Here is a kaleidoscopic assemblage and poetic history of New York: an unparalleled and original homage to the city, composed entirely of quotations. Drawn from a huge array of sources-histories, memoirs, newspaper articles, novels, government documents, emails-and organized into interpretive categories that reveal the philosophical architecture of the city, Capital is the ne plus ultra of books on the ultimate megalopolis.
It is also a book of experimental literature that transposes Walter Benjamin's unfinished magnum opus of literary montage on the modern city, The Arcades Project, from 19th-century Paris to 20th-century New York, bringing the streets to life in categories such as "Sex," "Commodity," "Downtown," "Subway," and "Mapplethorpe."
Capital is a book designed to fascinate and to fail-for can a megalopolis truly be written? Can a history, no matter how extensive, ever be comprehensive? Each reading of this book, and of New York, is a unique and impossible passage.
Capital : New York, Capital of the 20th Century
Description
Table of Contents
Part 1 1Preface 3A Dream City 5B Empire 15C Antiquity 28D Nature 36E Panorama 51F Architecture 60G Empire State Building 91H Crowds 108I Street 118J Flaneur 131K Psychogeography 164L Body 174M Sex 191N Coney Island 222O Alcohol 230P Drugs 244Q Sound 262R Smell 290S Food 298T Advertising 309U Times Square 323V Dirt 331W Central Park 345X Subway 352Y Poetic Empire 362Z 1939 World's Fair 370Postscript 383Interlude 385Part 2 403Preface 405a Downtown 407b Art 437c Textuality 466d Grid 470e Loneliness 477f Mundane 489g Mapplethorpe 501h Glass 538i Simulacrum 556j Media 565k Monument 578l Robert Moses 588m Power 607n Commodity 622o Gentrification 656p Suburbs 669q Crime 675r Poverty 690s Unrest 695t Harlem 739u 1964 World's Fair 758v World Trade Center 779w Light 795x Air 811y Death 844z Apocalypse 856Postscript 864Bibliography 865Acknowledgments 913
Author Description
Kenneth Goldsmith is the founding editor of UbuWeb, teaches Poetics and Poetic Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and is Senior Editor of PennSound. He was an artist and sculptor for many years before taking up conceptual poetry. He has since published ten books of poetry and is the author of a book of essays, Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in a Digital Age. He was the first Poet Laureate of the Museum of Modern Art. He resides in New York City with his wife, artist Cheryl Donegan and his two sons.