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Wayne Koestenbaum

Humiliation (BIG IDEAS//small books) Paperback – Illustrated, August 2, 2011

by Wayne Koestenbaum (Author)

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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.

Print length

184 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Picador
Publication date

August 2, 2011
Dimensions

5 x 0.45 x 7 inches
ISBN-10

0312429223
ISBN-13

978-0312429225
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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 is an American poet and cultural critic. He received a BA from Harvard University, an MA from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD from Princeton University. He lives in New York City, where he is Distinguished Professor of English at the City University of New York Graduate Center. His books include Humiliation and My 1980s and Other Essays.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Picador; First edition (August 2, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 184 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312429223
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312429225
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.45 x 7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #731,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,562 in Popular Social Psychology & Interactions
- #2,524 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
- #21,539 in Memoirs (Books)

Customer Reviews:
38 ratings

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Wayne Koestenbaum

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Wayne Koestenbaum is the author of six collections of poetry including Model Homes, published by BOA in 2004. Koestenbaum writes frequently for periodicals, including The New York Times Magazine, Parnassus: Poetry in Review, and the London Review of Books. He is also an art critic, participating in panels at the Whitney Museum of American Art, contributing regularly to Artforum. He is a tenured professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Customer reviews

5 star		76%
4 star		3%
3 star		3%
2 star		7%
1 star		11%

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Frankie Mazza

Seeing the world through 'filth-speckled glasses'

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 11, 2013

Verified Purchase

I am in the midst of reading and 'enjoying' Wayne Koestenbaum's extraordinary little gem and treatise simply entitled HUMILIATION---quite a feat--to expound for 192 pages clarifying penetrating exposing exploring its soaring depths, its weird highs and lows this 'humilation' from all its twisted abject angles : subjective and objective personal and cultural psychological and dare i say clinical, this acutely heightened exploration of a topic one would not want to touch with a 10ft pole let alone admit a personal relationship with it! and the courage to grapple with it---astounding and triumphant accomplishment. And, then also to be humorous in the midst of such unpleasantness, referring to himself as the 'humilation expert', is endearingly honest.

For the life of me, i cannot understand those reviewers who find this work 'confusing' as it is a fluid, intelligent, self assured and well written expose of something which is a grotesque part of our nature and therefore of life as we know it: it both attracts and repels us and permeates our lives as Mr. Koestenbaum so smartly addresses in all its guises. For sure, as this brave and talented writer states: 'humilation cooks the spirit to a fine finish'and then some. . .yes, i always knew humilation to be good for the soul.

upon further examination, tho, experiencing 'humiliation (eventually) leads to a cessation of humiliation' and this stoppage of terror , is experienced as pleasure.'

it is good to face fear in all its ingloriousness and laugh at it and truly mean it

6 people found this helpful

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cb5177

Truly fabulous book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 24, 2014

Verified Purchase

I read it across 4 continents and had the odd experience of having a number of people undergo significant humiliation whilst reading. It is very real and very funny; that said the explorations of pop-culture and literature across the board through this pinhole lens are truly insightful and illuminating, but dark. Enjoy if you like other genres such as queer literature, absurdism, academic essays, David Sedaris, people like Judy Garland/ Liza Minelli and Samuel Beckett.

4 people found this helpful

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Alan Dorfman

Definitely Not A Beach Read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 13, 2011

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Wayne Koestenbaum's "Humiliation" is a difficult book to read and an even more difficult book to rate.

Birthed onto the printed page and its Kindle equivalent as part of Picador's BIG IDEAS/small books program which promises "provocative short books inviting us to rethink our biggest ideas," "Humiliation" perfectly embodies its reason for existence. For that it deserves five stars. For all of its intellectual gymnastics and (often) pretzel logic, "Humiliation" is at once a fever dream and a high wire philological juggling act that, while occasionally breathtaking in its use of language and deconstruction of same, is more often breathtaking due to the reader's struggle to keep up with Mr. Koestenbaum's mountainous concepts. This is a book that gives little recreational pleasure and ultimately provides little in new understanding on the subject matter and deserves zero stars, one if I'm being generous. Consequently I have rated it at 3 stars as a compromise.

He has conflated humiliation with embarrassment and shame(which doesn't really rear it's head until late in the enterprise) and seems (unless I misunderstand, which is entirely possible) to present a fatal flaw in his own case. While humiliation, unlike the tree falling in the forest which still makes a sound, requires a witness, nowadays it is the witness who suffers the humiliation inasmuch as the perpetrator of the event/behavior deemed humiliating must be complicit. Which seemingly invalidates much of Mr. Koestenbaum's premise.

Poor performance in the 21st Century is no longer a reason to be humiliated. It is celebrated if intentional and venerated as long as the perpetrator "tried their hardest and did their best." Mr. Koestenbaum at several points uses as his examples American Idol contestants (undoubtedly from the audition shows)and judges. Though the judges may feel humiliated watching these contestants seemingly making fools of themselves, many of these individuals are not complicit and consequently are not humiliated by their lack of talent. Whether it is their shamelessness in general (a growing phenomenon in modern society) or their joy at their finding their fifteen seconds of fame on TV or possibly their happiness at finding the courage to proclaim "I Am Here - Whether You Like Me Or Not" [from which it is a short leap to Mr. Koestenbaum's citing of the artist Glenn Ligon's "iconic" (the author's word, not mine) painting Untitled (I Am A Man)(1988)], they are more often angry at the rejection than humiliated by it. Perhaps this baseless, overinflated self-esteem and sense of entitlement of many of these unsuccessful contestants would be a good subject for Mr. Koestenbaum's next tome.

So, in summary, if you have an intellectually unstimulated life and enjoy mental calisthenics more difficult than the Sunday Times Crossword, indeed give Wayne Koestenbaum's "Humiliation" a try. You will be challenged and enjoy it. If you read to decompress your mind and relax, don't humiliate yourself by starting a book you will be unlikely to complete.

2 people found this helpful

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Enduring Embarrassment

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 25, 2011

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

For many, this may be a painful book. Koestenbaum presents the many faces of humiliation. He exposes the pain, the crises in self confidence, the feelings of shame and isolation that most of us know if we have ever been humbled.

Humiliation is a detailed treatise which attempts to define humiliation in its many aspects. Koestenbaum explores art, current events, literature, film, history, and his personal experiences to give us hundreds of small anecdotes and meditations on mortification and its effect upon people.

Koestenbaum details what he calls the "Jim Crow gaze". The gaze appears on the face of racial bigots, especially in the eyes of people living in a "state of apartheid". It is cold, seems dead, and does not recognize the victim as human. Instead it sees a "scab", a spot of absence." Such people can not see their victim as human without surrendering the negative feelings and often the hatred and fear necessary to maintain their prejudice.

"Humiliation" even explores self humiliation. It is unclear whether it is natural to feel humiliated when no one else is aware of our mistake, or gaff. Maybe we have such feelings because our society has carefully trained us concerning its standards of "decency". What is clear is that sometimes we feel the pain, the emotional embarrassment, even in solitude.

If I ever wanted to be a celebrity, this book discourages me. I would not trade places with Michael Jackson, Alec Baldwin, or other famous people whose experiences are included in the text. One section, called "Disgusting Allegations" details situations I certainly want to avoid.

Humiliation is not the book of comedy sketches I thought it was when I ordered it. Actually it is better. This text opens part of our soul to us. I recommend this book.

9 people found this helpful

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J.

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 10, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great price.

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