-
Against the Written Word
- Toward a Universal Illiteracy
- Narrated by: Ian F. Svenonius
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Against the Written Word
Buy for $13.22
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ’n’ Roll Group
- By: Ian F. Svenonius
- Narrated by: Ian F. Svenonius
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 7
Ian F. Svenonius' experience as an iconic underground rock musician - playing in such highly influential and revolutionary outfits as the Make-Up and the Nation of Ulysses - gives him special insight on techniques for not only starting but also surviving a rock 'n' roll group. Therefore, he's written an instructional guide, which doubles as a warning device, a philosophical text, an exercise in terror, and an aerobics manual.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gold
- By Amazon Customer on 01-26-23
By: Ian F. Svenonius
-
Censorship Now!!
- By: Ian F. Svenonius
- Narrated by: Ian F. Svenonius
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3
Ian F. Svenonius’s new collection of sixteen essays and stories, entitled Censorship Now!!, is reorganizing people’s ideas about censorship, Ikea, documentary film-making, the Berlin Wall, the film Heathers, the twist, the frug, the mashed potato, shaving one’s body, Apple, Inc., Nordic functionalism, the supposed benevolence of the Wikipedia, hoarding, college rock, the origins of the Internet, and more. It’s an underground smash which has been met with horrified gasps in all respectable quarters and gog-eyed enthusiasm in artist garrets the world over.
By: Ian F. Svenonius
-
The Psychic Soviet
- By: Ian F. Svenonius
- Narrated by: Ian F. Svenonius
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
A new, expanded collection of both new and previously published essays and articles from one of the mainstays of the Washington, DC underground rock-and-roll scene, The Psychic Soviet is the most complete collection of writings by Ian Svenonius. The selections are written in a scholarly yet engaging style, filled with parody and biting humor that subvert capitalist culture, and cover such topics as the ascent of the DJ as a star, the “cosmic depression” that followed the defeat of the USSR, and the status of rock and roll as a religion.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A phenomenal listen
- By Ken Ogren on 01-09-20
By: Ian F. Svenonius
-
The Art of the Straight Line
- My Tai Chi
- By: Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson
- Narrated by: Laurie Anderson, Stephan Berwick, Bob Currie, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4
Lou Reed was a musician, singer, songwriter, poet, and founding member of the legendary rock band the Velvet Underground. He collaborated with many artists, from Andy Warhol and John Cale to Robert Wilson and Metallica. Reed had a groundbreaking solo career that spanned five decades until his death in 2013.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A nice supplement to the DeCurtis book
- By bobdc on 10-28-23
By: Lou Reed, and others
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 531
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 493
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 492
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult
- A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere
- By: Maria Bamford
- Narrated by: Maria Bamford
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 931
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 840
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 838
Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it. In Bamford’s signature voice, Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, brings us on a quest to participate in something.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Hilarious and sincere
- By B. Bazzell on 09-06-23
By: Maria Bamford
-
Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ’n’ Roll Group
- By: Ian F. Svenonius
- Narrated by: Ian F. Svenonius
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 7
Ian F. Svenonius' experience as an iconic underground rock musician - playing in such highly influential and revolutionary outfits as the Make-Up and the Nation of Ulysses - gives him special insight on techniques for not only starting but also surviving a rock 'n' roll group. Therefore, he's written an instructional guide, which doubles as a warning device, a philosophical text, an exercise in terror, and an aerobics manual.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gold
- By Amazon Customer on 01-26-23
By: Ian F. Svenonius
-
Censorship Now!!
- By: Ian F. Svenonius
- Narrated by: Ian F. Svenonius
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3
Ian F. Svenonius’s new collection of sixteen essays and stories, entitled Censorship Now!!, is reorganizing people’s ideas about censorship, Ikea, documentary film-making, the Berlin Wall, the film Heathers, the twist, the frug, the mashed potato, shaving one’s body, Apple, Inc., Nordic functionalism, the supposed benevolence of the Wikipedia, hoarding, college rock, the origins of the Internet, and more. It’s an underground smash which has been met with horrified gasps in all respectable quarters and gog-eyed enthusiasm in artist garrets the world over.
