George W. S. Trow's Within the Context of No Context first came to my attention through The Well - I discovered that a number of Wellites had a copy of Trow's 1978 New Yorker essay stuffed on their bookshelves. And, after reading the 1997 Atlantic Monthly Press book edition, which features a new introductory essay, I see why it's a keeper.
Trow sets out to explain American culture as if to a foreigner and to help those inured to it see it anew. He succeeds by combining the observations of an outsider with an insider's dope. He takes us to the exclusive classrooms of the Northeast and runs us through the various literary poses of post-Beat America; we visit a World's Fair, where he worked; we stare into America's one-way mirror - television.
Now, we've all heard our share of diatribes against the tube, but trust me, this isn't one of them. It is a highly original, eloquent investigation - a series of aperçus that build and complement each other. Here's one: "The important moment in the history of television was the moment when a man named Richard Dawson, the 'host' of a program called Family Feud, asked contestants to guess what a poll of a hundred people had guessed would be the height of the average American woman. Guess what they've guessed." Fact and merit have all but vanished. All that remains is for us to guess at what others have guessed. Who knew that the Family Feud approach to trivia would later resemble presidential-election coverage - with polls, not issues, determining how Americans vote.
Throughout this work, Trow skewers America's obsession with celebrity, TV's attempts to address social problems that can't ever be solved there, and the way television has shaped other media. He is never far from aphorism ("The message of many things in America is 'Like this or die.' It is a strain. Suddenly, the modes of death begin to be attractive."), and his autobiographical passages are droll and affecting.
Far from an op-ed cry for regulation, No Context leaves the reader enlightened and shaken, the way all clear-eyed views of reality do. Survey says ... read it.
Within the Context of No Context, by George W. S. Trow: $US20 hardcover; $11 paper. Publishers Group West: (800) 788 3123.
