LEADER 03800nam 2200649 a 450 001 9910813957803321 005 20230607222015.0 010 $a1-281-72172-7 010 $a9786611721725 010 $a0-300-12834-7 024 7 $a10.12987/9780300128345 035 $a(CKB)1000000000471916 035 $a(StDuBDS)BDZ0022171428 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000159541 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11164532 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000159541 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10158484 035 $a(PQKB)11534863 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0000158284 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3419923 035 $a(DE-B1597)484979 035 $a(OCoLC)1024008075 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780300128345 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3419923 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10169949 035 $a(OCoLC)923588579 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000471916 100 $a20010924d2002 uy 1 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe fruited plain$b[electronic resource] $efables for a postmodern democracy /$fAlvin Kernan 210 $aNew Haven $cYale University Press$dc2002 215 $a1 online resource (1 online resource (x, 260 p.)) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-300-09290-3 327 $aMachine generated contents note: Preface ix -- ONE -- Merry Xmas from the Joads 1 -- TWO -- Majoring in Deconstruction 19 -- THREE -- Religion USA 50 -- FOUR -- Art Lets It All Hang Out 75 -- FIVE -- The Politics Gene 98 -- SIX -- Klutz-Brightgrin H.R. 1984- -- The John Quincy Thud On-Line Biography -- of Great Americans 125 -- SEVEN -- Poshpenny v. Lone Tree State 153 -- EIGHT -- A Long Way Up the Arroyo 178 -- NINE -- Operation Gulliver 205 -- TEN -- Virtual America 227 -- Selected Items from the On-Line Biography -- of Great Americans 251. 330 $aThe beleaguered Joad family of Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath struggled in an era of disappointed dreams and empty pockets. But how might the grandchildren of that Dust Bowl generation fare in today's more promising times? In this boisterously inventive book Alvin Kernan sends various descendants of the original Joad family on a postmodern journey out of California and into the excesses of American culture at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The experiences of today's Joads are as hilarious as they are discomfiting: they encounter in Kernan's America a world of democracy gone haywire and social institutions in perplexing disarray.In ten satiric episodes, Kernan visits virtually every important American institution-the family, education, religion, art, the military, law courts, sex, science and medicine, politics, and not least television and its advertisements. Unsparing with his barbs, he reveals both the fools and the knaves among us. Kernan's modern-day Joads find themselves in a distorted world where a surplus of democracy not only fails to free its inhabitants but also makes them vulnerable to the machinations of greedy and unscrupulous exploiters. Echoing the voices of such other provocative wits as Evelyn Waugh and Tom Wolfe, Kernan will make you laugh at the absurdity of American culture and-in all likelihood-at yourself. 606 $aHumorous stories, American 606 $aDomestic fiction, American 606 $aSatire, American 606 $aFables, American 615 0$aHumorous stories, American. 615 0$aDomestic fiction, American. 615 0$aSatire, American. 615 0$aFables, American. 676 $a813/.6 700 $aKernan$b Alvin B$0196446 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910813957803321 996 $aThe fruited plain$94002413 997 $aUNINA