<TitleType>01</TitleType> <TitleText>Hello, I'm Special</TitleText> <Subtitle>How Individuality Became the New Conformity</Subtitle>

City Lights Books transfers@onixsuite.com 20130918 eng

COM.ONIXSUITE.9780872864535 03 01 City Lights Books 01 GCOI 87286100021260 02 0872864537 03 9780872864535 15 9780872864535 BC <TitleType>01</TitleType> <TitleText>Hello, I'm Special</TitleText> <Subtitle>How Individuality Became the New Conformity</Subtitle> 1 A01 Niedzviecki, Hal Hal Niedzviecki Hal Niedzviecki is the founder of Broken Pencil Magazine and has published numerous works of social commentary, including The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors, Hello I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity (both published by City Lights) and We Want Some Too: Underground Desire and the Reinvention of Mass Culture. He has also published two works of fiction, including The Program, a novel, and Smell It, a collection of stories. Hal is the subject of the documentary "Peep Culture" which premiered in Canada and the U.S. in 2011. Look Down, This is Where it Must Have Happened is his first collection of stories to be published in the U.S. 01 eng 278 00 278 03 24 Internet CL Hierarchy Art, Music, Cinema & Drama 24 Internet CL Hierarchy Cultural Studies 01 Recommended by Stacey, City Lights Books When being a rebel is sanctioned by society, what is left to rebel against? Hal Niedzviecki has a blunt message for the army of tattoo and piercing enthusiasts, bloggers, skateboard warriors, and anyone else walking around with the smug certainty that they are one of a kind: Individuality is the new conformity. Niedzviecki's meditations touch on everything from designer religions to webcasts, from reality TV to the endless "Everybody Is A Star" platitudes of global pop culture. He unearths the amateur underground and shines a spotlight on the self-help industry, Hollywood, and mainstream media. The result is a smart, witty, and impassioned argument that shatters the you-can-do-anything pop myth and exposes the paradox of individualism. "A blend of cultural analysis, reporting and memoir, Hello, I'm Special is full of sharp and funny observations (most of them somewhere on the spectrum from bemusement to rage) and is generally a bracing read." – Salon.com “Hal Niedzviecki is truly special, but not in the mass market way. He is one of the wisest, funniest and most acute cultural critics writing today. A sure-footed guide through a surreal landscape.” – Naomi Klein, author of No Logo "Equal parts Jerry Seinfeld and Thomas Frank . . . an equally gifted fiction writer and social critic, Niedzviecki in his new book gives us everything that makes his brand of literary genius so, well, 'special'. Breaking every hipster's heavy heart by identifying the shared cult of individuality underlying both mainstream and alternative cultures, Hello I'm Special makes an impassioned–and oftentimes hilarious–case for a personality that money just can't buy." – Tikkun Magazine <blockquote> </blockquote> Hal Niedzviecki is the founder of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.brokenpencil.com/">Broken Pencil</a> magazine and the author of We Want Some Too: Underground Desire and the Reinvention of Mass Culture. Hal's radio program, "Subcultures," airs Thursdays at 9:30 am (Toronto time). Hear it streamed online on the <a target="_blank" href="http://radio3.cbc.ca/">CBC's website</a>. 02 Hal Niedzviecki has a blunt message for the army of tattoo and piercing enthusiasts, bloggers, skateboard warriors, and anyone else walking around with the smug certainty that they are one of a kind: Individuality is the new conformity. 08 “Hal Niedzviecki is truly special, but not in the mass market way. He is one of the wisest, funniest and most acute cultural critics writing today. A sure-footed guide through a surreal landscape.” Naomi Klein, author of No Logo 08 "A blend of cultural analysis, reporting and memoir, Hello, I'm Special is full of sharp and funny observations (most of them somewhere on the spectrum from bemusement to rage) and is generally a bracing read." Salon.com 08 "Equal parts Jerry Seinfeld and Thomas Frank . . . an equally gifted fiction writer and social critic, Niedzviecki in his new book gives us everything that makes his brand of literary genius so, well, 'special'. Breaking