By: Ian F. Svenonius
-
The Psychic Soviet
- By: Ian F. Svenonius
- Narrated by: Ian F. Svenonius
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9
A new, expanded collection of both new and previously published essays and articles from one of the mainstays of the Washington, DC underground rock-and-roll scene, The Psychic Soviet is the most complete collection of writings by Ian Svenonius. The selections are written in a scholarly yet engaging style, filled with parody and biting humor that subvert capitalist culture, and cover such topics as the ascent of the DJ as a star, the “cosmic depression” that followed the defeat of the USSR, and the status of rock and roll as a religion.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A phenomenal listen
- By Ken Ogren on 01-09-20
By: Ian F. Svenonius
-
The Art of the Straight Line
- My Tai Chi
- By: Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson
- Narrated by: Laurie Anderson, Stephan Berwick, Bob Currie, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4
Lou Reed was a musician, singer, songwriter, poet, and founding member of the legendary rock band the Velvet Underground. He collaborated with many artists, from Andy Warhol and John Cale to Robert Wilson and Metallica. Reed had a groundbreaking solo career that spanned five decades until his death in 2013.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A nice supplement to the DeCurtis book
- By bobdc on 10-28-23
By: Lou Reed, and others
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 531
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 493
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 492
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult
- A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere
- By: Maria Bamford
- Narrated by: Maria Bamford
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 931
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 840
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 838
Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it. In Bamford’s signature voice, Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, brings us on a quest to participate in something.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Hilarious and sincere
- By B. Bazzell on 09-06-23
By: Maria Bamford
-
Every Man for Himself and God Against All
- A Memoir
- By: Werner Herzog, Michael Hofmann - translator
- Narrated by: Werner Herzog
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 199
Werner Herzog was born in September 1942 in Munich, Germany, at a turning point in the Second World War. Soon Germany would be defeated and a new world would have to be made out the rubble and horrors of the war. Fleeing the Allied bombing raids, Herzog’s mother took him and his older brother to a remote, rustic part of Bavaria where he would spend much of his childhood hungry, without running water, in deep poverty. It was there, as the new postwar order was emerging, that one of the most visionary filmmakers of the next seven decades was formed.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Absolutely incredible, memoir of the year
- By Susie Bright on 10-16-23
By: Werner Herzog, and others
-
The Creative Act
- A Way of Being
- By: Rick Rubin
- Narrated by: Rick Rubin
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,135
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,629
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 2,614
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Rick is Art
- By Ira Henke on 01-17-23
By: Rick Rubin
-
Cinema Speculation
- By: Quentin Tarantino
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Quentin Tarantino
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,102
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 944
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 935
In addition to being among the most celebrated of contemporary filmmakers, Quentin Tarantino is possibly the most joyously infectious movie lover alive. For years he has touted in interviews his eventual turn to writing books about films. Now, with Cinema Speculation, the time has come, and the results are everything his passionate fans—and all movie lovers—could have hoped for. Organized around key American films from the 1970s, all of which he first saw as a young moviegoer at the time, this book is as intellectually rigorous and insightful as it is rollicking and entertaining.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
A letdown I didn't see coming.
- By polycow on 11-03-22
-
Rainbow History Class
- Your Guide Through Queer and Trans History
- By: Hannah McElhinney
- Narrated by: Rudy Jean Rigg
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 27
Rainbow History Class is your entry into LGBTQ+ history, sharing queer and trans stories from Ancient civilisations all the way up to the internet. So much of queer and trans history and culture has been erased, but Hannah McElhinney, writer and creator of Rainbow History Class (as seen on TikTok), is here to help us all with this crash course.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An absolute fantastic read!
