Customer Reviews

Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Galeano, best known for his monumental "Memory of Fire" trilogy, has written a very timely, important look at the ravages that unrestrained capitalism is visiting on the world. "Upside Down" is probably the only book I can think of that can talk about international economics in a way that could be described as lyrical and poetic. While I thought I was fairly well versed in the various world-wide outrages associated with corporate hegemony, and the kind of libertarian free-trade new order they seek to impose, there was a lot of material here that was new. The book certainly meets the "blood boiling" test: you really can't read this without getting angry. To dismiss this as "agit-prop" as does the Kirkus Review quoted above is simply absurd. "Upside Down" deserves a place on the shelf next to the small number of books that have come out lately that question the monolithic corporate rhetoric: if you liked Frank's "One Market Under God;" Klein's "No Logo;" Hardt and Negri's "Empire" and, in the British context, Monbiot's "Captive State," then you'll like this. Essential reading for these times, and it could serve as a primer for the anti-corporate backlash that hopefully is not too far away.

At the outset, I must admit that Galeano is one of my favorite authors, so I bought this with high expectations. Again, I wasn't disappointed; Galeano's comprehensive perspective and profound, yet practical, insights are genuinely awesome. He tells us what we need to know and recognize but often find too difficult to confront and acknowledge.

This work directly presents the unvarnished truth about the relationship of the "developed" or "first" world vis a vis the "third" world. As Galeano aptly notes, the former comprises the "north" -- the United States and Europe, and the latter that which is south of this north -- Africa, Latin America, and much of Asia. His metaphor "upside down" is apt, not only in terms of geography, but as he points the power structure's media and institutions represent as truth the complete opposite of the actual realities of the world's institutions, societies, and plight of the majority of its populace.

Galeano makes his astute and irrefutable observations in a clever, interesting and thought provoking conceptual fashion. The book is extremely readable, but after a while the first world reader will surely become ill at ease, and will unconsciously attempt to provide rationalizations for the ugly and relentless oppression and exploitation of the third world by northern societies.

"Upside Down" is a needed dose of reality, but reading it is often like a cold glass of water thrown in your face. However, like such a glass of water it will wake you up and demand your attention.

A poetic, depressing, yet strangely energizing catalogue of the consumerist hypocracies we live with daily. Mind-numbing inequality, increasing ecological destruction, endemic militarism -- they're not just unfortunate "side-effects" of our institutions, but are in fact necessary to their continued existence.

This book will provoke a predictable outrage among those with vested interests in an unequal world. For those with the heart for the bitter, honest truth of the world we have made, this book is indeed a useful primer.

Eduardo Galeano was prompted to leave Uruguay for being too pushy with the truth. His crime? Telling tales that pushed politicians and citizens before the mirror of Uruguay's looking glass world. These same pushy truths are revived in Galeano's 10th book, Upside Down: A Primer for The Looking-Glass World. Galeano's newest collection of essays and quiet manifestos-haunted throughout by the sketchings of deceased political illustrator Jose Guadalupe Posada-are part advertisement, part class syllabi, part prose performance piece, and part human rights reportage. Deftly translated by Mark Fried, chapters include such titles as: The Sacred Car, The Teaching of Fear, and Master Class on Impunity. Each missive, biting yet lyrical, is a carefully considered bit of philosophical criticism dispelling the mystique of the `advertised life'. By integrating slogans, commercials and advertisements into his prose performance pieces, Galeano reinterprets market economics, and deflates the progress myth of 20th century divine capitalism. It is impossible to read Upside Down without growing from reader to critic. However, Galeano's greatest achievement is not of social critic but as prose stylist and artisan. As such, he creates a new architectural foundation for words by extending the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction then re-joining them in order to put forth his ideas. In this book of easy and affecting prose Galeano directs the reader to be as he must always be-always conscious and forever a participant. "The looking-glass school teaches us to suffer reality, not change it; to forget the past, not learn from it; to accept the future, not invent it...Yet perhaps-who can say-there can be no disgrace without grace, no sign without a countersign, and no school that does not beget its counterschool."

