Writing Myself Into Existence

About the Author

Arthur Asa Berger is the author of more than one hundred articles and more than seventy books on pop culture, media, cultural studies, humor and tourism. If you count second, third, fourth and fifth editions of books, he has published more than ninety books. His books have been translated into ten languages, with fourteen of his books translated into Chinese and five into Farsi. One of his favorite articles was titled "The Evangelical Hamburger." It was a study of McDonald's hamburgers and American culture, published in 1964. He also wrote an article published in the Los Angeles Times about some sexual aspects of video games. His book Bloom's Morning psychoanalyzed kitchen appliances and other household objects and rituals and includes drawings he made for each chapter. When he gave a reading on the book in Vietnam, someone in the audience asked him if the book was a work of fiction. That is the way many serious scholars in the United States look upon all his writings. He delights in taking obscure theories generally written in impenetrable prose by European scholars and pushing them to absurd results. He has explained the way he writes as follows- "I make everything up as I go along and throw in charts and diagrams to fool social scientists." Jean Baudrillard writes in his Fragments, "He who speaks of himself should never say the whole truth, he should keep it secret and divulge only fragments." Berger has taken this advice to heart.

Reviews

"Writing Myself into Existence is no ordinary biography. Professor Berger is an "unclassifiable adolescent" who has published 70 books to date. Whether you are in the English-speaking world or in China, you'll admire this "assassin of academics" legendary experience, profound knowledge and thoughts, great humor, and critical thinking that shines a light of wisdom throughout the book."

Junchao Wang, Professor of Media Criticism at Tsinghua University

"In Berger's memoir you'll learn the truth about his killings of academic colleagues."

Dirk vom Lehn, Sociologist, author, Professor at King's College London

"As sophisticated, humorous and semiotic as all Berger's other writings, and produced by the right publishing house - since poiesis also means modifying environment. Once again, Arthur manages to change the academic environment in communication and semiotics."

Christo Kaftandjiev, Professor of Marketing Communications at Sofia University (Bulgaria) and Tomsk University (Russia)

"An entertaining mosaic of intellectual and personal autobiography, flitting from talking theory with Umberto Eco to the symbolic meaning of hamburgers, from analyzing Jewish humor to the importance of personal journals. Considering he callously killed me off in one of his novels after I published over 20 of his books, you can believe me when I say this book is well worth the read."

Mitch Allen, Publisher, Left Coast Press, Inc.

"Almost to spite his critical acumen, and the nonstop clamor of ideas for his immediate attention, Berger presents himself, his friends, and his studies sunny-side up. For Berger, "existence" means getting the rest of us to smile."

Elihu Katz, Professor Emeritus, Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and Hebrew University of Jerusalem