- By Anonymous User on 06-03-23
-
Faith, Hope and Carnage
- By: Nick Cave, Seán O'Hagan
- Narrated by: Nick Cave, Seán O'Hagan
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 240
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 207
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 205
Faith, Hope and Carnage is a book about Nick Cave’s inner life. Created from more than forty hours of intimate conversations with Seán O’Hagan, it is a profoundly thoughtful exploration, in Cave’s own words, of what really drives his life and creativity. The book examines questions of faith, art, music, freedom, grief, and love. It draws candidly on Cave’s life, from his early childhood to the present day, his loves, his work ethic, and his dramatic transformation in recent years.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Enlightening
- By S. R. on 11-14-22
By: Nick Cave, and others
-
Lou Reed
- The King of New York
- By: Will Hermes
- Narrated by: Will Hermes
- Length: 20 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
Since his death ten years ago, Lou Reed’s living presence has only grown. The great rock-poet presided over the marriage of Brill Building pop and the European avant-garde, and left American culture transfigured. In Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes offers the definitive narrative of Reed’s life and legacy, dramatizing his long, brilliant, and contentious dialogue with fans, critics, fellow artists, and assorted habitués of the demimonde.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Frustratingly Shallow
- By John on 04-09-24
By: Will Hermes
-
Good Pop, Bad Pop
- By: Jarvis Cocker
- Narrated by: Jarvis Cocker
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 19
From a Gold Star polycotton shirt to a pack of Wrigley's Extra, from his teenage attempts to write songs to the Sexy Laughs Fantastic Dirty Joke Book, this is the hard evidence of Jarvis's unique life, Pulp, 20th-century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he'd rather forget. And this accumulated debris of a lifetime reveals his creative process—writing and musicianship, performance and ambition, style and stagecraft.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible storytelling with a charming wit
- By Amazon Customer on 04-01-24
By: Jarvis Cocker
-
Manufacturing Consent
- The Political Economy of the Mass Media
- By: Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,039
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 852
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 840
In this pathbreaking work, now with a new introduction, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky show that, contrary to the usual image of the news media as cantankerous, obstinate, and ubiquitous in their search for truth and defense of justice, in their actual practice they defend the economic, social, and political agendas of the privileged groups that dominate domestic society, the state, and the global order.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Eye opening
- By EFM on 03-24-18
By: Edward S. Herman, and others
-
Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon
- Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops, and the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream
- By: David McGowan
- Narrated by: Bill Fike
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 774
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 646
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 649
The very strange but nevertheless true story of the dark underbelly of a 1960s hippie utopia. Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and early 1970s was a magical place where a dizzying array of musical artists congregated to create much of the music that provided the soundtrack to those turbulent times. But there was a dark side to that scene as well. Many didn't make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery to this day.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
My first review. This book changed me.
- By Robert on 06-30-19
By: David McGowan
-
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine
- A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917--2017
- By: Rashid Khalidi
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Rashid Khalidi - introduction
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 907
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 820
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 816
Drawing on a wealth of untapped archival materials and the reports of generations of family members - mayors, judges, scholars, diplomats, and journalists - The Hundred Years' War on Palestine upends accepted interpretations of the conflict, which tend, at best, to describe a tragic clash between two peoples with claims to the same territory. Instead, Khalidi traces a hundred years of colonial war on the Palestinians, waged first by the Zionist movement and then Israel, but backed by Britain and the United States, the great powers of the age.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thoroughly Researched and Evidence-Based, but...