Upside Down is a shocking and passionate documentation of the world's injustices that our "upside down" First World society has turned our back upon. This book will not merely evoke sympathy and remorse, but will leave you screaming for change. I found myself drawn especially to Galeano's dark humor and satirical, poetic style. Galeano's fiery language left me speechless. However, at times I did become glazed after reading list after list of facts. I found that the most inspirational and telling portions of the book were the rare asides and anecdotes in which individuals' stories were recounted. Galeano shows us the bleak reality that we have accepted- a reality where children toil from dawn to dusk to stay alive- a reality where power is driven by security, money and terror. This book will make you ashamed to be privileged.

First of all, may I say how utterly I disagree with readers who criticize Galeano for pointing out the wrongs and not offering solutions. Why should he? This kind of criticism evidences lack of understanding of the book's nature and purposes. This book is not a political programme. It is a masterful piece of writing intended to give information that is all too often withheld and suppressed, and to awaken political conciousness. Both of which are, may I respectfully add, much needed in the United States, where most of the negative reviews come from.

Galeano succeeds in what no other author I know has succeeded - in writing a poetical, haunting book about politics. While describing the misery and suffering that capitalism is wreaking on our upside-down world, he is also able to give us vignettes of amazing beauty. Writers, as everybody knows, don't have to draw their subject matter from romance and butterflies to write beautifully, but managing to write a book full of tenderness, poetry and a very wry humour while describing hunger, torture and repression is, I think, a kind of feat.

Galeano doesn't flinch at the world's evils. He tells them. So, if you read him, you're in for a good dose of reality. Maybe that isn't to the taste of every reader. But then, what do we have Jackie Collins and Danielle Steel for?

Galeano is well known for his histories of Empire, but here he presents us with an entirely different - if related - book. UPSIDE DOWN strives to illuminate the absurdities of our world: a world where the strong devour the weak, where corporations devastate the planet, and TV colonizes our souls. Written in the most penetrating and damning language, Galeano is not afraid to tell it like it is. In other words, this is not a feel-good book. For this reason, some have discredited it as a "diatribe," without fully knowing the meaning, history or import of the word. Defined as "learned discourse" mixed with "bitter resentment," UPSIDE DOWN is indeed a diatribe - but the most necessary, illuminating and effective diatriabe out there (with the possible except of Derrick Jenson's A LANGUAGE OLDER THAN WORDS and CULTURE OF MAKE BELIEVE). Similar to those books, UPSIDE DOWN is a scathing indictment of the injustices of modern life. But it is also a shrill, poetic cry for change. This book will unlock more than feelings remorse for the suffering, it will also unlock anger and infuse you with passion for change. All together, a strange little book of riddles, sardonic poems of dissent, mind-boggling statistics, perspective warps, linguistic twists, and poetic flares. Hooked from the first page, it blew me away. In the end, I must have commonplaced over a quarter of it. Another Galeano masterpiece. Should not be overlooked.

"We may be badly made, but we're not finished, and it's the adventure of changing reality and changing ourselves that makes our blip in the history of the universe worthwhile, this fleeting warmth between two glaciers that is us."

Excellent work by Eduardo Galeano, this book is absolutely awesome. While Galeano employs a very enjoyable sarcastic humor throughout the chapters of the book, he makes it easy for readers to perceive a general and clear perspective of the third world. Highly recomended!

Galeano opens with a reference to Alice of Wonderland fame. He suggests that to discover the looking-glass world she woundn't need a mirror - only a window. I think rather, assuming Alice were a white first-worlder (as am I), that her parents would make sure the windows were replaced with massive TV screens showing only Disney pastoral scenes. Only bad Alices actually see what is.

Upside Down doesn't have the accumulated force of Memory of Fire but it does have facts and humor. In a moment reminiscent of I.F. Stone, Galeano reports that in the January 31, 1998 edition of a Uruguayan daily, the first page congratulated the Brazilian government on selling off the national telephone company. The second page applauded same decision for getting rid of a "burden to the treasury". Page 16 reported that the national telephone company, this "burden to the treasury", had made $3.9 billion in profits for 1997. Quite a burden to the treasury. It's a wonder anyone bought it.

No more cribbed examples, but this book will have you laughing and crying.....

I love this book. In form, it's an entertainment. In substance, its every line is worthy of the most serious study and elaboration. The irony is that Galeano's use of the "Through the Looking Glass" theme, which once dripped with satire, applies to our upside-down age not as lampoon, but as a dead-on, hard-headed description of reality. I suspect this will end up among my five favorite books of all time. Meanwhile, I'm still savoring the wonders of a thing that verbalizes my deepest unformed thoughts for me. Gracias, Mr. Galeano!