Hebdiges Subculture: The Meaning of Style is so important: complex and remarkably lucid; its the first book dealing with punk to offer intellectual content. Hebdige [...] is concerned with the UKs postwar; music-centred; white working-class subcultures; from teddy boys to mods and rockers to skinheads and punks. - Rolling Stone With enviable precision and wit Hebdige has addressed himself to a complex topic - the meanings behind the fashionable exteriors of working-class youth subcultures - approaching them with a sophisticated theoretical apparatus that combines semiotics; the sociology of devience and Marxism and come up with a very stimulating short book - Time Out This book is an attempt to subject the various youth-protest movements of Britain in the last 15 years to the sort of Marxist; structuralist; semiotic analytical techniques propagated by; above all; Roland Barthes. The book is recommended whole-heartedly to anyone who would like fresh ideas about some of the most stimulating music of the rock era - The New York Times
#624891 in eBooks 2012-11-12 2012-11-12File Name: B000FBFKOU
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A weak derivative of his novels. Drama is not a format where Delillos strengths shine. This is for completists only.By jafrankDelillo; for all his strengths as a novelist; just isnt a very good playwright. The characters are perpetually talking at and around each other; never actually to each other.Beyond that; the setting of this feels just like a re-hash of a concept he seems kind of hung up on in the latter part of his career: people in an isolated room in the American west talking about death. The whole thing just feels like a lethargic issues piece about euthanasia. Stick with his novels; there is very little here of quality.8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Mystery play for a secular ageBy Daniel JohnsonHaving limned "the force of history;" DeLillo has since turned around and gone in the other direction; into "the small anonymous corners of human experience;" as he phrased it; with works like The Body Artist and; to some extent; Valparaiso and Cosmopolis.Lies-Lies-Bleeding continues this trend. Consisting of brief; spare scenes; clipped sentences; and unnerving silences; the play focuses on three characters as they deliberate over and eventually carry out the mercy killing of a stroke victim trapped in a persistent vegitative state. Though the characters debate the decision extensively and even fiercely; DeLillo doesnt make the mistake having them just reiterate the arguments of pundits and philosophers. It is the plays genius to push through the cheap; politicized controversy towards the immediacy of the dilemma faced by these characters and the death-haunted atmosphere that pervades their lives.The individual who is the subject of the decision; Alex; appears in three flashbacks; once in robust health and twice while his body is failing; just before the stroke. These appearances; though brief; flare poignantly like the last glimpse of a setting sun.There is also one scene where Alexs widow; Lia; speaks at his memorial service. Her words summarize the themes; mood; and style of the play quite well; and are worth quoting at length:"I know people tell stories at these gatherings. I dont want to do that. People tell stories; exchange stories. I dont know any stories. You know things about him that I never knew. This means nothing to me. There are no stories. Youre here for the wrong reason. If youre here to honor his memory; its not his memory; its your memory; and its false. There are no stories. There are other things; hard to express; so deep and true that I cant share them; and dont want to. In the end its not what kind of man he was but simply that hes gone. The stark fact. The thing that turns us into children; alone under the sky. When it stops being unbearable; it becomes something worse. It becomes that air we breathe."2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. much talking without saying anythingBy Joe SherryLove-Lies-Bleeding is the third play written by novelist Don DeLillo. This drama has Alex; an old man who after several strokes is in a persistent vegetative state; being cared for by his current wife Lia; a previous wife Toinette and his son Sean. Except in flashbacks Alex is silent throughout the play; but the wives and the son discussing his life and arguing about him and themselves. This is a play about the end of a life and the decisions family has to make regarding it.The blurb on the back cover of the book concludes with this description:"Luminous; spare; unnervingly comic and always deeply moving; Love-Lies Bleeding explores a number of perilous questions about the value of life and how we measure it."This is a very fine description that gets to the heart of what this play is about; but the key word here is "spare". Spare writing is a trademark of Don DeLillo and he leaves a lot unsaid in the gaps between words. Another trademark of DeLillos spare writing is this bit of dialogue: "The memory ends here. I draw a total blank. This is the subway. Hes reading the sports pages." So many times in DeLillos writing he will give the reader lines of dialogue which no person would say in life but the dialogue fits in the context of the story he is telling. In Love-Lies-Bleeding the characters are speaking; but they are saying less than usual. The format of a play does not allow DeLillo to truly focus his writing because all of the motion is from the words of the characters rather than description and described action and here DeLillo is less successful. There are questions about the value of life; but I am not sure Don DeLillo addresses those questions.-Joe Sherry