Having and Being Had
(Sprache: Englisch)
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS CHOICE
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME , NPR, INSTYLE, AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
A sensational new book [that] tries to figure out whether it s possible to...
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME , NPR, INSTYLE, AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
A sensational new book [that] tries to figure out whether it s possible to...
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Klappentext zu „Having and Being Had “
A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS CHOICE NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY TIME , NPR, INSTYLE, AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
A sensational new book [that] tries to figure out whether it s possible to live an ethical life in a capitalist society. . . . The results are enthralling. Associated Press
A timely and arresting new look at affluence by the New York Times bestselling author, one of the leading lights of the modern American essay. Financial Times
My adult life can be divided into two distinct parts, Eula Biss writes, the time before I owned a washing machine and the time after. Having just purchased her first home, the poet and essayist now embarks on a provocative exploration of the value system she has bought into. Through a series of engaging exchanges in libraries and laundromats, over barstools and backyard fences she examines our assumptions about class and property and the ways we internalize the demands of capitalism. Described by the New York Times as a writer who advances from all sides, like a chess player, Biss offers an uncommonly immersive and deeply revealing new portrait of work and luxury, of accumulation and consumption, of the value of time and how we spend it. Ranging from IKEA to Beyoncé to Pokemon, Biss asks, of both herself and her class, In what have we invested?
Lese-Probe zu „Having and Being Had “
Isn t It Good?What does it say about capitalism, John asks, that we have money and want to spend it but we can t find anything worth buying? We re on our way home from a furniture store, again. We almost bought something called a credenza, but then John opened the drawers and discovered that it wasn t made to last.
I think there are limits, I say, to what mass production can produce.
We just bought a house but we don t have furniture yet. We ve been eating on our back stoop for three months. Last week a Mexican woman with four children rang our doorbell and asked if our front room was for rent. I m sorry, I said awkwardly, we live here. She was confused. But, she said, it s empty.
It is empty. I hang curtains to hide the emptiness, but it remains empty. There wasn t any furniture in the house where I grew up until a German cabinetmaker moved in with us. He arrived in a truck so heavy that it made a dent in the driveway. He filled our dining room with his furniture and then he made tiny replicas of that furniture with the machines he brought in the truck. I still have the tiny corner cabinet with lattice doors, the tiny hutch with brass knobs, and the tiny dining room table with expertly turned legs. They re in the basement, wrapped in newspaper. The tiny dresser sits atop my dresser, which is from IKEA.
The apartment we just left was furnished with shelves that John made out of cheap pine. They re in the basement now, reduced to lumber. The ammunition box that I found on the curb and made into a coffee table is in the backyard, planted full of marigolds. I hate furniture, my father once murmured. He had just visited a warehouse full of furniture made of unfinished pine. This was after the cabinetmaker went to a nursing home and his furniture went away too. As a child, I burned a hole in the dining room table. The cabinetmaker, who smoked a pipe, supplied me with matches. I loved to burn things, but I
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felt remorse over the table, which I also loved.
The lyric I burned a hole in the dining room table is tethered, in my mind, to the liner notes of a Billie Holiday album that I borrowed from the library in college. She was singing songs written by someone else, the notes explained, but she rewrote them with the way she sang. Her delivery transformed a banal portrait of moneyed life into a wry critique of that moneyed life.
In the furniture stores we visit, I m filled with a strange unspecific desire. I want everything and nothing. The soft colors of the rugs, the warm wood grains, the brass and glass of the lamps all seem to suggest that the stores are filled with beautiful things, but when I look at any one thing I don t find it beautiful. The desire to consume is a kind of lust, Lewis Hyde writes. But consumer goods merely bait this lust, they do not satisfy it. The consumer of commodities is invited to a meal without passion, a consumption that leads to neither satiation nor fire.
In the end, all the furniture we buy will feel like lyrics written for someone else s song, except the dining room table made by the Amish. This table will be solid cherry, a beautiful wood. It will be well made, but not quite as well made as the table I grew up with, the table I burned. To get a table like that, we would need to spend much more money. Or we would need a German cabinetmaker to move in with us.
I once had a girl / Or I should say, she once had me, the car radio sings. John and I both fall silent. It s been a long time since I ve heard this song. And I don t know if I ve ever really listened to the ending. What happened there, I wonder. Did he make a fire in the fireplace while the girl was at work? No, John tells me, he burned her place down.
The lyric I burned a hole in the dining room table is tethered, in my mind, to the liner notes of a Billie Holiday album that I borrowed from the library in college. She was singing songs written by someone else, the notes explained, but she rewrote them with the way she sang. Her delivery transformed a banal portrait of moneyed life into a wry critique of that moneyed life.
In the furniture stores we visit, I m filled with a strange unspecific desire. I want everything and nothing. The soft colors of the rugs, the warm wood grains, the brass and glass of the lamps all seem to suggest that the stores are filled with beautiful things, but when I look at any one thing I don t find it beautiful. The desire to consume is a kind of lust, Lewis Hyde writes. But consumer goods merely bait this lust, they do not satisfy it. The consumer of commodities is invited to a meal without passion, a consumption that leads to neither satiation nor fire.
