false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170932844m/78280.jpg 78280 4 <div><div>From the author of <i>Mystery Train</i> and <i>Lipstick Traces</i>, an exhilarating and provocative investigation of the tangle of American identity</div><div> </div><div><div><i>&#8220;America is a place and a story, made up of exuberance and suspicion, crime and liberation, lynch mobs and escapes; its greatest testaments are made of portents and warnings, biblical allusions that lose all certainty in the American air.&#8221;</i> It is this story of self-invention and nationhood that Greil Marcus rediscovers, beginning with John Winthrop&#8217;s invocation of America as a &#8220;city on the hill,&#8221; Lincoln&#8217;s second inaugural address, and Martin Luther King Jr.&#8217;s speech about his American dream. Listening to these prophetic founding statements, Marcus explores America&#8217;s promise as a New Jerusalem and the nature of its covenant: first with God, and then with its own citizens. In the nineteenth century, this vision of the nation&#8217;s story was told in public as part of common discourse, to be fought over in plain speech and flights of gorgeous rhetoric. Since then, Marcus argues, it has become cryptic, a story told more in art than in politics. He traces it across the continent and through time, hearing the tale in the disparate voices of writers, filmmakers, performers, and actors: Philip Roth, David Lynch, David Thomas, Allen Ginsberg, Sheryl Lee, and Bill Pullman. In <i>The Shape of Things to Come</i>, the future and the past merge in extraordinary and uncanny ways, and Marcus proves once again that he is our most imaginative and original cultural critic.</div></div></div> 75593 5 9 2006 The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice total:97|5:15|4:33|3:31|2:16|1:2| 97 334 171 20 0 0 false false Sat Dec 09 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed May 06 15:08:29 -0700 2009 Wed May 06 15:12:42 -0700 2009 STOP SMILING interview with Greil Marcus:

A Wonderful Kind of Mess

by Kathryn Knight

The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice, Greil Marcus’s latest book, demands to be put down. And picked up. And put down. And picked up. I had to force myse...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 15:54:54 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 28 22:18:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 23 15:46:19 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 07 10:59:24 -0800 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 20 07:44:50 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 03 10:07:08 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 18 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Feb 12 00:48:59 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 00:53:09 -0800 2008 I reviewed this for Flak Magazine, and I've said a whole bunch of things I wanted to say already, so I'm just going to add a few things here.

The thing is, I love what Marcus does. Related texts from high culture to low culture (neither designation really means anything, I know) wh...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Sep 02 17:19:31 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 17:21:02 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 11 20:01:23 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 11 20:02:09 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed May 02 11:57:08 -0700 2007 Fri May 18 10:12:39 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Nov 19 16:05:05 -0800 2007 Mon Nov 19 16:13:30 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 29 22:14:25 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 08 10:21:14 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Jun 27 12:41:17 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 18:14:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 27 12:41:17 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 04 18:02:42 -0800 2007 Sun Nov 04 18:06:07 -0800 2007 4 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Nov 18 09:21:06 -0800 2007 Sat Nov 24 10:24:31 -0800 2007 3 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 19 19:29:45 -0800 2007 Wed Jan 16 19:01:44 -0800 2008
And if you enjoy the work of Roth, David Lynch or Pere Ubu.

And if you share certain liberal values related to America and art.

Then you might just like this book.]]> 4 0 false false Fri May 23 05:10:52 -0700 2008 Fri May 23 05:12:36 -0700 2008 4 0 false false Tue Jun 03 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 07 10:57:08 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 03 07:14:28 -0700 2008 2 0 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Jun 23 23:13:30 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 23 23:17:28 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Mon Jul 21 08:11:28 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 08:12:36 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Jan 14 10:51:15 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 14 10:52:35 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Fri Feb 22 06:40:47 -0800 2008 Tue Apr 08 15:07:23 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=78280