every hipster's heavy heart by identifying the shared cult of individuality underlying both mainstream and alternative cultures, Hello I'm Special makes an impassioned–and oftentimes hilarious–case for a personality that money just can't buy." Tikkun Magazine 08 "I'm Special asks why we all seem to do the same damn thing in the name of individuality. It's about time somebody did." Kim Hughes, The Toronto Star 08 "Inspired to pen the book after receiving a 'Happy Birthday to a Nonconformist!' Hallmark card from his parents, Niedzviecki realized that the card's existence proved how popular nonconformity had become. . . . Using case studies ranging from a competitive hot-dog-eater to a 'rock and roll' rabbi, the book links society's emphasis on celebrity to everything from anorexia to exorcisms." 7x7 Magazine 08 "From Marshall McLuhan to Malcolm Gladwell, Canadian critics of American trends and American media have translated their insights into American popularity. Hal Niedzviecki, a young, radical Canadian intellectual, joins the esteemed procession of cultural critics from north of the border, and just in time to deconstruct the ongoing spectacle of Western civilization in the 21st century. Witty and wise, part journalist, part theorist, Niedzviecki takes up two long-running American themes – conformity and individuality – in his new book, Hello, I'm Special." San Francisco Chronicle 08 "Niedzviecki holds a scalpel to this social monster with analytic precision that evokes Malcolm Gladwell, dissecting a beast we’re all peripherally aware of but haven’t quite articulated. He systematically divides the implications of social flux into bite-size pieces for readers to marvel at before devouring." Adrienne LaFrance, WBUR 08 "If everyone wants to be a star, as Hal Niedzviecki suggests is the current slant of popular culture . . . then who will agree to be starred to, or at, or upon? Who will bear the burden of being dazzled by the wondrous presence of our countless wondrous individuals?" Paul Reidinger, SF Bay Guardian LIT 08 "From backyard wrestling leagues, Canadian Idol auditions, to self-esteem gurus, Niedzviecki tracks the never-ending quest for human uniqueness. Niedzviecki's examinations yield fertile insights, without sounding overly pretentious. Rather than risk alienating his readers with either verbose references to Situationists, or invocations of the anti-globalization movement, the author wisely looks at our cultural transmitters and how they influence our desires and ideas of the self." Gerry Donaghy, Powell’s Bookstore 08 "Add this to the growing list of books in the Malcolm Gladwell (Blink) observations-of-pop-culture genre. . . . witty discussion of how being true to ourselves is not necessarily a good thing. . . . In our longing to be different, and our insistence on being accepted as we (supposedly) march to a different drummer, more often than not we are actually in lockstep with one another, suggests Niedzviecki, sometimes to the point of our own detriment (e.g., it's okay to be obese, as long as you have self-esteem)." Library Journal 08 "Hal Niedzviecki, a young bright Canadian . . . [concludes] that most people confronted by the relentless marketers of specialness decide that their only choices are to fight them or join them." Utne Reader 08 "Niedzviecki rightfully and painfully illustrates how the pull between competing interests creates bizarre contradictions between consumers and pop-culture-at-large. That's what makes Niedzviecki's groundbreaking new book so refreshing: he reminds us that pop culture itself isn't an absolute means to an end; it's the people who exchange it and want to be a part of it all that remain its most fascinating components. When we entirely lose sight of this fact, we risk being reduced to smiling, slack-jawed spectator caricatures that wouldn't seem out of place shilling plastic AmEx cards. " Zachary Houle, www.popmatters.com 04 03 72 01 http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100021260/images/87286100021260L.jpg 07 03 72 01 http://www.citylights.com/resources/titles/87286100021260/images/87286100021260S.jpg http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100021260 City Lights Publishers 01 City Lights Publishers 20060401 01 8.5 in 02 5.5 in 08 16 oz City Lights Books 01 WORLD 20 20060401 01 02 15.95 USD