- By K on 05-24-21
By: Rashid Khalidi
-
The Philosophy of Modern Song
- By: Bob Dylan
- Narrated by: Bob Dylan, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 247
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 208
Dylan, who began working on the book in 2010, offers his insight into the nature of popular music. He writes over sixty essays focusing on songs by other artists, spanning from Stephen Foster to Elvis Costello, and in between ranging from Hank Williams to Nina Simone. He analyzes what he calls the trap of easy rhymes, breaks down how the addition of a single syllable can diminish a song, and even explains how bluegrass relates to heavy metal. These essays are written in Dylan’s unique prose. And while ostensibly about music, they are really meditations on the human condition.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Needs chapter headings
- By kaon on 12-22-22
By: Bob Dylan
-
Some New Kind of Kick
- A Memoir
- By: Kid Congo Powers, Chris Campion - contributor
- Narrated by: Kid Congo Powers, Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 66
Kid Congo Powers has been described as a “legendary guitarist and paragon of cool” with “the greatest resume ever of anyone in rock music." That unique imprint on rock history stems from being a member of not one but three beloved, groundbreaking, and influential groups—Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the Cramps, and last but not least, The Gun Club, the wildly inventive punk-blues band he co-founded. Some New Kind of Kick begins as an intimate coming-of-age tale.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautifully told story of an amazing life
- By Patricia J Thompson on 05-29-23
By: Kid Congo Powers, and others
Publisher's summary
If the Gutenberg Bible is the alpha, Against the Written Word is the omega
Against the Written Word is the most important, most revolutionary book produced since the advent of the printing press; the book that will liberate readers from reading, writers from writing, and booksellers from peddling their despicable wares.
This book ushers in a new era of freedom from reading and all its attendant bedfellows such as Enlightenment thinking and the mass alienation wrought by the phonetic alphabet. Against the Written Word will be a tremendous best seller and simultaneously the last book that anyone will listen to.
With nineteen essays ripping, shredding, tearing apart all the bugaboos that haunt humanity nowadays, Against the Written Word is a must-listen for any aspiring radical or would-be gnostic who has a penchant for words, thought, clothes, intoxicants, music, art, expression, etc. The work is presented in a range of writing: essays, screenplays, lectures, sci-fi stories, and manifestos, with topics that include “the rise of incorporated man,” “tourism as the neoliberal mode of military occupation,” a workshop on songwriting for the purpose of suggestion and mind control, and many more.
This book will correct the paucity of thought that characterizes the modern bookstore and will practically sell itself. It will call out from the shelf to ingratiate itself to the unsuspecting everyday book browser, who will be hooked and then hungrily consume it. Infected with a wild-eyed evangelism, they will then proliferate it among their friends and acquaintances. These new listeners will disseminate it, and so on. Soon this work will define an epoch and steer thought from here on out.
The bookseller will be surprised and pleased to find that it will be the only book they need to stock. Against the Written Word will be dominant in a manner the market has not seen since the Bible tore up best-seller lists in the Middle Ages or Mao’s Little Red Book wowed the critics in Red China.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Smallest Minority
- Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics
- By: Kevin D. Williamson
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 241
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 208
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 207
Listener beware: Kevin D. Williamson - the lively, literary firebrand from National Review who was too hot for The Atlantic to handle - comes to bury democracy, not to praise it. With electrifying honesty and spirit, Williamson takes a flamethrower to mob politics, the “beast with many heads” that haunts social media and what currently passes for real life. It’s destroying our capacity for individualism and dragging us down “the Road to Smurfdom, the place where the deracinated demos of the Twitter age finds itself feeling small and blue.”
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brutally honest, accurate and relevant
- By Sean on 09-19-19
-
How to Save the West
- Ancient Wisdom for 5 Modern Crises
- By: Spencer Klavan
- Narrated by: Spencer Klavan
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 155
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 153
It has been proclaimed many times, but perhaps never more convincingly than now, when every news cycle seems to deliver further confirmation of a world gone mad. Is this the endgame? Author Spencer Klavan is a classicist, with a Ph.D. from Oxford, and a deep understanding of the West. His analysis: The situation is dire. But every crisis we face today, we have faced before. And we can surmount each one. Klavan brings to the West’s defense the insights of Plato, Aristotle, the Bible, and the Founding Fathers to show that in the wisdom of the past lies hope for the future.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Spectacular! A must read!
