false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174327460m/380804.jpg 380804 2 <div>From the far left to the far right, on talk radio and the op-ed page, more and more Americans believe that the social fabric is unraveling. Celebrity worship and media frenzy, suicidal cultists and heavily armed secessionists: modern life seems to have become a "pyrotechnic insanitarium," Mark Dery says, borrowing a turn-of-the-century name for Coney Island. Dery elucidates the meaning to our madness, deconstructing American culture from mainstream forces like Disney and Nike to fringe phenomena like the Unabomber and alien invaders. Our millennial angst, he argues, is a product of a pervasive cultural anxiety-a combination of the social and economic upheaval wrought by global capitalism and the paranoia fanned by media sensationalism. The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium is a theme-park ride through the extremes of American culture of which The Atlantic Monthly has written, "Mark Dery confirms once again what writers and thinkers as disparate as Nathanael West, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Sigmund Freud, and Oliver Sacks have already shown us: the best place to explore the human condition is at its outer margins, its pathological extremes."</div> 715967 15 12 1999 The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink total:24|5:8|4:9|3:6|2:1|1:0| 24 96 49 7 4 0 false false Sun Mar 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 12:58:10 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 13:05:46 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Oct 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 24 10:37:38 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 24 10:35:31 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Sep 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 07:44:03 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 05 20:22:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed May 13 18:42:10 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 18:42:10 -0700 2009 http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/13/mar...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Apr 29 23:12:01 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 23 20:31:57 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed May 13 20:53:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 08:23:04 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Jun 20 06:13:34 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 25 07:10:09 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Fri Nov 13 14:23:12 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 13 14:23:12 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 28 16:24:33 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 28 16:24:33 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 22 23:54:28 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 23:54:28 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jun 07 18:13:26 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 18:13:26 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu May 14 11:12:43 -0700 2009 Thu May 14 11:12:43 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Apr 23 23:50:37 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 23:50:37 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Apr 19 00:24:33 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 19 00:24:33 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Apr 16 07:14:45 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 16 07:14:45 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Apr 15 15:36:44 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 15:37:35 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Mar 24 16:03:52 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 24 16:03:52 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Mar 15 01:11:51 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 01:11:51 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Mar 13 14:45:56 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 13 14:45:56 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Feb 14 11:27:38 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 11:27:40 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=380804