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 material: 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, "athe 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 aeterrible 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 Blues: Why Americans Can't Think Straight about
Gender and Power, and You Don't Say, available from Transaction.
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