- By M.A. on 02-15-23
By: Spencer Klavan
-
Music
- A Subversive History
- By: Ted Gioia
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 125
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 106
Histories of music overwhelmingly suppress stories of the outsiders and rebels who created musical revolutions and instead celebrate the mainstream assimilators who borrowed innovations, diluted their impact, and disguised their sources. In Music: A Subversive History, Ted Gioia reclaims the story of music for the riffraff, insurgents, and provocateurs. Gioia tells a 4,000-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Squeezing cherry-picked facts into a simplistic narrative
- By Erik A. Ritland on 11-24-20
By: Ted Gioia
-
On Freedom
- Four Songs of Care and Constraint
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 54
So often deployed as a jingoistic, even menacing rallying cry, or limited by a focus on passing moments of liberation, the rhetoric of freedom both rouses and repels. Does it remain key to our autonomy, justice, and well-being, or is freedom's long star turn coming to a close? Does a continued obsession with the term enliven and emancipate, or reflect a deepening nihilism (or both)? On Freedom examines such questions by tracing the concept's complexities in four distinct realms: art, sex, drugs, and climate.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Just great
- By Kristi Strong on 12-14-21
By: Maggie Nelson
-
Jay-Z
- Made in America
- By: Michael Eric Dyson, Pharrell - foreword
- Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson, Nick Cannon
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,577
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,356
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,349
Jay-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson’s decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he’s sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he’s been for so long.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
No Surprises for Fans
- By Tim & Ty on 12-22-19
By: Michael Eric Dyson, and others
-
The Long March
- How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America
- By: Roger Kimball
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 118
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
The architects of America's cultural revolution of the 1960s were Beat authors like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and celebrated figures like Norman Mailer, Timothy Leary, Eldridge Cleaver, and Susan Sontag. In examining the lives and works of those who spoke for the 1960s, Roger Kimball conceives a series of cautionary tales, an annotated guidebook of wrong turns, dead-ends, and blind alleys.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Long March
- By Suzanne on 05-16-06
By: Roger Kimball
-
The Smallest Minority
- Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics
- By: Kevin D. Williamson
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 241
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 208
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 207
Listener beware: Kevin D. Williamson - the lively, literary firebrand from National Review who was too hot for The Atlantic to handle - comes to bury democracy, not to praise it. With electrifying honesty and spirit, Williamson takes a flamethrower to mob politics, the “beast with many heads” that haunts social media and what currently passes for real life. It’s destroying our capacity for individualism and dragging us down “the Road to Smurfdom, the place where the deracinated demos of the Twitter age finds itself feeling small and blue.”
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brutally honest, accurate and relevant
- By Sean on 09-19-19
-
How to Save the West
- Ancient Wisdom for 5 Modern Crises
- By: Spencer Klavan
- Narrated by: Spencer Klavan
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 155
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 153
It has been proclaimed many times, but perhaps never more convincingly than now, when every news cycle seems to deliver further confirmation of a world gone mad. Is this the endgame? Author Spencer Klavan is a classicist, with a Ph.D. from Oxford, and a deep understanding of the West. His analysis: The situation is dire. But every crisis we face today, we have faced before. And we can surmount each one. Klavan brings to the West’s defense the insights of Plato, Aristotle, the Bible, and the Founding Fathers to show that in the wisdom of the past lies hope for the future.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Spectacular! A must read!
