{"product_id":"good-entertainment-a-deconstruction-of-the-western-passion-narrative-paperback","title":"Good Entertainment: A Deconstruction of the Western Passion Narrative - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eByung-Chul Han\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eAdrian Nathan West\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA philosopher considers entertainment, in all its totalizing variety--infotainment, edutainment, servotainment--and traces the notion through Kant, Zen Buddhism, Heidegger, Kafka, and Rauschenberg.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eGood Entertainment\u003c\/i\u003e, Byung-Chul Han examines the notion of entertainment--its contemporary ubiquity, and its philosophical genealogy. Entertainment today, in all its totalizing variety, has an apparently infinite capacity for incorporation: infotainment, edutainment, servotainment, confrontainment. Entertainment is held up as a new paradigm, even a new credo for being--and yet, in the West, it has had inescapably negative connotations. Han traces Western ideas of entertainment, considering, among other things, the scandal that arose from the first performance of Bach's \u003ci\u003eSaint Matthew's Passion\u003c\/i\u003e (deemed too beautiful, not serious enough); Kant's idea of morality as duty and the entertainment value of moralistic literature; Heidegger's idea of the thinker as a man of pain; Kafka's hunger artist and the art of negativity, which takes pleasure in annihilation; and Robert Rauschenberg's refusal of the transcendent. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe history of the West, Han tells us, is a passion narrative, and passion appears as a killjoy. Achievement is the new formula for passion, and play is subordinated to production, gamified. And yet, he argues, at their core, passion and entertainment are not entirely different. The pure meaninglessness of entertainment is adjacent to the pure meaning of passion. The fool's smile resembles the pain-racked visage of \u003ci\u003eHomo doloris\u003c\/i\u003e. In \u003ci\u003eGood Entertainment\u003c\/i\u003e, Han explores this paradox.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eByung-Chul Han, born in Seoul, is Professor of Philosophy and Cultural Studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK). One of the most widely read philosophers in Europe, he is the author of more than twenty books, including\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eincluding four previous volumes in the MIT Press Untimely Meditations series, \u003ci\u003eIn the Swarm: Digital Prospects\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Agony of Eros\u003c\/i\u003e, S\u003ci\u003ehanzhai: Deconstruction in Chinese, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTopology of Violence\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 144\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.5 x 6.8 x 4.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 08, 2019\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51754086531360,"sku":"9780262537506","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/fbb742b604fbd1149cbf2906be4ea156.webp?v=1780033130","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/good-entertainment-a-deconstruction-of-the-western-passion-narrative-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}