LEE SIEGEL

Ser humano en la era de la multitud digital Leo Siegel, uno de los críticos más incisivos y perspicaces de Estados Unidos, analiza en este ensayo las opiniones más extendidas sobre la cultura digital para ofrecer una vision brillante y polemica sobre lo que nunca se dice sobre ella. Para Siegel, lejos de ser la maxima expresion de libertad y democracia, Internet y otros fenomenos coetaneos nos llevan, como personas y como sociedad, hacia el narcisismo mas letal y demoledor al tiempo que nos alejan precisamente de aquello que constituye la base de la democracia: la conciencia critica. La informacion ilimitada, las posibilidades de autoexpresion, la democratizacion de la cultura, la comodidad? Segun el autor, todas las pretendidas ventajas de la Red no constituyen sino una cortina de triunfalismo que oculta sus limitaciones, riesgos y peligros. Una vision brillante y controvertida, imprescindible para cualquiera que desee una vision profunda y critica del fenomeno cultural mas trascendente de nuestro tiempo.

From the author hailed by the "New York Times Book Review "for his "drive-by brilliance" and dubbed by the "New York Times" "Magazine "as "one of the country''s most eloquent and acid-tongued critics" comes a ruthless challenge to the conventional wisdom about the most consequential cultural development of our time: the Internet. Of course the Internet is not one thing or another; if anything, its boosters claim, the Web is everything at once. It''s become not only our primary medium for communication and information but also the place we go to shop, to play, to debate, to find love. Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion in life online doesn''t just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture, in ways with which we haven''t yet reckoned. The web and its cultural correlatives and by-products--such as the dominance of reality television and the rise of the "bourgeois bohemian"--have turned privacy into performance, play into commerce, and confused "self-expression" with art. And even as technology gurus ply their trade using the language of freedom and democracy, we cede more and more control of our freedom and individuality to the needs of the machine--that confluence of business and technology whose boundaries now stretch to encompass almost all human activity. Siegel''s argument isn''t a Luddite intervention against the Internet itself but rather a bracing appeal for us to contend with how it is transforming us all. Dazzlingly erudite, full of startlingly original insights, and buoyed by sharp wit, "Against the Machine" will force you to see our culture--for better and worse--in an entirely new way.

Television has taken firm hold of American life ever since the first flickering images replaced the disembodied voices innocently crackling from the radio. Ever present and evolving, television thrives at the crossroads of commerce, art, and entertainment. In Not Remotely Controlled cultural critic Lee Siegel collects his reportage and musings on this most hybrid medium. Whether chronicling the history of the "cop" drama, revealing the inherent irony in Donald Trumps character on "The Apprentice," or shedding light on those unheralded gems that Neilsen ratings swept away prematurely, Siegel gives each episode, series, or documentary the attention and respect usually reserved for high-art and dusty literature. Going far beyond mere pans and praise, Siegel has given long-overdue attention to Americas most pervasive art form: television.

Sex and the City, Saul Bellow, Eyes Wide Shut, Dante and the American self, Barbara Kingsolver, acting in Hollywood, Soviet painting in Soho, Angels in America, Jane Austen in the present, J.K. Rowling -- nothing escapes Lee Siegels incandescent eye. Siegel possesses an intellectual range and independent perspective unmatched by his peers, and Falling Upwards brings together the best of his essays, all of them rich with the trades mark wit and intelligence that have won him many friends and a few enemies. In these essential writings, Siegel deftly uses the occasion of a book, film, painting, or television show not merely to appraise it, but to make sense of life in a way that is more defiant of impoverished cultural "norms" than most contemporary artistic expression. Guided by the belief that a calculating self-interest in art-making diminishes the prospects for the imagination in life, Siegel celebrates authentic sensibilities and lambasts manufactured sentiments. With uncanny insight, yet also with incomparable logic and analytical rigor, he has invented a new idiom in which the language of criticism embodies the playful, creative, synthesizing power that has been largely abdicated by the arts in our time. In writing about works of culture, Siegel has created a standard by which to judge them.

From the author hailed by the New York Times Book Review for his drive-by brilliance and dubbed by the New York TimesMagazine as one of the countrys most eloquent and acid-tongued critics comes a ruthless challenge to the conventional wisdom about the most consequential cultural development of our time: the Internet. Of course the Internet is not one thing or another; if anything, its boosters claim, the Web is everything at once. Its become not only our primary medium for communication and information but also the place we go to shop, to play, to debate, to find love. Lee Siegel argues that our ever-deepening immersion inlife online doesnt just reshape the ordinary rhythms of our days; it also reshapes our minds and culture, in ways with which we havent yet reckoned. The web and its cultural correlatives and by-productssuch as the dominance of reality television and the rise of the bourgeois bohemianhave turned privacy into performance, play into commerce, and confused self-expression with art. And even as technology gurus ply their trade usingthe language of freedom and democracy, we cede more and more control of our freedom and individuality to the needs of the machinethat confluence of business and technology whose boundaries now stretch to encompass almost all human activity. Siegels argument isnt a Luddite intervention against the Internet itself but rather a bracing appeal for us to contend with howit is transforming us all. Dazzlingly erudite, full of startlingly original insights, and buoyed by sharp wit, Against the Machine will force you to see our culturefor better and worsein an entirely new way.

LeeSiegel, author of Falling Upwards, Not RemotelyControlled, and Against the Machinedelivers a provocative critique ofmodern lightness and frivolity, and a timely guide to being serious in an unserious age. In the vein of The Culture of Narcissism, Shop Class as Soulcraft, and How Proust Can Change Your Life,Siegel offers a revelatory look at how a serious bearing is vital toaccomplishing any worthwhile goal in an era increasingly defined by a sardonicapproach to life.