In the end, all the furniture we buy will feel like lyrics written for someone else s song, except the dining room table made by the Amish. This table will be solid cherry, a beautiful wood. It will be well made, but not quite as well made as the table I grew up with, the table I burned. To get a table like that, we would need to spend much more money. Or we would need a German cabinetmaker to move in with us.
I once had a girl / Or I should say, she once had me, the car radio sings. John and I both fall silent. It s been a long time since I ve heard this song. And I don t know if I ve ever really listened to the ending. What happened there, I wonder. Did he make a fire in the fireplace while the girl was at work? No, John tells me, he burned her place down.
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Autoren-Porträt von Eula Biss
Eula Biss is the author of four books, including the New York Times bestseller On Immunity: An Inoculation, which was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by The New York Times Book Review, and Notes from No Man s Land: American Essays, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her work has appeared in Harper s Magazine, The New York Times, The Believer, and elsewhere, and has been supported by an NEA Literature Fellowship, a Howard Foundation Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Eula Biss
- 2021, 336 Seiten, Masse: 14,4 x 21,3 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Riverhead Books
- ISBN-10: 0525537465
- ISBN-13: 9780525537465
- Erscheinungsdatum: 06.09.2021
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
Praise for Having and Being Had:A sensational book . . . Keenly aware of her privilege as a white, well-educated woman who has benefited from a wide network of family and friends, Biss has written a book that is, in effect, the opposite of capitalism in its willingness to acknowledge that everything she s accomplished rests on the labor of others. Associated Press
Sharp and snappy. . . . Having and Being Had picks apart the ethics behind our capitalist society, culminating in a powerful look at the ways in which we assign value to the people, places and things that comprise our lives. Time
Incisive, impressive and often poetic . . .The marvel of this book, and of Ms. Biss s prose in general, is the spare and engaging way she interrogates such complex and abstract concepts. With references to Adam Smith and Dire Straits, Karl Marx and Scooby-Doo, she turns what is essentially a chronicle of white guilt and anxious privilege into a thoughtful and nuanced meditation on the compromises inherent in having a comfortable life. The Wall Street Journal
A major achievement. Having and Being Had, rather than leading through narrative, turns individual words and phrases, like capitalism, consumers, great America, husbandry, art, and work, into fields of inquiry in order to frame a life. With astute consideration, this expansive and intimate accumulation asks the questions that touch all our lives. Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen
Curious, sharp, funny (truly) and full of questions we, as a society, have forgotten how to ask about how we spend, what we buy [and] why we work. NPR
Biss has long been drawn to topics that lend themselves to polemic, which she approaches in a spirit that s resolutely unpolemical. Her intellect is omnivorous, roving, and humane. . . . That clarity of purpose is
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what makes Biss refreshing. . . . Her commitment to her art is complete and unembarrassable. The Cut
Having and Being Had delights because of Biss s frankness . . . [Biss] richly peoples Having and Being Had with friends, neighbors, and family, bringing into conversation scholars, theorists, economists, and writers ranging from Emily Dickinson to the late David Graeber. She challenges the reader s ideas of words once thought familiar leisure, service, investment and tests the tensions between work, art, and money. The Rumpus
If you feel weird about your privilege and role in capitalism, then much of this incisive essay collection will resonate with you. If not, you should read it anyway perhaps especially then. It takes a hard look at the trappings and impacts of wealth in a way that will make you think about your life, too. Good Housekeeping
Eula Biss s prescient new book gave me new language for things I didn t know I felt about money, capitalism, and my place inside of an economy that always requires so much of me and gives back so little. A brilliant, lacerating reexamination of our relationship to what we own and why, and who in turn might own us in ways we didn t know we consented to what could be more necessary now? Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
[Biss writes with] confidence, accessibility, and provocation. . . [Her] writing is calm and precise, without flourish, so clear it belies the difficulty of writing prose so crystalline. Chicago Tribune
[Biss explores] the candid ways we reveal our own biases around money, class, wealth, property and work. . . . Having and Being Had is a reminder that even discussing our contemporary chaos is an act of awakening and a call to action. Los Angeles Times
Excellent . . . Biss is unflinching when broaching [her] often taboo subjects, and approaches them through a personal lens, writing about her own experience with home-ownership, gentrification, marital equality, motherhood, and being a working artist. Refinery29
A collection of essays circling elegantly around the object of her study. . . . [that is,] the moments we realize that consumerism has begun to rust our souls. The New Republic
Delicious . . . Biss is not only unafraid of taboo, she leans into it. She uses the form of the essay to interrogate, break apart, and complicate something in order to make it fully known and understood. . . . Disarming and effective. The Washington Independent Review of Books
With her signature moving and relatable prose, Eula Biss wrestles honestly with the everyday contradictions that accompany the effort to be a good person (and a good artist) in a capitalist world. ARTnews Magazine
