Toward the New Degeneracy: An Essay [Paperback]

Bruce Benderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1997

What's missing from the American underground? Not publicity for funding, but vital links to the culture of poverty. Bruce Benderson, novelist and commentator, takes you on a philosophical and personal journey into new and old bohemia. His last stop is vanishing Times Square, where middle class thrill-seekers used to have contact with underclass dealers and hustlers. In this book-length essay, written in the tradition of the old-style manifesto, Benderson seeks to restore id to the creative act. His perverse yet courageous goal is to invent a "new degeneracy."

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Bruce Benderson is the author ot two works of fiction about urban decay. The most recent, User (Dutton/Plume, 1994), is a lyrical descent into the world of junkies and male hustlers, which The Los Angeles Times called "unmistakably brilliant."

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

How could I have guessed that my sexual freedom would become shrouded by condom-consciousness? How would I have known that my hippie friends' nostalgia for rural space would mutate into the activism of the block association and its sullen war against street people? Who would have dared to suggest that the fight for sexual rights could come to include a crusade against sexual abuse partly relying upon Victorian ideals of child protection? Or that violent campus uprisings would give birth to grievance committees that haggled over the crimes of politically incorrect speech? I didn't; but perhaps it was because I had never considered the class context in which the supposedly seismic changes of the sixties occurred.

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Edgewise; 1st edition (1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964646633
• ISBN-13: 978-0964646636
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,263,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monkglen's Degeneracy Validated by Bruce Benderson's Gift, March 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Toward the New Degeneracy: An Essay (Paperback)

Bruce Benderson gives us all hope. He writes sparklingly clear, true, vivid, visceral, and says what no one else was brave enough to say. He shows the way back to our hearts and psyches, the way to honest living, and writing. Bruce, who I believe is a prophet for gay men, shows us how our total experience is relevant for our lives, and our arts.

Bruce distills out of the erotic vapors of New York and of America a wonderous drug, one that destroys delusion, enhances awareness, and provides impetus for action. He is a writer who has time for his people, and he clearly shows that gay men are his people. I love this book and I love Bruce Benderson. I hope you enjoy it as much as I. If you enjoy FAREWELL SYMPHONY or THE BEAUTIFUL ROOM IS EMPTY by Edmund White, then this book will provide the poetics and literary theory for such works of art. Bruce is right up there with Edmund White in his presentation of the artistic value of having the courage of being one's self, and claiming ALL of one's gay experience in order to be whole. --by Glenn Guillory aka monkglen

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "What used to be sordid is being replaced with pseudo.", August 3, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Toward the New Degeneracy: An Essay (Paperback)

Bruce Benderson succinctly pinpoints the missing vitality in contemporary underground art and lifestyle. Thank you Bruce! A must-read for anyone involved in the future of Art in America.