How old are you? The more thought you bring to bear on the
question, the harder it is to answer. For we age simultaneously in
different ways: biologically, psychologically, socially. And we age
within the larger framework of a culture, in the midst of a history
that predates us and will outlast us. Looked at through that lens,
many aspects of late modernity would suggest that we are older than
ever, but Robert Pogue Harrison argues that we are also getting
startlingly younger--in looks, mentality, and behavior. We live, he
says, in an age of juvenescence. Like all of Robert Pogue
Harrison's books, Juvenescence ranges brilliantly across cultures
and history, tracing the ways that the spirits of youth and age
have inflected each other from antiquity to the present. Drawing on
the scientific concept of neotony, or the retention of juvenile
characteristics through adulthood, and extending it into the
cultural realm, Harrison argues that youth is essential for
culture's innovative drive and flashes of genius. At the same time,
however, youth--which Harrison sees as more protracted than
ever--is a luxury that requires the stability and wisdom of our
elders and the institutions. "While genius liberates the novelties
of the future," Harrison writes, "wisdom inherits the legacies of
the past, renewing them in the process of handing them down." A
heady, deeply learned excursion, rich with ideas and insights,
Juvenescence could only have been written by Robert Pogue Harrison.
No reader who has wondered at our culture's obsession with youth
should miss it.
General
| Imprint: |
University of Chicago Press
|
| Country of origin: |
United States |
| Release date: |
March 2016 |
| Authors: |
Robert Pogue Harrison
|
| Dimensions: |
216 x 140 x 17mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback
|
| Pages: |
215 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-226-38196-1 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
General
Promotions
|
| LSN: |
0-226-38196-X |
| Barcode: |
9780226381961 |
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