Tonguing the Zeitgeist

Last updated
Tonguing the Zeitgeist
Lance Olsen's Tonguing the Zeitgeist.jpg
Author Lance Olsen
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Postmodern novel, speculative fiction, science fiction, satire
Publisher FC2
Publication date
May 1994
Pages192
ISBN 1882633040

Tonguing the Zeitgeist is an Avantpop novel by Lance Olsen, published in 1994 by Permeable Press. Finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, it is a work of speculative fiction satirizing the commodification of the arts.

Contents

Plot

Set in a post-earthquake Seattle, Tonguing the Zeitgeist is a story about Ben Tendo, a musician wannabe whose day job consists in taking orders at porno supplier Beautiful Mutants, Ltd. When every member of the reigning media-anointed grunge band is mysteriously assassinated, the music industry searches out a new pawn and zeros in on Ben Tendo, who they kidnap, turn into an addict, and implant with a new voicebox to increase the corporation's market shares.

Reception

Book List wrote that "Olsen's densely packed, kaleidoscopic prose paints a nightmare vision of a near future spawned from our worst contemporary fears, such as rampant global warming, environmental decay, and an increasingly sick and cynical media," and concluded Tonguing the Zeitgeist is "brilliant black comedy." [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen</span> American actresses (born 1986)

Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Fuller Olsen, also known as the Olsen twins, are American fashion designers and former actresses. Mary-Kate and Ashley made their acting debut as infants playing Michelle Tanner on the television sitcom Full House (1987–1995). As they grew older, they began starring in other television shows, films, and media through their own production company, Dualstar. The twins became preteen icons, and some of the wealthiest women in the entertainment industry at a young age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lance Bass</span> American singer and actor

James Lance Bass is an American singer, dancer, actor, podcaster, film and television producer. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band NSYNC. NSYNC's success led Bass to work in film and television. He starred in the 2001 film On the Line, which his company, Bacon & Eggs, also produced. Bass later formed a second production company, Lance Bass Productions, as well as a now-defunct music management company, Free Lance Entertainment, a joint venture with Mercury Records.

Tendō-ryū (天道流), also known as Tendō-ryū naginatajutsu (天道流長刀術), is a koryū founded in 1582 by Saito Hangan Denkibo Katsuhide. The current headmaster is the 17th sōke Kimura Yasuko.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Olsen</span> American sports executive, soccer coach, and former player

Benjamin Robert Olsen is an American sports executive, soccer coach, and former professional player who was formerly the president of Washington Spirit, a professional women's soccer club in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). He is currently the head coach of Houston Dynamo FC in Major League Soccer. Olsen is best known for his long-term association with D.C. United of Major League Soccer (MLS), first as a player then as a coach.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ben Foster (actor)</span> American actor

Benjamin A. Foster is an American actor. He has had roles in films including The Punisher (2004), X-Men: The Last Stand and Alpha Dog, The Messenger and Pandorum, The Mechanic (2011), Contraband (2012), Kill Your Darlings and Lone Survivor, The Program (2015), and Leave No Trace (2018). He was nominated for a Saturn Award and a Satellite Award for his role in 3:10 to Yuma (2007) and won an Independent Spirit Award for portraying Tanner Howard in Hell or High Water (2016). He also acted as Russell Corwin in Six Feet Under (2003–2005). He had a recurring role portraying a high school student named Eli on the Judd Apatow show, Freaks and Geeks (2000), which ran for one season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lance Olsen</span> American writer (born 1956)

Lance Olsen is an American writer known for his experimental, lyrical, fragmentary, cross-genre narratives that question the limits of historical knowledge.

Will Scheffer is an American playwright, and was co-creator and executive producer of the television series Big Love and the American remake of Getting On with longtime life partner Mark V. Olsen. He is President and CEO of Anima Sola Productions, which he founded with Olsen in 1992 to create television and film content.

Permeable Press was a San Francisco-based literary publishing company founded in 1990 by Brian Charles Clark. A "micropress" operating on less than U.S.$100,000 per year, Permeable published a number of trade paperback books, chapbooks, and the literary magazines Puck, Shock Waves, Q-Zine, Naked Review, and Xerotic Ephemera in the early and mid-1990s. Clark sold Permeable Press to Cambrian Publications in 1997.

