{"product_id":"what-is-what-was-paperback","title":"What Is What Was - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eRichard Stern\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat Is What Was\u003c\/i\u003e, Richard Stern's fifth \"orderly miscellany,\" is the first to meaningfully combine his fiction and nonfiction. Stories, such as the already well-known \"My Ex, the Moral Philosopher,\" appear among portraits (of the sort Hugh Kenner praised as \"almost the invention of a new genre\"): Auden, Pound, Ellison, Terkel, W. C. Fields, Bertrand Russell, Walter Benjamin (in both essay and story), Jung and Freud, Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In the book's seven sections are analyses of the Wimbledon tennis tournament as an Anglification machine, of Silicon Valley at its shaky peak, of James and Dante as travel writers, a Lucretian look at today's cosmology, American fiction in detail and depth, a \"thought experiment\" for Clarence Thomas, a salvation scheme for Ross Perot, a semi-confession of the writer. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The book contains but isn't philosophy, criticism, opinion, reportage, or autobiography (although the author says it is as much of this as he plans to write). There is a recurrent theme, the ways in which actuality is made and remade in description, argument and narration, fictional and nonfictional, but above all, \u003ci\u003eWhat Is What Was\u003c\/i\u003e is a provocative entertainment by a writer who, as Philip Roth once said, \"knows as much as anyone writing American prose about family mischief, intellectual shenanigans, love blunders-and about writing American prose.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch3\u003eFront Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat Is What Was\u003c\/i\u003e, Richard Stern's fifth orderly miscellany, is the first to meaningfully combine his fiction and nonfiction. Stories, such as the already well-known My Ex, the Moral Philosopher, appear among portraits (of the sort Hugh Kenner praised as almost the invention of a new genre): Auden, Pound, Ellison, Terkel, W. C. Fields, Bertrand Russell, Walter Benjamin (in both essay and story), Jung and Freud, Hannah Arendt and Martin Heidegger. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the book's seven sections are analyses of the Wimbledon tennis tournament as an Anglification machine, of Silicon Valley at its shaky peak, of James and Dante as travel writers, a Lucretian look at today's cosmology, American fiction in detail and depth, a thought experiment for Clarence Thomas, a salvation scheme for Ross Perot, a semi-confession of the writer. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe book contains but isn't philosophy, criticism, opinion, reportage, or autobiography (although the author says it is as much of this as he plans to write). There is a recurrent theme, the ways in which actuality is made and remade in description, argument and narration, fictional and nonfictional, but above all, \u003ci\u003eWhat Is What Was\u003c\/i\u003e is a provocative entertainment by a writer who, as Philip Roth once said, knows as much as anyone writing American prose about family mischief, intellectual shenanigans, love blunders--and about writing American prose.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRichard Stern\u003c\/b\u003e is the Helen Regenstein Emeritus Professor of English and of the Humanities at the University of Chicago and the author of nineteen words of fiction and nonfiction. His novels include \u003ci\u003eA Father's Words\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGolk\u003c\/i\u003e, both published by the University of Chicago Press, and, most recently, \u003ci\u003ePacific Tremors\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 328\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.81 x 8.44 x 5.82 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 15, 2002\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47454481842354,"sku":"9780226773261","price":54.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/338fe21a5f3bd733514e64b952d30a63_1da4c4da-19bb-437b-b794-d5aa7fa5f126.webp?v=1778852168","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/what-is-what-was-paperback","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}