"Michael Arlen writes like a waterbug skates and his commentaries, ostensibly on television, are in truth among the best prose poems being written on life, love, war, and the state of the nation."—John Updike
"One of the few substantial achievements of television is that it has been responsible for these essays."—Nat Hentoff
Description
“One doesn’t have to be a panjandrum of Communications to realize that television does something to us,” Michael Arlen (former TV critic of The New Yorker) writes in the Introduction to Living-Room War. He continues, “Television has a transforming effect on events. It has a transforming effect on the people who watch the transformed events-it’s just hard to know what that is.”
Living-Room War is Arlen’s valiant—and entertaining—attempt to figure out exactly what exactly television does to us. This timeless collection of essays provides a poetic look at 1960s television culture, ranging from the Vietnam war to Captain Kangaroo, from the 1968 Democratic convention to televised sports.
About the Author
Michael J. Arlen is a National Book Award Winner and a former TV critic for The New Yorker. His books include Exiles, Passage to Ararat, The Camera Age, and Say Goodbye to Sam.
October 1997