<i>Zeitgeist</i> (The Smashing Pumpkins album) 2007 studio album by the Smashing Pumpkins

Zeitgeist is the seventh studio album by American rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, released on July 10, 2007 on Martha's Music and Reprise Records. Recorded solely by returning band members Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, the album was the band's first since reuniting in 2006, and was produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Terry Date, alongside Corgan and Chamberlin themselves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Joseph</span> American filmmaker and activist (born 1979)

Peter Joseph is an American independent filmmaker and activist. He is best known for the Zeitgeist film series, which he wrote, directed, narrated, scored, and produced. He is also the founder of the related Zeitgeist Movement. Other work by Joseph includes the 2017 book The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression.

<i>Storming the Reality Studio</i>

Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook of Cyberpunk and Postmodern Science Fiction, edited by Larry McCaffery, was published by Duke University Press in 1992, though most of its contents had been featured in Mississippi Review in 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CyberPsychos AOD</span>

Cyber-Psychos AOD (CPAOD) is a book and magazine publishing venture based in Denver, Colorado, focusing on avant-garde and unusual art, culture, and writings. Founded in 1992 (magazine), and 1995 by Jasmine Sailing, it has released 10 books and 10 issues of the magazine. The magazine's unabbreviated title is Cyber-Psychos And Other Diversities, with a subtitle of "The Magazine of Mental Aberrations".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Olsen</span> American actress (born 1989)

Elizabeth Chase Olsen is an American actress. Born in Sherman Oaks, California, Olsen began acting at age four. She starred in her debut film role in the thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene in 2011, for which she was acclaimed and nominated for a Critics' Choice Movie Award among other accolades, followed by a role in the horror film Silent House. Olsen received a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination and graduated from New York University two years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Guthrie</span> American painter

Timothy Sean Guthrie is a visual artist and experimental filmmaker. Guthrie's work is in collections throughout the United States, including the Boise Art Museum, and the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Plemmons Collection of Contemporary Art,, and the Leigh Lane Edwards Collection of Contemporary Art,. Tim Guthrie gave a TEDxOmaha talk in October 2018 about An Artist's Journey Through Love and Loss. The talk focused on the death of his wife in 2015, and his grieving process, as well as the mini-documentary he created about her, called Missing Piece, which won numerous national and International awards. The works were also featured on the cover and in an article of Omaha Magazine.

Zeitgeist is a series of three documentary films released between 2007 and 2011 that present a number of conspiracy theories, as well as proposals for broad social and economic changes. The films, Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007), Zeitgeist: Addendum (2008) and Zeitgeist: Moving Forward (2011) are all directed by Peter Joseph.

<i>Nietzsches Kisses</i>

Nietzsche's Kisses is a postmodern novel by Lance Olsen, published in 2006 by Fiction Collective Two. It is a work of historiographic metafiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashley Olsen</span> American businesswoman, fashion designer and actress (born 1986)

Ashley Fuller Olsen is an American businesswoman, fashion designer and former actress. She began her acting career at the age of nine months, sharing the role of Michelle Tanner with her twin sister Mary-Kate Olsen in the television sitcom Full House (1987–1995). They also starred in numerous films together.

<i>Girl Imagined by Chance</i> Novel by Lance Olsen

Girl Imagined by Chance is a postmodern novel by Lance Olsen, published in 2002 by Fiction Collective Two. It is a work of metafiction designed to trouble the unexamined assumptions of the memoir.

<i>Architectures of Possibility</i>

Architectures of Possibility: After Innovative Writing is a theoretical anti-textbook by Lance Olsen, written in collaboration with Trevor Dodge, published in 2012.

<i>Behind City Lights</i> 1945 film by John English

Behind City Lights is a 1945 American crime film directed by John English and written by Richard Weil and Gertrude Walker. The film stars Lynne Roberts, Peter Cookson, Jerome Cowan, Esther Dale, William Terry and Victor Kilian. The film was released on September 10, 1945, by Republic Pictures.

References

  1. "Editorial Reviews From Syndetics". Read on. 1994. Retrieved 10 May 2013.