{"product_id":"everyone-loves-a-good-train-wreck-9780374533700","title":"Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhy can't we look away?\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhether we admit it or not, we're fascinated by evil. Dark fantasies, morbid curiosities, Schadenfreude: as conventional wisdom has it, these are the symptoms of our wicked side, and we succumb to them at our own peril. But we're still compelled to look whenever we pass a grisly accident on the highway, and there's no slaking our thirst for gory entertainments like horror movies and police procedurals. What makes these spectacles so irresistible?\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eEveryone Loves a Good Train Wreck\u003c\/i\u003e, the scholar Eric G. Wilson sets out to discover the source of our attraction to the gruesome, drawing on the findings of biologists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, philosophers, theologians, and artists. A professor of English literature and a lifelong student of the macabre, Wilson believes there's something nourishing in darkness. \"To repress death is to lose the feeling of life,\" he writes. \"A closeness to death discloses our most fertile energies.\"\u003cbr\u003e His examples are legion and startling in their diversity. Citing everything from elephant graveyards and Susan Sontag's \u003ci\u003eOn Photography\u003c\/i\u003e to the Tiger Woods sex scandal and \u003ci\u003eSteel Magnolias\u003c\/i\u003e, Wilson finds heartening truths wherever he confronts death. In \u003ci\u003eEveryone Loves a Good Train Wreck\u003c\/i\u003e, the perverse is never far from the sublime. The result is a powerful and delightfully provocative defense of what it means to be human--for better and for worse.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Eric G. Wilson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Farrar, Strauss \u0026amp; Giroux-3pl\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/19\/2013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.70h x 5.00w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780374533700\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEric G. Wilson\u003c\/b\u003e is the Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eAgainst Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Mercy of Eternity: A Memoir of Depression and Grace\u003c\/i\u003e, and five books on the relationship between literature and psychology.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Farrar, Strauss \u0026 Giroux-3pl","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44911722692723,"sku":"9780374533700","price":20.36,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/files\/img_02314602-7dc0-4018-bdec-28ce798f458d.jpg?v=1777567677","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/everyone-loves-a-good-train-wreck-9780374533700","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}