4 minute read
January 2021
How to Do Nothing Resisting the Attention Economy Jenny Odell
‘Odell’s nuanced look at the attention economy and how to master it is a must.’ Evening Standard ‘The new guide to refocusing on the real world.’ Guardian ‘A beautiful book about reclaiming space for thought and reflection amid the chaos of the attention economy.’ The Irish Times
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Coming in paperback: the timely anti-capitalist bestseller showing us how doing ‘nothing’ can be liberating and reconnect us.
In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can
still win back our lives. Odell sees our attention as the most precious— and overdrawn—resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important… but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress.
Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and technodeterminism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you see your place in our world.
How to Do Nothing HB (9781612197494)
Jenny Odell is an artist and writer who teaches at Stanford, has been an artist-in-residence at places like the San Francisco dump, Facebook, the Internet Archive, and the San Francisco Planning Department, and has exhibited her art all over the world. She lives in Oakland, California.
Pedro’s Theory Reimagining the Promised Land Marcos Gonsalez
‘A searching memoir... A subtle, expertly written repudiation of the American dream in favor of something more inclusive and more realistic.’ Kirkus Reviews
A deeply personal exploration of race, immigration, sexuality, family, and masculinity through the eyes of a first-generation gay man: the son of an undocumented Mexican father and a Puerto Rican mother.
There are many Pedros living in many Americas...
One Pedro goes to a school where they take away his language. Another disappears in the desert, leaving behind only a backpack. A cousin Pedro comes to visit, awakening feelings that others are afraid to make plain. A rumored Pedro goes missing
so completely it’s as if he were never there. In Pedro’s Theory Marcos Gonsalez explores the lives of these many Pedros, real and imagined. Several are the author himself, while others are strangers, lovers, archetypes, and the men he might have been in other circumstances. All are journeying to some sort of Promised Land, or hoping to discover an America of their own.
With sparkling prose and cutting insights, this brilliant literary debut closes the gap between who the world sees in us and who we see in ourselves. Deeply personal yet inspiringly political, it also brings to life those selves that never get the chance to be seen at all.
Marcos Gonsalez is a writer and doctoral candidate in English Language and Literature. His essays have appeared in Literary Hub, Electric Literature, Inside Higher Education, Ploughshares, Catapult, The New Inquiry, and elsewhere. He teaches literature and writing courses at CUNY. He lives in New York City.
Useless Miracle Barry Schechter
Praise for The Blindfold Test:
‘Reading The Blindfold Test is a new and radical pleasure.’ Lore Segal
‘The kind of novel Woody Allen and Hunter S. Thompson would’ve written together if they could’ve gotten along.’ Time Out Chicago
A classic, smart comedy about a meek college professor who achieves one of mankind’s most fervent wishes: the ability to fly.
What do you do if you discover, late one sleepless night, that you can fly? Like, literally fly?
If you’re college professor George Entmen, you try to keep it hush-hush, because he knows it will bring a kind of attention to his life that he dreads, and because—well, it’s embarrassing. Because, you see, George can only fly if he lays on the floor on his stomach and stretches his arms out in front of him like superman—and even then he can only fly about three inches off the ground, and very, very, very slowly.
To George, it’s what he calls a ‘useless miracle.’ But to his wife Rebecca it’s this thing her husband can do that’s entertaining at parties. Which is how word seeps out to his insanely competitive friends and colleagues, who become driven to uncover his ‘trick’. Which is how the media hears about it...
Which is how all hell breaks loose.
This smart, extremely funny, character-driven novel is for fans of classic comedic wit from Evelyn Waugh to Nick Hornby.
Barry Schechter is the author of the novel The Blindfold Test. His short fiction, poetry, and criticism have appeared in the Paris Review, the Chicago Tribune, and the Chicago Review. He is a lifelong resident of Chicago.
