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Picador
August 2011
On Sale: August 2, 2011
192 pages
ISBN: 0312429223
EAN: 9780312429225
Paperback
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Non-Fiction
The lives of people both famous and obscure are filled with
scarlet-letter moments when their dirty laundry sees
daylight. In these moments we not only witness the
reversibility of “success,” of prominence, but also come to
visceral terms with our own vulnerable selves. We can’t stop
watching the scene of shame, identifying with it and
absorbing its nearness, and relishing our imagined immunity
from its stain, even as we acknowledge the universal,
embarrassing predicament of living in our own bodies. With
an unusual, disarming blend of autobiography and cultural
commentary, noted poet and critic Wayne Koestenbaum takes us
through a spectrum of mortifying circumstances—in history,
literature, art, current events, music, film, and his own
life. His generous disclosures and brilliant observations go
beyond prurience to create a poetics of abasement.
Inventive, poignant, erudite, and playful, Humiliation
plunges into one of the most disquieting of human
experiences, with reflections at once emboldening and humane.
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