Toward the New Degeneracy: An Essay

by Bruce Benderson

What's missing from the American underground? Not publicity for funding, but vital links to the culture of poverty. Bruce Benderson, novelist and commentator, takes you on a philosophical and personal journey into new and old bohemia. His last stop is vanishing Times Square, where middle class thrill-seekers used to have contact with underclass dealers and hustlers. In this book-length essay, written in the tradition of the old-style manifesto, Benderson seeks to restore id to the creative act. His perverse yet courageous goal is to invent a "new degeneracy."

Genres: Queer

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Bruce Benderson is a novelist, essayist, journalist, and translator.

Reviews

[Larry-bob Roberts]

This essay makes the argument that the literary avant-garde is bankrupt because it has lost touch with the underclass. Benderson traces the way that gay liberation has gone from being a countercultural phenomenon to one that upholds middle class values.

[channel · Rating 4 out of 5]

seeing another variation of this argument is always welcome, if nothing else to place another datapoint to see how long and how actively people were talking about this phenomenon (debord, kazcynski, etc) without anyone being able to do anything about it. debord's most remarkable insight was realizing this precise futility before the invention of HTTP then going to a cabin to play board games for the rest of his life

benderson's essay is useful beyond that by circling a particular constellation of phenomena and extracting a trendline. via autocannibalizing urban policy / collapsing of values & rhetorical capability / increasing inequality and suburbanization to everyone having an increasingly shallow engagement w/ reality, sinking into a quicksand getting ever harder to escape from

also does an astonishingly good job of situating itself in an intellectual-historical through-line of past conceptions of degeneracy or The Decline Of The West

[Sutton Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the way Benderson ties what would be considered the life of a degenerate (ie. drug use, being queer, street work etc.) to the emergence of the avant garde art movement. This is an interesting and fascinating read, it gives insight to the influences if the art movement, identity politics, the struggles of life as a minority and shows how New York City went from a safe haven for all to a tourist destination.

[Wally · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read Genet instead.