Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Bad Mouth: Fugitive Papers on the Dark Side

Bad Mouth: Fugitive Papers on the Dark Side

Adams, Robert M.

Hardcover

Series: Quantum Books

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 0520362411
ISBN13: 9780520362413
Publisher: Univ Of California Pr
Published: Jan 8 2021
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.70
Height: 0.50 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Bad Mouth: Fugitive Papers on the Dark Side examines the pervasive and complex ways in which language is used to harm, distort, and alienate. Through a series of essays, the book explores the concept of counter-language--words deployed as weapons to insult, deceive, and subvert standards of truth and decency. The collection broadens to examine how these linguistic tendencies mirror and contribute to modern cultural shifts, where the once exceptional use of provocative or offensive language has become increasingly normalized. Beyond language, the book delves into the aesthetics of ugliness and its metaphors--rags, garbage, and excrement--as symbols of a broader cultural fixation on the grotesque.

The author reflects on a significant transformation in art, literature, and everyday discourse over the last fifty years. What was once a minority mode of offense and alienation in art is now dominant, driven by a society increasingly desensitized to shock and degradation. The book resists offering definitive explanations for this shift but presents it as a symptom of cultural upheaval. Whether this trend represents a genuine expansion of expressive possibilities or a descent into sensationalism is left open to interpretation. Ultimately, Bad Mouth challenges readers to confront the evolving vocabulary of modern life and its implications for self-definition, truth, and the human experience.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.

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