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Ascent Of The A-Word: Assholism, The First Sixty Years (2012)

by Geoffrey Nunberg(Favorite Author)

3.23 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1610391756 (ISBN13: 9781610391757)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

PublicAffairs

review 1: The theme of this book is very loosely linked (but the loose link was what drew me to it) to that of Harry "G" Frankfurt's On Bullshit.Each book attempts a serious reflection on a colloquial word, postulating that the word has a fairly specific sense and that that sense is more than just deprecatory. Where "bullshit" refers to a type of discourse, or utterance, in semi-technical senses, and only by grammatical extension brings in the producer (the bullshitter), the "asshole" under discussion is a type of personality, identified of course by behaviour and attitudes.Frankfurt attempts a relatively rigorous definition of bullshit; there is a loose consensus that his definition doesn't work but he is on to something real.I don't know about a consensus on Assholism as I haven't... more read around it. He doesn't express his thesis in one definitive formulation but the claim seems to be that one can reasonably define, or at least sketch towards a definition of, "asshole" (in its non-anatomical sense, obviously), in terms of notions like sense of entitlement, obnoxiousness, demagoguish demoticism (I paraphrase here), and so on. He also tries to set up a kind of karmic rule whereby assholism proliferates by calling forth opposition of the same character. Finally - and I think most tendentiously - he claims that there is something new(ish) about the ascendancy of assholism in more or less public life (hence "the first sixty years"). I can't claim to have reflected at length on these claims but my reactions while reading were that the definition is plausible but not massively illuminating; the notion of asshole behaviour calling forth more asshole behaviour (as when you cut me up on the road and I give you the finger, right in front of my innocent granny) likewise; and the idea that there is anything hugely novel about the prevalence and salience of assholes in modern life - well, there may be something in it, but I think not as much as is suggested by writing a 200-page book on it. It would have to do, I think, with the rise of democracy, mass education, erasure of class distinctions, the essential egotism of the capitalist scheme we all now apparently accept as nature's way, and so on. Not to say that Nunberg doesn't touch on all this, he does; but my idea would be that the "asshole" as distinct from her/his antecedents is just a derived and minor mutation of an ancient aspect of social life.Pompous enough for you? (Pompous asshole!)PS I forgot to mention: one key feature of this book is that it is essentially a Google Books corpus research project. This aspect I like; it demonstrates at least that this resource is available and can be mined for genuinely revealing findings - even if the book is hardly a triumphant example of the genre it belongs to (announces? - I don't know how novel the approach is).
review 2: Nunberg gets a slow start but by the time he dispenses with the throat clearing and hits the sections about the a-holes in politics, this book soars. A review of the first forty years of a-holes wasn't really needed.. If you find it excruciating to even be AROUND that guy..you'll find this big cringe book like watching THE OFFICE with footnotes. Nunberg shreds his way through the sanctimony of the Left and the Right and the academics in between, then starts in on The Donald. Sure, Trump is a fat turkey to shoot at, but Nunberg isn't fronting for anyone and he's interested in what's driving the ascent of the A word and those who personify. I found this book intelligent and funny. In the end though, didn't I know ..the bumper sticker is right: Mean People suck. less

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