Only a Voice

In Only a Voice, George Scialabba examines the chasm between modernity's promise of progress and the sobering reality of our present day through studies of the most influential public intellectuals of our time. In Scialabba's hands, literary criticism becomes a powerful tool for expressing political passion and demonstrating the generative power of argument and an inquisitive mind. Drawing together a diverse group of thinkers, artists, activists, and philosophers-including Edward Said, D. H. Lawrence, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Ellen Willis, and Noam Chomsky-Scialabba tours western intellectual history to find that no matter the stakes, critical thought remains a necessary precondition for politics.

Every writer, Scialabba writes, faces the choice of whether "to tilt at the state and capital or ignore them" - and the world now is too dire not to choose the former.

Essays from across the storied career of 'critic's critic' George Scialabba. Forthright yet charitable, Scialabba gleans his greatest insights from those he disagrees with and is a model for the practice of independent criticism. -- Ryan Ruby The Millions
Never has a writer of such enviable talents displayed such evident and unpretentious pleasure in good prose. -- Sam Adler-Bell Commonweal
Scialabba is as lively as ever...Only a Voice is filled with provocative arguments that make the reader want to argue right back. -- Daniel Lazare Arts Fuse
A celebrated critic and essayist New York Times
When I started writing this review, I resolved to avoid the mawkish, almost elegiac tone that often seeps into essays about Scialabba. As you can see, I've failed. It can't be helped. Like any great teacher, he inspires great loyalty in his pupils. -- Sam Adler-Bell Commonweal

George Scialabba is an award-winning critic and essayist whose writing has appeared in the Nation, Dissent, Bookforum, Raritan, n+1, and the Boston Review, among many others. He is a contributing editor of The Baffler and the author of five previous essay collections and a memoir, How to Be Depressed.

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