Stay Cool

Aaron Sachs

ISBN 10: 1479840149 / ISBN 13: 9781479840144

Edité par MNG University Presses Jun 2025, 2025

A propos de cet article

Neuware -How gallows humor can bolster us to confront global warming We've all seen the headlines: oceans rising, historic heat waves, mass extinctions, climate refugees. It feels overwhelming, like nothing can make a difference in combating this ongoing global catastrophe. How can we mobilize to save the world when we feel this depressed Stay Cool enjoins us to laugh our way forward. Human beings have used comedy to cope with difficult realities since the beginning of recorded time the more dismal the news, the darker the humor. Using this rich tradition of dark comedy to investigate climate change, Aaron Sachs makes the case that gallows humor, a mainstay of African Americans and Jews facing extraordinary oppression, can cultivate endurance, persistence, and solidarity in the face of calamity. Sachs surveys the macabre tradition of laughing during great suffering, from the Black Plague to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and offers some of the earliest examples of superlative dark comedy. He also explores how a new generation of activists and comedians are deploying dark humor to great effect, by poking fun at older people's apathy about climate catastrophes, lambasting oil corporations' 'eco' rebranding, and even producing an off-Broadway dystopian comedy called 'Sea Level Rise.' Sachs offers suggestions for how environmentalists can use dark comedy first to boost their own morale, and then to reframe their activism in more energizing and relatable ways. Environmentalism is probably the least funny social movement that's ever existed. Stay Cool seeks to change that. Will comedy save the world Not by itself, no. But it can put people in a decent enough mood to get them started on a rescue mission.

N° de réf. du vendeur 9781479840144

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Stay Cool
• Éditeur: MNG University Presses Jun 2025
• Date de parution: 2025
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 1479840149
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9781479840144
• Reliure: Taschenbuch
• État de l'article: Neu
• Dimensions: 204 L x 140 H x 12 P (en millimètres) 204 millimètres de largeur par 140 millimètres de hauteur par 12 millimètres de profondeur
• Poids: 241 grammes

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

How gallows humor can bolster us to confront global warming We’ve all seen the headlines: oceans rising, historic heat waves, mass extinctions, climate refugees. It feels overwhelming, like nothing can make a difference in combating this ongoing global catastrophe. How can we mobilize to save the world when we feel this depressed? Stay Cool enjoins us to laugh our way forward. Human beings have used comedy to cope with difficult realities since the beginning of recorded time—the more dismal the news, the darker the humor. Using this rich tradition of dark comedy to investigate climate change, Aaron Sachs makes the case that gallows humor, a mainstay of African Americans and Jews facing extraordinary oppression, can cultivate endurance, persistence, and solidarity in the face of calamity. Sachs surveys the macabre tradition of laughing during great suffering, from the Black Plague to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906—and offers some of the earliest examples of superlative dark comedy. He also explores how a new generation of activists and comedians are deploying dark humor to great effect, by poking fun at older people’s apathy about climate catastrophes, lambasting oil corporations’ “eco” rebranding, and even producing an off-Broadway dystopian comedy called “Sea Level Rise.” Sachs offers suggestions for how environmentalists can use dark comedy first to boost their own morale, and then to reframe their activism in more energizing and relatable ways. Environmentalism is probably the least funny social movement that’s ever existed. Stay Cool seeks to change that. Will comedy save the world? Not by itself, no. But it can put people in a decent enough mood to get them started on a rescue mission.

À propos de l?auteur

Aaron Sachs is Professor of History and American Studies at Cornell University. He is the author of The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism and Arcadian America: The Death and Life of an Environmental Tradition. With John Demos, he co-edited Artful History: A Practical Anthology.