- By M.A. on 02-15-23
By: Spencer Klavan
-
Music
- A Subversive History
- By: Ted Gioia
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 125
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 106
Histories of music overwhelmingly suppress stories of the outsiders and rebels who created musical revolutions and instead celebrate the mainstream assimilators who borrowed innovations, diluted their impact, and disguised their sources. In Music: A Subversive History, Ted Gioia reclaims the story of music for the riffraff, insurgents, and provocateurs. Gioia tells a 4,000-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Squeezing cherry-picked facts into a simplistic narrative
- By Erik A. Ritland on 11-24-20
By: Ted Gioia
-
On Freedom
- Four Songs of Care and Constraint
- By: Maggie Nelson
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 54
So often deployed as a jingoistic, even menacing rallying cry, or limited by a focus on passing moments of liberation, the rhetoric of freedom both rouses and repels. Does it remain key to our autonomy, justice, and well-being, or is freedom's long star turn coming to a close? Does a continued obsession with the term enliven and emancipate, or reflect a deepening nihilism (or both)? On Freedom examines such questions by tracing the concept's complexities in four distinct realms: art, sex, drugs, and climate.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Just great
- By Kristi Strong on 12-14-21
By: Maggie Nelson
-
Jay-Z
- Made in America
- By: Michael Eric Dyson, Pharrell - foreword
- Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson, Nick Cannon
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,577
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,356
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,349
Jay-Z: Made in America is the fruit of Michael Eric Dyson’s decade of teaching the work of one of the greatest poets this nation has produced, as gifted a wordsmith as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost and Rita Dove. But as a rapper, he’s sometimes not given the credit he deserves for just how great an artist he’s been for so long.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
No Surprises for Fans
- By Tim & Ty on 12-22-19
By: Michael Eric Dyson, and others
-
The Long March
- How the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Changed America
- By: Roger Kimball
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 118
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
The architects of America's cultural revolution of the 1960s were Beat authors like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and celebrated figures like Norman Mailer, Timothy Leary, Eldridge Cleaver, and Susan Sontag. In examining the lives and works of those who spoke for the 1960s, Roger Kimball conceives a series of cautionary tales, an annotated guidebook of wrong turns, dead-ends, and blind alleys.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Long March
- By Suzanne on 05-16-06
By: Roger Kimball
-
Dark Star Rising
- Magick and Power in the Age of Trump
- By: Gary Lachman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 147
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 128
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 128
Within the concentric circles of Trump's regime lies an unseen culture of occultists, power-seekers, and mind-magicians whose influence is on the rise. In this unparalleled account, historian Gary Lachman examines the influence of occult and esoteric philosophy on the unexpected rise of the alt-right.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Step Right This Way!
- By Brad on 06-03-18
By: Gary Lachman
-
Strange Rites
- New Religions for a Godless World
- By: Tara Isabella Burton
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 143
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 109
A sparklingly strange odyssey through the kaleidoscope of America's new spirituality: the cults, practices, high priests, and prophets of our supposedly post-religion age.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Insightful
- By Jared Pomeroy on 12-28-20
-
A Thousand Small Sanities
- The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
- By: Adam Gopnik
- Narrated by: Adam Gopnik
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 181
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 158
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 156
A Thousand Small Sanities is a manifesto rooted in the lives of people who invented and extended the liberal tradition. Taking us from Montaigne to Mill, and from Middlemarch to the civil rights movement, Adam Gopnik argues that liberalism is not a form of centrism, nor simply another word for free markets, nor merely a term denoting a set of rights. It is something far more ambitious: the search for radical change by humane measures. Gopnik shows us why liberalism is one of the great moral adventures in human history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Erudite and entertaining!
- By D. A. Vail on 05-20-19
By: Adam Gopnik
-
The Marketing of Evil
- How Radicals, Elitists and Pseudo-Experts Sell Us Corruption Disguised as Freedom
- By: David Kupelian
- Narrated by: David Kupelian
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 116
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 106
Americans have come to tolerate, embrace, and even champion many things that would have horrified their parents' generation - from easy divorce and unrestricted abortion on demand to extreme body piercing and teaching homosexuality to grade schoolers. Does that mean today's Americans are inherently more morally confused and depraved than previous generations? Of course not, says veteran journalist David Kupelian.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This should be recommended reading.
