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Supergrow: Essays and Reports on Imagination in America
Supergrow is a collection of fifteen essays that appeared between 1966 and 1969 in publications such as the American Scholar, the New York Times, Antioch Review, Esquire, and the Saturday Review. Author Benjamin DeMott discusses everything under the sun--music, improving one's sex life, violence in Mississippi, theater, student revolts--but a single theme unifies the people ought to use their imaginations more. The book starts from the assumption that our troubles stem from failures of the imagination. Overcome by mass media, we are often too oblivious to fresh and original ideas. As DeMott states, "àthe right use of the constructive imagination increases the effectiveness of our energies, enables people to anticipate moves and countermoves, prevents them from becoming frozen into postures of intransigence or martyrdom which, though possessing a æterrible beauty,' have as their main consequence the stiffening of resistance and the slowing of change." Supergrow is a sociological and political critique of various aspects of everyday life in America, one informed by a powerful moral sensibility and an Emersonian sense of self-reliance. DeMott takes pop culture seriously, but exhibits a refreshing unwillingness to "go with the flow" and get caught up in fashionable intellectual fads. Graced with a new introduction by the author, Supergrow is an insightful work that is not afraid to tackle difficult subject matter. Whether discussing homosexuality, racism, popular music, or child rearing, Supergrow is well-reasoned, perceptive, and entertaining. As DeMott would hope, it will stimulate the imagination. "Devastating, sustained, profoundly witty, resounding." --New York Times Book Review "I didn't think it possible for a long time to come for any writer to say anything about black-and-white relations or lack of them that had freshness and pertinence. I was wrong."--Nat Hentoff, Village Voice Benjamin DeMott is an essayist, novelist, and journalist. He was professor of English at Amherst College, and a consultant and writer for National Educational Television. He is the author of The Body's Cage, Killer Why Americans Can't Think Straight about Gender and Power, and You Don't Say, available from Transaction.
198 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2003
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About the author
Benjamin DeMott
33 books12 followersBenjamin Haile DeMott was an American English professor and cultural critic. The author of more than a dozen books, DeMott was known for his cultural criticism in popular magazines and a trilogy, The Imperial Middle: Why Americans Can't Think Straight about Class (1990), The Trouble with Friendship: Why Americans Can't Think Straight about Race (1995), and Killer Woman Blues: Why Americans Can't Think Straight about Gender (2000).
He wrote glowingly of Otis Redding, The Beatles' "Blue Jay Way" and "the supergorgeous Mantovanian Motown Sound", while mocking Marshall McLuhan and Mary Ellmann.
One of DeMott's last pieces was a scalding dissection of the 9/11 Commission Report that appeared in Harper's Magazine in 2004. His final piece, "Battling the Hard Man: Notes on Addiction to the Pornography of Violence", was published in Harper's in August 2007.
DeMott taught English at Amherst College for more than 40 years. He graduated from George Washington University (BA) and Harvard University (PHD).
DeMott was survived by Margaret, whom he married in 1946, and their four children.
He wrote glowingly of Otis Redding, The Beatles' "Blue Jay Way" and "the supergorgeous Mantovanian Motown Sound", while mocking Marshall McLuhan and Mary Ellmann.
One of DeMott's last pieces was a scalding dissection of the 9/11 Commission Report that appeared in Harper's Magazine in 2004. His final piece, "Battling the Hard Man: Notes on Addiction to the Pornography of Violence", was published in Harper's in August 2007.
DeMott taught English at Amherst College for more than 40 years. He graduated from George Washington University (BA) and Harvard University (PHD).
DeMott was survived by Margaret, whom he married in 1946, and their four children.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 8, 2012
Thoughtful essays reprinted fr the evolutionary 60s.
Keep your voice down advised an older culture, says DeMott,
think of the people next door. But what if the people
next door are Dauchau-Hiroshima-Selma people?
Meantime, with the media, the message of "overkill"
becomes becomes a cultural phenomenon. Sex studies
take us into abstraction, and pharisees like Philip
Roth-Stanley Kauffmann defend homophobia.
What does one make of closeted Susan Sontag who
produced comic invective to gain attention? It's the
Age of McLuhan and it helps if you sip with publisher
Roger Straus and don't gag, as Susie knew. A longtime
English prof at Amherst College, DeMott speaks
with a Civilized Voice.
Keep your voice down advised an older culture, says DeMott,
think of the people next door. But what if the people
next door are Dauchau-Hiroshima-Selma people?
Meantime, with the media, the message of "overkill"
becomes becomes a cultural phenomenon. Sex studies
take us into abstraction, and pharisees like Philip
Roth-Stanley Kauffmann defend homophobia.
What does one make of closeted Susan Sontag who
produced comic invective to gain attention? It's the
Age of McLuhan and it helps if you sip with publisher
Roger Straus and don't gag, as Susie knew. A longtime
English prof at Amherst College, DeMott speaks
with a Civilized Voice.
Displaying 1 of 1 review