Unsuspecting souls : the disappearance of the human being / Barry Sanders.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sanders, Barry, 1938-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass society--History.

Mass society.

Individuality--History.

Individuality.

Conformity--History.

Conformity.

Social problems--History.

Social problems.

Popular culture--History.

Popular culture.

History.

Physical Description:

375 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : Counterpoint : Distributed by Publishers Group West, [2009]

Summary:

Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle created the most famous detectives in literary history: C. Auguste Dupin and Sherlock Holmes. As skilled as those two sleuths were, they missed the nineteenth century's most outrageous crime, the death of the human being. People began to lose their essence. Scientists, philosophers, and writers all tried, unsuccessfully, to recalculate what it meant to be human. Ghosts and shades replaced human beings, and they mouthed off, from this side and the beyond.

We in the twenty-first century have paid a steep price for that monumental loss. We have a hard time, today, recognizing real people. Instead, we read of enemy combatants, terrorists and extremists, who get blown away, dusted, or eliminated. Iraqi men, women, and children vaporize as euphemisms---collateral damage. When the CIA resorts to extreme interrogation methods, it does not torture fully alive human beings, but suspected al Qaeda members.

We must once again recognize ourselves as actors and agents in the shaping of both political and social ideas, not just for our own sake, but also to create a much-needed community. I see no other way to put a halt to the growing fascination with the total annihilation of the planet.

Contents:

1 What is Life? 25

2 When Death Died 81

3 A Couple of Sarahs Later 133

4 No One's Dead 173

5 There is Only Life 237

6 Coney Island and the Mind 275

7 The Draculated Cat 307.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781582434728

1582434727

OCLC:

276339529