i love this book. it's so smart and funny and he writes so well. it's basically a meditation on humiliation in which he considers stuff including abu ghraib, his virtual relationships with porn models, michael jackson, liza minelli, antonin artaud, his own humiliating anecdotes--it's sort of a perfect book actually. he meanders into shame which he sees as a subcategory of humiliation. he writes so beautifully, and uses language so precisely, is so funny, it's really hard not to love this book.....looking forward to starting another one of his soon! it has an endorsement from john waters on the jacket which i noticed while reading it, makes perfect sense. I was initially drawn to Koestenbaum's book because I'm drawing on similar subject matter (humiliation) and writing style (the sparse prose in vignette form) recently in my own work. The book quotes humiliated celebrities and politicians, meditating on humiliation via stardom, race, class, sex, and points to the possible land mines of humiliation present in every social interaction. He says humiliation needs three parties: a tyrant, a victim, and a witness (someone to inflict the humiliation, someone to be humiliated, and someone to laugh or point a finger. He equates public post-scandal apologies by Ted Kennedy and Michael Jackson to monologues in Greek tragedy, the viewers at home achieving catharsis through their own self-righteousness. Yet, if everybody farts, why do we shun the farter? And doesn't everyone have their own set of sexual proclivities? Shouldn't we feel kinship with the co-worker we see walking out of the sex shop, not disdain? And a book about humiliation would be incomplete without the author opening himself to be judged, so Koestenbaum at points assumes the role of 'man in the stocks,' revealing what could be viewed as embarrassing anecdotes from a lifetime of humiliation, much more enjoyable to read than a list of one's accomplishments.
What do You think about Humiliation (2011)?
Very well written. So many ways to think about the topic. Short book couldn't put it down really.
—MeReader
Just brilliant in every way. One of my favorite writers. Highest recommendation.
—Julia
meh, some good parts, very tangential and salacious.
—summerrae
