of one man, Erik Grayson. We are gently reminded to have unshakable faith in his vision: a road map to victory.

His book is a reminder that we must dissolve national borders. Building on notions of transnationalism, Grayson advocates inaugurating "The Brave Experiment". This program, his point of departure, articulates the infrastructure of a new agency that will envelope all future nationalistic encounters.

"This is the agency I speak of today, a New Freedom, equipped to hail each individual as a member of society; not a multitude, but one civilization, one border, one globe, one cause and one people: The Brave Experiment"

Grayson has set the stage for a new way of thinking; a feat has not been accomplished in literature for decades, according to the author when reflecting upon A Mind of Summer.