- By E. Giuetti on 08-01-17
By: David Kupelian
-
Weimar Germany
- Promise and Tragedy, Weimar Centennial Edition
- By: Eric D. Weitz
- Narrated by: Robert G. Slade
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Weimar Germany brings to life an era of unmatched creativity in the 20th century - one whose influence and inspiration still resonate today. Eric Weitz has written the authoritative history that this fascinating and complex period deserves, and he illuminates the uniquely progressive achievements and even greater promise of the Weimar Republic. Weimar Germany also shows that beneath its glossy veneer lay political turmoil that ultimately led to the demise of the republic and the rise of the radical right.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Ended up returning this one
- By Amazon Customer on 04-22-21
By: Eric D. Weitz
-
The Story Paradox
- How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down
- By: Jonathan Gottschall
- Narrated by: Joshua Kane
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
Humans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of stories, argues that there is a dark side to storytelling we can no longer ignore. Storytelling, the very tradition that built human civilization, may be the thing that destroys it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
You'll Never Look at Stories the Same Way Again
- By Scott Hansen on 01-02-23
-
Pure Invention
- How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World
- By: Matt Alt
- Narrated by: Matt Alt
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 213
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 212
Japan is the forge of the world’s fantasies: karaoke and the Walkman, manga and anime, Pac-Man and Pokémon, online imageboards and emojis. But as Japan media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation, these novelties did more than entertain. They paved the way for our perplexing modern lives.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
great book ruined by ending
- By Grant Holder on 06-07-22
By: Matt Alt
-
Suicide of the West
- How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy
- By: Jonah Goldberg
- Narrated by: Jonah Goldberg
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,391
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,255
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,233
Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history. If democracy, individualism, and the free market were humankind’s destiny, they should have appeared and taken hold a bit earlier in the evolutionary record. The emergence of freedom and prosperity was nothing short of a miracle.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Put some gratitude in your attitude
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-18
By: Jonah Goldberg
-
Wanting
- The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
- By: Luke Burgis
- Narrated by: Luke Burgis, Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 789
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 666
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 663
Gravity affects every aspect of our physical being, but there’s a psychological force just as powerful - yet almost nobody has heard of it. It’s responsible for bringing groups of people together and pulling them apart, making certain goals attractive to some and not to others, and fueling cycles of anxiety and conflict. In Wanting, Luke Burgis draws on the work of French polymath René Girard to bring this hidden force to light and reveals how it shapes our lives and societies.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
One of the most important books you'll ever read
- By chris boutte on 06-14-21
By: Luke Burgis
-
Discourse on Colonialism
- By: Aimé Césaire
- Narrated by: J. Keith Jackson
- Length: 3 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 95
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 74
This classic work, first published in France in 1955, profoundly influenced the generation of scholars and activists at the forefront of liberation struggles in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Nearly 20 years later, when published for the first time in English, Discourse on Colonialism inspired a new generation engaged in the Civil Rights, Black Power, and anti-war movements and has sold more than 75,000 copies to date.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Authentic Analytical Book on Colonialism.
- By Anonymous User on 07-12-23
By: Aimé Césaire
-
Rings of Fire
- Walking in Faith Through a Volcanic Future
- By: Leonard Sweet, Mark Chironna - contributor
- Narrated by: Jon Gauger
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 19
If you follow the works of best-selling authors Malcolm Gladwell, Faith Popcorn, Daniel Pink, and other trend forecasters, you’ll appreciate learning about over 25 rings of fire that lie ahead for Christians around the world. Len Sweet once again maps the future for the church in this sweeping survey of the 21st century. In the face of eruptive and disruptive culture changes from economics and communications to bioethics and beyond, how do we fight fire with fire, not only catching up to our culture but leading our friends and neighbors toward the feet of Christ?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A prophetic, food for thought book.
- By SDT on 07-27-22
By: Leonard Sweet, and others
-
The Rise of the New Puritans
- Fighting Back Against Progressives’ War on Fun
- By: Noah Rothman
- Narrated by: Noah Rothman
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 158
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
The Left used to be the party of the hippies and the free spirits. Now it’s home to woke scolds and humorless idealogues. The New Puritans can judge a person’s moral character by their clothes, Netflix queue, fast food favorites, the sports they watch, and the company they keep. No choice is neutral, no sphere is private. Not since the Puritans has a political movement wanted so much power over your thoughts, hobbies, and preferences every minute of your day. In the process, they are sucking the joy out of life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great, fast summer read
- By Joseph Spiegel on 07-18-22
By: Noah Rothman
What listeners say about Against the Written Word
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 02-21-23
Cured my literacy!
Make sure to play this one fast and loud friends. The authors best work imho.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kitty-Joe Ste Marie
- 07-25-23
My eyes have been opened.
The outmoded alphabet can not express my praise for this insightful book. Humorous and informative. Truly a book to bring about the long awaited end of literary oppression.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!