Keep It Fake : Inventing An Authentic Life

Wilson, Eric G

ISBN 10: 0374181020 / ISBN 13: 9780374181024

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015

About this Item

Hardcover. 226 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015. First Edition. *** CONDITION: The book itself is in very good condition and comes in as new dust jacket. More specifically: Boards have no wear, rubbing or soiling. Dust jacket is in excellent condtion. Dust jacket is unclipped. Edges of pages are mildly foxed. This book is an unread copy. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: We love these commands, especially in America, because they invoke what we love to believe: that there is an authentic self to which we can be true. But while we mock Tricky Dick and Slick Willie, we are inventing identities on Facebook, paying thousands for plastic surgeries, tuning into news that simply verifies our opinions. This is frontier forthrightness gone dreamy: reality bites, after all, and faith-based initiatives trump reality-based ones, and becoming disillusioned is a downer. In his new book, part memoir, part cultural analysis, Keep It Fake: Inventing an Authentic Life, Eric G. Wilson clarifies this confusion. He draws on neuroscience, psychology, sociology, philosophy, art, film, literature, and his own life to explore the possibility that there's no such thing as unwavering reality. Whether our left brains are shaping the raw data of our right into fabulous stories, or we are so saturated by society's conventions that we're always acting out prefab scripts, we can't help but be phony. But are some fakes more real than others? Are certain lies true? In lively prose-honest, provocative, erudite, witty, wide-ranging (as likely to riff on Bill Murray as to contemplate Plato)-Keep It Fake answers these questions, uncovering bracing truths about what it means to be human and helping us turn our necessary lying into artful living. *** Quantity Available: 3. Category: Literature & Literary; ISBN/EAN: 9780374181024. Inventory No: 20050283.

Seller Inventory # 20050283

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Keep It Fake : Inventing An Authentic Life
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374181020
• ISBN 13: 9780374181024
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: As New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature & Literary

About this title

Synopsis

Shoot straight from the hip. Tell it like it is. Keep it real.

We love these commands, especially in America, because they appeal to what we want to believe: that there's an authentic self to which we can be true. But while we mock Tricky Dick and Slick Willie, we're inventing identities on Facebook, paying thousands for plastic surgeries, and tuning in to news that simply verifies our opinions. Reality bites, after all, and becoming disillusioned is a downer.

In his new book Keep It Fake: Inventing an Authentic Life, Eric G. Wilson investigates this phenomenon. He draws on neuroscience, psychology, sociology, philosophy, art, film, literature, and his own life to explore the possibility that there's no such thing as unwavering reality. Whether our left brains are shaping the raw data of our right into fabulous stories or we're so saturated by society's conventions that we're always acting out prefab scripts, we can't help but be phony.

But is that really so bad? We're used to being scolded for being fake, but Wilson doesn't scold--because he doesn't think we need to be reprimanded. Our ability to remake ourselves into the people we want to be, or at least remake ourselves to look like the people we want to be, is in fact a magical process that can be liberating in its own way. Because if we're all a bunch of fakes, shouldn't we embrace that? And if everything really is fake, then doesn't the fake become real--really?

In lively prose--honest, provocative, witty, wide-ranging (as likely to riff on Bill Murray as to contemplate Plato)--Keep It Fake answers these questions, uncovering bracing truths about what it means to be human and helping us turn our necessary lying into artful living.

About the Author

Eric G. Wilson is the Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck: Why We Can't Look Away, Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, The Mercy of Eternity: A Memoir of Depression and Grace, and five books on the relationship between literature and psychology.