Speed, the sensation one gets when driving fast, was described by
Aldous Huxley as the single new pleasure invented by modernity.
"The Speed Handbook" is a virtuoso exploration of Huxley's claim.
Enda Duffy shows how the experience of speed has always been
political and how it has affected nearly all aspects of modern
culture. Primarily a result of the mass-produced automobile, the
experience of speed became the quintessential way for individuals
to experience modernity, to feel modernity in their bones.
Duffy plunges full-throttle into speed's "adrenaline
aesthetics," offering deft readings of works ranging from F. Scott
Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," through J. G. Ballard's "Crash,"
to the cautionary consumerism of Ralph Nader. He describes how
speed changed understandings of space, distance, chance, and
violence; how the experience of speed was commodified in the
dawning era of mass consumption; and how society was incited to
abhor slowness and desire speed. He examines how people were
trained by new media such as the cinema to see, hear, and sense
speed, and how speed, demanded of the efficient assembly-line
worker, was given back to that worker as the chief thrill of
leisure. Assessing speed's political implications, Duffy considers
how speed pleasure was offered to citizens based on criteria
including their ability to pay and their gender, and how speed
quickly became something to be patrolled by governments. Drawing on
novels, news reports, photography, advertising, and much more,
Duffy provides a breakneck tour through the cultural dynamics of
speed.
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