Fabrication : Essays on making things and making meaning

by Susan Neville

We are a nation of consumers. But where does what we buy come from? And how are these things made? In this meditation on manufacture, Susan Neville journeys to factories and plants in the heart of Indiana, looking for the sources of things. From these journeys, Neville learns how the process of canning tomatoes is similar to the process of making metal caskets. Watches thousands of blue globes spin through a room like planets. Learns how, and by whom, and how well, and why things are made, whether they be dolls or insulin, gyroscopes or glass. And, by focusing on process and production, Neville gives us new, uncommon perspectives from which to view our world, and ourselves.

293 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Susan Neville is an American short-story writer and a professor at Butler University. She won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 1984.

Reviews

[Kristi Schultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of essays, many of which depict areas around Indiana I've been to or passed through, has left me feeling some type of way. Musings on the rapidly changing world of the late 1999s and early 2000s still seem so pointedly relevant that I find Susan's thoughts mirror many of my own. Where are we going and how are we getting there? Why do we need to keep making so damn much stuff in the process?