Intelligence for Dummies, Glenn OBrien
Intelligence for Dummies, Glenn OBrien
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Intelligence for Dummies
Essays and Other Collected Writings

Author: Glenn O'Brien

Narrator: Stephen Bowlby

Unabridged: 9 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/15/2021


Synopsis

“Enclosed in this beautiful package, please find: an agile mind, a perfect style, a canny and undeceivable heart, and a welcome, enduring presence in the reader’s life.” --Michael Chabon

A portrait of a keen social observer at the center of the last 50 years of cultural life, captured through a vivid selection of O’Brien’s own writings on music to fashion to downtown art and, just as importantly and unexpectedly, the political temperature of America. Glenn O’Brien collaborated with visual artists, writers, fashion houses, and musicians throughout his almost 50-year career. Intelligence for Dummies gathers Glenn O’Brien’s essays, aphorisms and tweets, to create a portrait of the artist as cultural bellwether, complimented by artwork and photographs from his collaborators. A full color, hardcover edition, Intelligence for Dummies is a deeply personal aperçu into Patti Smith and Jean Michel Basquiat’s New York, and the culture of money that ensued. It also reveals O’Brien’s incisive and prescient understanding of America’s political culture, and of our current president.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Tosh on October 25, 2019

Glenn O'Brien is one of my favorite wits, coming from Manhattan. He does have that Robert Benchley quality in his writing, that whatever he writes about it is always of great interest. The truth is he's a great prose stylist and hysterical. Here in this collection, there are separate sections for mu......more

Goodreads review by Peter on June 03, 2020

I have a theory that I stole from Socrates, what we’re exposed to as children will resonate with us for the rest of our lives. I was born in NYC in the 1960s and grew up in the 1970s and ‘80s — oh, and I was an arty pretentious boy — so, this book of essays and profiles falls in my wheelhouse. O’Bri......more

Goodreads review by John on March 30, 2020

This is a book I didn't know I needed until I saw it at Brazos Books. "Intelligence For Dummies" is the first book by ZE Books, which is run by one of the founders of ZE Records, Michel Zilkha. Glenn O'Brien lived at least four lifetimes in 70 years: Interview Magazine, TV Party, Downtown '81 book e......more

Goodreads review by Avedon on March 04, 2024

One of my favorite personalities who lived through one of the most fascinating zeitgeists of our time in NYC. Truly captured the non vivant era of the early 80s as one of those right place right time bodies in the mix of it all. Definitely a collection I will return to as the world continues to recy......more

Goodreads review by Paul on September 01, 2023

An uneven but entertaining collection of essays from one of the seminal figures of the downtown NYC "scene" in the late 60's to early 80's. At his best, he had me both smiling/nodding and a bit teary remembering my own adventures adjacent to those times and places. Not for everyone, but if you got a......more