Let Your Mind Alone! And Other More or Less Inspirational Pieces (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Satirical Self-Help Parodies and New Yorker–Style American Humor EssaysBy James Thurber
Length8h 13m
About this audiobook
In Let Your Mind Alone! And Other More or Less Inspirational Pieces, James Thurber turns the rhetoric of self-improvement, popular psychology, business uplift, and "inspirational" counsel inside out. The collection's essays and sketches mimic the solemn assurances of advice literature only to expose its absurdities, false comforts, and mechanical optimism. Written in Thurber's unmistakably dry, elliptical, and deceptively conversational style, the book belongs to the great tradition of American comic skepticism, standing near the satire of Benchley and Perelman while retaining Thurber's own melancholy intelligence. Thurber, a central figure of The New Yorker and one of the twentieth century's defining American humorists, brought to such material a sharp ear for cliché and a profound distrust of systems that promise to simplify human confusion. His Midwestern upbringing, journalistic apprenticeship, failing eyesight, and lifelong fascination with anxiety, domesticity, and language all inform these pieces, which transform private unease into public comedy. This book is recommended for readers who enjoy literary humor with intellectual bite. It will especially reward those interested in satire, modern American prose, and the comic dismantling of fashionable certainties.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A comprehensive Introduction outlines these selected works' unifying features, themes, or stylistic evolutions.
- The Author Biography highlights personal milestones and literary influences that shape the entire body of writing.
- A Historical Context section situates the works in their broader era—social currents, cultural trends, and key events that underpin their creation.
- A concise Synopsis (Selection) offers an accessible overview of the included texts, helping readers navigate plotlines and main ideas without revealing critical twists.
- A unified Analysis examines recurring motifs and stylistic hallmarks across the collection, tying the stories together while spotlighting the different work's strengths.
- Reflection questions inspire deeper contemplation of the author's overarching message, inviting readers to draw connections among different texts and relate them to modern contexts.
- Lastly, our hand‐picked Memorable Quotes distill pivotal lines and turning points, serving as touchstones for the collection's central themes.
Audiobook details
GenreHumor
Length8 hrs 13 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateDec 3, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Let Your Mind Alone! And Other More or Less Inspirational Pieces (Annotated)
2Introduction
3Author Biography
4Historical Context
5Synopsis (Selection)
Show all chaptersShow less
61. Pythagoras and the Ladder
72. Destructive Forces in Life
83. The Case for the Daydreamer
94. A Dozen Disciplines
105. How to Adjust Yourself to Your Work
116. Anodynes for Anxieties
127. The Conscious vs. The Unconscious
138. Sex ex Machina
149. Sample Intelligence Test
1510. Miscellaneous Mentation
16The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold
17And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold,
18Where the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
191. The Breaking Up of the Winships
202. My Memories of D. H. Lawrence
213. The Case Against Women
224. No Standing Room Only
235. Nine Needles
246. A Couple of Hamburgers
257. The Case of the Laughing Butler
268. Bateman Comes Home
279. Footnotes on a Course of Study
2810. Remembrance of Things Past
2911. Something About Polk
3012. Aisle Seats in the Mind
31A message for Captain Bligh,
32And a greeting to Franchot Tone.
3313. Suli Suli
3414. An Outline of Scientists
3515. Highball Flags
3616. Mrs. Phelps
3717. Guns and Game Calls
3818. The Hiding Generation
3919. Wild Bird Hickok and His Friends
4020. Doc Marlowe
4121. Food Fun for the Menfolk
4222. Goodbye, Mr. O. Charles Meyer!
4323. What Are the Leftists Saying?
4424. How to Write an Autobiography
4525. After the Steppe Cat, What?
4626. Women Go On Forever
4727. The Wood Duck
4828. The Admiral on the Wheel
49Analysis
50Reflection
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