Symptoms of Culture [Paperback]

Marjorie Garber (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 041591860X | ISBN-13: 978-0415918602 | Publication Date: January 2000 | Edition: 1

The symptoms of culture are the anxieties that underlie modern life: the instability of gender roles, the mysteries of female sexuality, the enigma of authority, the desire for greatness in ourselves and our heroes. From concern over fake orgasms to our worries about Great Books reading lists, from wanting God on our side at sports contests to wanting Shakespeare on our side whenever we want to sound important, we are a walking case of symptoms. Whatever the modern illness may be, the doctor locates the symptoms in a box of Jello or in Charlotte's marvelous web, on the football field or in the bedroom, in our great Mr. Shakespeare, in our classroom or the courtroom, or in a sneeze.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Culture is all around us: television, video games, Shakespeare, advertisements, books, musical recordings, news reports, even the packaging of food items. The pervasiveness of culture, however, is matched by the pervasiveness of anxiety about our position in it: Who are we? What are we? According to Marjorie Garber, one of America's most astute and imaginative social commentators, culture and anxiety are so intertwined as to be inseparable.

We are, Garber argues, what we consume culturally--even if it doesn't always agree with us. Garber's approach to culture is eclectic: she veers from Charlotte's Web to Jell-O boxes, from Sir Laurence Olivier's bisexuality to the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings. Yet her aim remains unwavering throughout. Far more interested in what a piece of culture "means" than in discussing "good" and "bad" culture, she sifts and sorts through the artifacts of everyday life attempting to find meaning and sense in the midst of chaos.

Garber's greatest source of strength as a critic, however, is her acknowledgment that "culture" is so multifaceted and meaningful that her efforts are ultimately, by intention and necessity, tentative and elusive. Full explanations would only serve to destroy culture's fun and energy. With grace and humor, Symptoms of Culture takes an insightful, invigorating look at the amazingly complicated thing we call "culture" and explains it all--well, not quite all--to us. --Michael Bronski --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Marjorie Garber seems like the ideal dinner guest.All of these essays,] without exception, [are] exercises in dazzling literary pyrotechnics, full of fascinating facts, trenchant opinions, and unconventional connections. Garber's range is wider and her style discursive. [S]he invests words with almost magical powers, delighting in the odd coincidences between words employed in radically different contexts. The result is a series of witty, intelligent, and always readable essays that enhance Garber's position as a leading cultural critic of the byways of contemporary American popular culture.
–Australasian Journal of American Studies

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 041591860X
• ISBN-13: 978-0415918602
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,600,568 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars May or may not be your cup of tea, April 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Symptoms of Culture (Paperback)

I suspect this book might be hit and miss. I found it to be beyond brilliant: witty, erudite, well-researched, and playful, Garber writes the perfect antidote to scholarly conservatism, traditionalism, and stuffiness. The first essay, "Greatness," is a free-associating tour de force that not only perfectly puts her theoretical framework to work (go Freud!), but also reminds us that even those who argue against "ideology" and "politics" work through and with them, whether or not (and especially if they don't) acknowledge it. People who are still comfortably attached to orthodox scholarly beliefs will find this book to be too eccentric and perhaps even evil; the Lynne Cheneys and Camille Paglias of the world must burst into flames at the mere mention of Garber's name. Even those who agree with Garber's politics might find her method of analysis too labyrinthine and airy. I found the method refreshing. (And at least she warns us of it in the beginning.) Overall, the book reminds us that the methods of close reading and the psychoanalytic interpretation of dreams can (and must) be applied to the world around us, reminds us of the importance of reading against the grain, reading between the lines, always questioning and critiquing that which society presents to us as given, inherent, assumed, decontextualized, "real" and "great."

12 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars PC Bigotry at its most arbitrary, June 29, 2001

By 

John B. Carpenter (Yanceyville, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Symptoms of Culture (Hardcover)

I was required to read this book for a graduate course. As a symptom of what is wrong with American (and Western) culture, it does a good job of exemplifying the absurdity and bigotry of the psuedo-intellectual left. If one approaches it as a scholarly appraisal of Western culture, one will be seriously mis-led.

Garber assumes, in the introduction, that Fruedianism is an authoritative hermeneutical tool for literature and culture generally. One would normally expect a scholar to demonstrate why s/he believes in a certain system of ideas. But apparently Garber approaches Frued the same way a fundamentalist approaches the Bible: Freud said it, I believe it, that settles it. That abitrary approach permeates the entire book -- confirming the worst of what one has heard about the debased (and intollerantly leftist) nature of today's English departments. Later she appeals for tolerance for Jews wearing their caps during sporting events and damns evangelical Christians for praying in public after they score touch-downs. Guess what? She's Jewish. Shakespeare, she says, is a "fetish" and "Charlotte's Web" is a work of comparable literary value. And on and on she goes. This book should be preserved if only to demonstrate how intolerant and debased the academic "left" became in the late 20th century.