Newsworld

By Todd James Pierce

Book Overview

News is "one of the few things that connects us as a nation" observes the protagonist in the title story of Newsworld, a new collection by Todd James Pierce that explores America's obsession with news and entertainment culture. The characters in "Newsworld" seek to design realistic theme park attractions, such as "OJ's Bronco: The Ride" and "Seige at Waco," that allow park guests to experience the complexities of contemporary news events for themselves. In the story "Columbine: The Musical," high school students stage a musical written as a means of discussing school violence, while their vice principal wrangles a 10 percent discount on a school security system in exchange for corporate sponsorship of the play. In "Wrestling Al Gore," a national wrestling federation uses costumed wrestlers to cast the Gore/Bush election recount into the ring. In an ironic twist, fans become sympathetic to the underdog Gore, champion his cause, and ultimately reflect on the fate of the real politician. In "The Yoshi Compound: A Story of Post-Waco Texas," the followers of the Dalai Yoshi amass weapons and riot gear in hopes of attracting media attention in order to spread their message of love and world peace. The characters in Newsworld, like many Americans, are engulfed in a life-imitating-art phenomenon caused by the hyperreality presented in the media, and they struggle with this overwhelming influence trying to understand whether their own lives fall within or outside its domain.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822942992
• ISBN13: 9780822942993
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Stories You Can't Live Without

Mr. Pierce writes like an angel, driven by a hardcore need to tell the truth about the piece-meal internet-connectivity, deer-caught-in-the-headlights, news-weary way we live today. This is one of those rare books that will get you not only entertained, but riled up . . . it seems each of these stories is a nugget of harsh, bitter truth about the dysfunctional world we live in. Trust it's author, he tells the kind of story you won't be able to put down or forget quickly. These stories seriously get under your skin and they are rather stealthy in the way they will get you to relish every one of them.