Les Essif - A Life Out of Whack: Confessions and Reflexions of an Un-American All-American

A LIFE OUT OF WHACKConfessions and Reflections ofan Un-American Al -American

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Guernica World Editions 5

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A LIFE OUT OF WHACKConfessions and Reflections ofan Un-American Al -AmericanL E S E S S I FTORONTO BUFFALO LANCASTER (U.K.)2018

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Copyright 2018, Les Essif and Guernica Editions Inc.All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication,reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise stored in aretrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher is aninfringement of the copyright law.Michael Mirolla, general editorShayne McGreal, editorDavid Moratto, cover design and interior layoutGuernica Editions Inc.1569 Heritage Way, Oakville, (ON), Canada L6M 2Z72250 Military Road, Tonawanda, N.Y. 14150-6000 U.S.A.www.guernicaeditions.comDistributors:University of Toronto Press Distribution,5201 Dufferin Street, Toronto (ON), Canada M3H 5T8Gazelle Book Services, White Cross MillsHigh Town, Lancaster LA1 4XS U.K.First edition.Printed in Canada.Legal Deposit Third QuarterLibrary of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2017964713Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in PublicationEssif, Les, authorA life out of whack : confessions and reflections of an un-Americanall-American / Les Essif. -- First edition.(Guernica world editions ; 5)Issued in print and electronic formats.ISBN 978-1-77183-315-8 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-77183-316-5 (EPUB).--ISBN 978-1-77183-317-2 (Kindle).1. Essif, Les. 2. Essif, Les--Childhood and youth. 3. College teachers--United States--Biography. 4. National characteristics, American. 5. Nationalcharacteristics, French. 6. United States--Civilization--21st century. 7. UnitedStates--Social life and customs--21st century. I. Title. II. Series:Guernica world editions ; 5LA2317.E87A3 2018 370.92 C2018-900164-X C2018-900165-8

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CONTENTSAcknowledgments............................ ixIntroduction............................... xiPART 1This Is My Young Life.................... 1PART 2 Themed chapters..................... 71CHAPTER 1 Aging............................ 73CHAPTER 2 Death............................ 91CHAPTER 3 Our Bodies/My Body/Body-Mind............. 97CHAPTER 4 Family.......................... 105CHAPTER 5 Nature and Human Nature............... 119CHAPTER 6 Life............................ 139CHAPTER 7Literature and the Arts................ 183CHAPTER 8 Religion......................... 191CHAPTER 9 History/War...................... 199CHAPTER 10 Teaching and the Academy............... 207CHAPTER 11 American, French, and Global Cultures....... 223CHAPTER 12 Politics......................... 259CHAPTER 13 Money/Wealth..................... 297CHAPTER 14 Corporate Capitalism................. 311CHAPTER 15 Consumerism...................... 357CHAPTER 16 Hyperreality...................... 385CHAPTER 17 Technology and Media................. 405Concluding Remarks.......................... 441About the Author........................... 445v

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For la petite coccinelle Ainara(and her mumsy and dadsy).From my out-of-whack DNA to yours.

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AcknowledgmentsWhile the personal voice of this book is to some extent autobiograph-ical, I have avoided naming many names. My confessions and reflec-tions are nonetheless largely the fruit of the meaningful intersectionsof my life and ideas with those of a great many significant others:close family members (including my brothers), friends, colleagues, andinteresting writers, especially those American, non-American, andsometimes un-American voices that contribute to the overarchingAmerican versus not-so-American theme Ive tried to emphasize.However the reader may judge the expository qualities of thisbook, much of my writing would not have been nearly as intelligibleor poignant without the sharp editing skills of my all-American/un-American son, the writer. At an early point of the construction of thisproject I had seriously considered creating a cross-generational edi-torial dialogue by weaving Amiens youthful insights, reflections, andcounterarguments into the fabric of the books first and second parts.While this co-authorship did not in the end come to pass, Amiensinvaluable feedback on an early version of the manuscript made amajor contribution to both the direction of my writing and the elab-oration of my arguments. It went a long way toward determining thisfinal product, which includes many direct and indirect references tohis enlightening perceptions. Thank you, Am! (Im learning to distin-guish my being to the left from your being right.)ix

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IntroductionLet me begin with a word about the brainstorming process that ledto this book. In 2001, post-9/11, I felt that the true sociocultural valuesof the United States, my home culture, did not so much shift or trans-form as illuminate their dark side. I had just completed my first schol-arly book Empty Figure on an Empty Stage. I was discouraged, if notsurprised, by the turmoil of the chauvinistic values espoused by Amer-ican politicos and political pundits and the rekindling of a jingoisticpolitical temper and world view. This political distress also pushedme to step outside a life of routine to take a closer look at the mean-ing of life in general and of my life in particular and I was inspired tobegin keeping a journal. This new writing exercise was not a dailyaccount of my life experiences and acute feelings but primarily a re-cording of what I considered to be original personal insights on themost salient topics of the day during this part of my life. In April 2013,I published my latest comprehensive scholarly book, American Un-culture in French Drama, a study that allowed me to rehearse a closecritical look at my home culture and compare it to the very differentFrench national culture. My many years of research on French culturehad helped me understand the shortcomings of my own. This Amer-ica project led to a major turn in my approach to my next book. I hadmore to say about life in general and about America, France, and theglobalizing world in particular. I freed myself up for the project ofreviewing my twelve years of journal entries and preparing some sortxi

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xiiL E S E S S I Fof narrative account of them. Having learned to read and write as ascholar, I read through all the entries and determined a very roughand contingent list of subjects under which I could group them, moreor less alphabetically.Once I sat down to begin the narrative writing process, I realizedthe project could benefit from a substantial autobiographical overviewof my life, one that would set the tone for my observations in Part 2and provide a background for them. This became Part 1. I then revisedthe Part 2 structure to bring the topics more in line with a flow fromthe most intimate, intuitive, and existentialist, to those with the mostbearing on national and global culture as a whole, beginning withthemes like aging, death, bodies, and family, and ending withcorporate capitalism, hyperreality, and technology and media.One question I needed to answer for myself was whether or notI felt that this material would interest a wide readership. This wouldbe, after all, the very first time I would be writing not so much as ascholar, as an expert on French culture or on drama and performance,but as an individual with what I hoped would be received as a unique-ly interesting voice.There are scholars who have written critical monographs that at-tract a wider readership and more attention than mine have. Thereare novelists who create brilliant, compelling stories that deserve tobe read and studied by millions, from one generation to the next. ButI wouldnt be writing this book if I didnt believe that my life experi-ences have been truly unusual and that I have thought in a uniqueway about certain aspects of life, about the life I and others lead.The originality of my life and mind is not merely a consequenceof my upbringing and my exceptionally diverse career shifts, frompharmacy shop boy, to day-laborer for Manpower, to grocery storeassistant manager, to taxi driver, to big-city cop and federal agent,to undergraduate and graduate student, to university professor andscholar of French culture and drama. The fact that I dont get involvedin spectator sports, watch TV, own a cell phone or have the internetat home, buy new furniture, take elevators, eat fast-food, drink coffee

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