Written originally for a special issue of The New Yorker and reissued
here with a new forward by the author, Within the Context of No Context
is George W. S. Trow's brilliant exposition on the state of American
culture and twentieth-century life. Published to widespread acclaim,
Within the Context of No Context became an immediate classic and is, to
this day, a favorite work of writers and critics alike. Both a chilling
commentary on the times in which it was written and an eerie premonition
of the future, Trow's work locates and traces, describes and analyzes
the components of change in contemporary America -- a culture
increasingly determined by the shallow worlds of consumer products,
daytime television, and celebrity heroes. "This elegant little book is
essential reading for anyone interested in the demise, the terminal
silliness, of our culture." -- John Irving, The New York Times Book
Review; "In this elegant, poignant essay, written with the grace of a
master stylist, George Trow articulates the accelerated impermanence of
American culture with a precision that is both flaunting and
devastating." -- Rudy Wurlitrer; "Within the Context of No Context is a
masterpiece of the century that belongs on a shelf next to Theodore
Adorno's Minima Moralia and Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle."
-- Michael Tolkin; "Within the Context of No Context may appear to be a
book of the mind, for it is suffused with such a keen intelligence, but
it is actually a book of the heart -- passionate, brave, and stirring."
-- Sue Halpern.
