New Books in Communications

Co-Illusion: Dispatches from the End of Communication


Listen Later

In Co-Illusion, writer and critic David Levi Strauss, tracks the rise of Donald Trump and the media landscape that warped around him. In this interview he discusses the language of Trump, the forthcoming election, and the changing relationship between image and truth.

The political crisis that sneaked up on America--the rise of Trump and Trumpism--has revealed the rot at the core of American exceptionalism. Recent changes in the way words and images are produced and received have made the current surreality possible; communication through social media, by design, maximizes attention and minimizes scrutiny. In Co-Illusion, the noted writer on art, photography, and politics David Levi Strauss bears witness to the new "iconopolitics" in which words and images lose their connection to reality. The collusion that fueled Trump's rise was the secret agreement of voters and media consumers--their "co-illusion"--to set aside the social contract.

Strauss offers dispatches from the epicenter of our constitutional earthquake, writing first from the 2016 Democratic and Republican conventions and then from the campaign. After the election, he switches gears, writing in the voices of the regime and of those complicit in its actions--from the thoughts of the President himself ("I am not a mistake. I am not a fluke, or a bug in the system. I am the System") to the reflections of a nameless billionaire tech CEO whose initials may or may not be M. Z. Finally, Strauss shows us how we might repair the damage to the public imaginary after Trump exits the scene. Photographs by celebrated documentary photographers Susan Meiselas and Peter van Agtmael accompany the texts.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in CommunicationsBy Marshall Poe

  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8
  • 4.8

4.8

6 ratings


More shows like New Books in Communications

View all
All In The Mind by ABC listen

All In The Mind

756 Listeners

New Books in History by Marshall Poe

New Books in History

209 Listeners

New Books in Psychoanalysis by Marshall Poe

New Books in Psychoanalysis

193 Listeners

New Books in Military History by Marshall Poe

New Books in Military History

162 Listeners

New Books in African American Studies by New Books Network

New Books in African American Studies

161 Listeners

New Books in Biography by Marshall Poe

New Books in Biography

77 Listeners

New Books in Science by New Books Network

New Books in Science

13 Listeners

New Books in Philosophy by New Books Network

New Books in Philosophy

110 Listeners

New Books in Native American Studies by Marshall Poe

New Books in Native American Studies

104 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

292 Listeners

New Books in American Studies by New Books Network

New Books in American Studies

29 Listeners

New Books in Intellectual History by New Books Network

New Books in Intellectual History

61 Listeners

No Such Thing As A Fish by No Such Thing As A Fish

No Such Thing As A Fish

4,858 Listeners

The New Yorker Radio Hour by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker Radio Hour

6,670 Listeners

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out by Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out

4,535 Listeners

Blocks w/ Neal Brennan by Neal Brennan

Blocks w/ Neal Brennan

1,283 Listeners

Fabriken by UR – Utbildningsradion

Fabriken

0 Listeners