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The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium:

American Culture on the Brink
Front Cover
9 Reviews
GROVE/ATLANTIC Incorporated, 1999 - Social Science - 304 pages
From the far left to the far right, on talk radio and the op-ed page, more and more Americans believe that the social fabric is unraveling. Celebrity worship and media frenzy, suicidal cultists and heavily armed secessionists: modern life seems to have become a "pyrotechnic insanitarium", Mark Dory says, borrowing a turn-of-the-century name for Coney Island. Dory elucidates thc meaning to our madness, deconstructing American culture from mainstream forces like Disney and Nike to fringe phenomena like thc Unabomber and alien invaders. Our millennial angst, he argues, is a product of a pervasive cultural anxiety -- a combination of thc social and economic upheaval wrought by global capitalism and thc paranoia fanned by media sensationalism. The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium is a theme-park ride through thc extremes of American culture of which The Atlantic Monthly has written, "Mark Dery confirms once again what writers and thinkers as disparate as Nathanael West, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Sigmund Freud, and Oliver Sacks have already shown us: thc best place to explore the human condition is at its outer margins, its pathological extremes".

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Review: The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink

User Review  - Mike - Goodreads

14 years old, and as a compilation that means some pieces are even older. Regardless, Dery's insights pry back the linoleum and reveal some surface truths about (mostly) American culture which can be ... Read full review

Review: The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink

User Review  - Kate Walker - Goodreads

Written 10 years ago but feels like it could be today. Very fun writing style and an interesting topic. Read full review

All 7 reviews »

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References from web pages

Smitty's World: <i>The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium</i>
Mark Dery wrote The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink way back in 1999. It shows. It's been a very long nine years. ...
thehappysmith.blogspot.com/ 2008/ 03/ pyrotechnic-insanitarium.html

Salon Books | The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium
spacer, [Salon: Books] · Barnes and Noble. also + today. book cover · Writing on Air By Geoff Edgers Author David Halberstam tells Geoff Edgers the story ...
www.salon.com/ books/ sneaks/ 1999/ 02/ 18sneaks.html

JSTOR: The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink
THE PYROTECHNIC INSANITARIUM: AMERICAN CULTURE ON THE BRINK by Mark Dery. Grove Press, New York, 1999. 304 pp. ISBN: 0-802-11640-X. Reviewed by Molly ...
links.jstor.org/ sici?sici=0024-094X(2000)33%3A2%3C153%3ATPIACO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N

Shovelware
It's a commonplace that something is "out of kilter" in America, as Senator John Kerry put it in the aftermath of the Oklahoma bombing; that "everything ...
www.markdery.com/ pyrotechnic_insanitarium.html

Brooks Landon- Two Primo Takes on Pomo’s Technological Sublime
The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink of the Millenium. Grove, 1999. 224 pp. $25 cloth. Show Mark Dery pictures of Coney Island at ...
www.depauw.edu/ sfs/ review_essays/ landon81.htm

UC Berkeley Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium - Bio: Mark Dery
... (forgive the pun) "EMPATHY BELLIES," a lecture based on a chapter from his new book, The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink. ...
atc.berkeley.edu/ bio/ Mark_Dery/

Barnes & Noble.com - Books: Pyrotechnic Insanitarium, by Mark Dery ...
Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink of the Millennium, Dery, Mark Dery, Paperback, Book, ISBN: 0802136702, Barnes & Noble.com
search.barnesandnoble.com/ Pyrotechnic-Insanitarium/ Mark-Dery/ e/ 9780802136701

San Diego citybeat - LOVING THE ALIEN
In 1999, Grove Press published Dery's book The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink-the title appropriated from an old Coney Island ...
www.sdcitybeat.com/ article.php?id=3196

Books: Killing Time (The Boston Phoenix . 04-05-99)
THE PYROTECHNIC INSANITARIUM: AMERICAN CULTURE ON THE BRINK, by Mark Dery. Grove Press, 240 pages, $25. Sometimes, dreaming about the apocalypse is the only ...
weeklywire.com/ ww/ 04-05-99/ boston_books_1.html

BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Step Right Up for a Ride at the Carnival of ...
BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Step Right Up for a Ride at the Carnival of Chaos. By MICHIKO KAKUTANI. THE PYROTECHNIC INSANITARIUM American Culture on the Brink ...
query.nytimes.com/ gst/ fullpage.html?res=980DE6DD163DF93AA25751C0A96F958260& sec=& spon=& pagewanted=print

About the author (1999)

Dery is a cultural critic.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Pyrotechnic Insanitarium
TitleThe Pyrotechnic Insanitarium: American Culture on the Brink
AuthorMark Dery
Editionreprint
PublisherGROVE/ATLANTIC Incorporated, 1999
ISBN0802136702, 9780802136701
Length304 pages
Subjects ›  › 

Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural
Social Science / Popular Culture
  
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