Compulsively readable . . . blends research, reflection and richly rendered personal experience. . . . This is a book that asks to be read, absorbed and read again. BookPage
[A] strong new meditation on buying and owning in a society as a white woman where some people descend from Americans once considered property themselves. . . . This is an essential book for our out-of-control times. Lit Hub
A stylish, meditative inquiry into the function and meaning of twenty-first-century capitalism. . . . Biss doesn t shy away from acknowledging her own privilege, and laces her reflections with unexpected insights and a sharp yet ingratiating sense of humor. . . . this eloquent, well-informed account recasts the everyday world in a sharp new light. Publishers Weekly
Eula Biss is known for stepping off the plank into turbulent waters that others might fear or avoid, armed with wry wit and a radical lucidity. Having and Being Had continues this journey, offering us a probing tour of capitalism and class that sidesteps posturing and jargon in favor of clarity, humility, and incitement. Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts
No contemporary writer I know explores and confronts her own societal responsibilities better than Eula Biss. In Having and Being Had she unpacks capitalism as a lived practice of a thinking person. She makes you surprised and delighted by the way she extracts complex ideas from mundane situations. Aleksandar Hemon, author of The Lazarus Project
In this witty, genre-bending book, Eula Biss smashes the taboo against talking about money with exhilarating results. Her investigation ranges from the strictly financial to the broadly philosophical as she accounts for her life with disarming honesty and grace. Jenny Offill, author of Weather
Having and Being Had delights because of Biss s frankness . . . [Biss] richly peoples Having and Being Had with friends, neighbors, and family, bringing into conversation scholars, theorists, economists, and writers ranging from Emily Dickinson to the late David Graeber. She challenges the reader s ideas of words once thought familiar leisure, service, investment and tests the tensions between work, art, and money. The Rumpus
If you feel weird about your privilege and role in capitalism, then much of this incisive essay collection will resonate with you. If not, you should read it anyway perhaps especially then. It takes a hard look at the trappings and impacts of wealth in a way that will make you think about your life, too. Good Housekeeping
Eula Biss s prescient new book gave me new language for things I didn t know I felt about money, capitalism, and my place inside of an economy that always requires so much of me and gives back so little. A brilliant, lacerating reexamination of our relationship to what we own and why, and who in turn might own us in ways we didn t know we consented to what could be more necessary now? Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
[Biss writes with] confidence, accessibility, and provocation. . . [Her] writing is calm and precise, without flourish, so clear it belies the difficulty of writing prose so crystalline. Chicago Tribune
[Biss explores] the candid ways we reveal our own biases around money, class, wealth, property and work. . . . Having and Being Had is a reminder that even discussing our contemporary chaos is an act of awakening and a call to action. Los Angeles Times
Excellent . . . Biss is unflinching when broaching [her] often taboo subjects, and approaches them through a personal lens, writing about her own experience with home-ownership, gentrification, marital equality, motherhood, and being a working artist. Refinery29
A collection of essays circling elegantly around the object of her study. . . . [that is,] the moments we realize that consumerism has begun to rust our souls. The New Republic
Delicious . . . Biss is not only unafraid of taboo, she leans into it. She uses the form of the essay to interrogate, break apart, and complicate something in order to make it fully known and understood. . . . Disarming and effective. The Washington Independent Review of Books
With her signature moving and relatable prose, Eula Biss wrestles honestly with the everyday contradictions that accompany the effort to be a good person (and a good artist) in a capitalist world. ARTnews Magazine
Compulsively readable . . . blends research, reflection and richly rendered personal experience. . . . This is a book that asks to be read, absorbed and read again. BookPage
[A] strong new meditation on buying and owning in a society as a white woman where some people descend from Americans once considered property themselves. . . . This is an essential book for our out-of-control times. Lit Hub
A stylish, meditative inquiry into the function and meaning of twenty-first-century capitalism. . . . Biss doesn t shy away from acknowledging her own privilege, and laces her reflections with unexpected insights and a sharp yet ingratiating sense of humor. . . . this eloquent, well-informed account recasts the everyday world in a sharp new light. Publishers Weekly
Eula Biss is known for stepping off the plank into turbulent waters that others might fear or avoid, armed with wry wit and a radical lucidity. Having and Being Had continues this journey, offering us a probing tour of capitalism and class that sidesteps posturing and jargon in favor of clarity, humility, and incitement. Maggie Nelson, author of The Argonauts
No contemporary writer I know explores and confronts her own societal responsibilities better than Eula Biss. In Having and Being Had she unpacks capitalism as a lived practice of a thinking person. She makes you surprised and delighted by the way she extracts complex ideas from mundane situations. Aleksandar Hemon, author of The Lazarus Project
In this witty, genre-bending book, Eula Biss smashes the taboo against talking about money with exhilarating results. Her investigation ranges from the strictly financial to the broadly philosophical as she accounts for her life with disarming honesty and grace. Jenny Offill, author of Weather
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