Speedology: Speed on New York on Speed

By Timothy Levitch

-- The basis for the critically acclaimed Emmy Award-winning documentary The CruiseIn Speed's New York, readers experience the great city not only as a wondrous place but as a state of mind. Drawing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893956296
• ISBN13: 9781893956292
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Context Books
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Introduce yourself to Speed

Timothy "Speed" Levitch is a creative maelstrom. After reading Speedology, I have never felt so utterly alive and ready to overcome fear in my life. It has made me hunger to visit New York to see the world through the literary eyes I have been given as well as a need to think, feel and express more than I previously have. The poetics and spiritual reflection are superb to the point that even an atheist or skeptic can find utter beauty in them...the question of god is irrelevant, as the book is about Cruising with one's self. The oxymoronic idea of "spiritual non-belief" kept floating through my mind as I read and yet it made total sense. This is a book that is difficult to categorize. It wants to be a New York guide book, but also speaks a great deal about Western and Eastern Philosophy, performance art, tantra and much more. It is perhaps best to consider this the colors of life using New York City as its canvas. Breaking down the ideas that are taken for granted today (money, sex and sexuality, freedom, fear, materialism, etc.), Speed shows us just how connected we can be through discovering, loving and then shattering our own alienation. I can only hope to be a fraction of the creative creature that Speed Levitch is, after all, we are all members of the exuberant party, the Cruise that is the world. It is a sorry state of things that this book is priced the way it is from second hand dealers. The publisher, Context books, is indeed out of business, but $60 dollars is a ridiculous crime. Look for your profit in $25 at best. It should be enjoyed by those who want to read it, not just by those who can afford it. I found my copy at Strand Books out of New York, the only company that had a copy priced as a book and not as an antique.

Lots of Fun

This book is lots of fun. Chock full one great one-liners and thoughtful analysis. It points out beauty and absurdity in what most regard as banal. As a native new yorker it was really cool to read a new perspective on The City. Highly recommended.

brilliant

The words literally jump off the page, attacking your psyche and opinions, demanding you to think and rethink everything you've ever thought. Speed challenges you with every word to redefine your very existence and to live joyously. "materialism is the utilization of the fear of other people's opinions" The world is a joyful place, take part! stop reading this! go out and live!

see "The Cruise" too

This book is written by the genuinely brilliant, misfit friend you grew up with and hung out with, and in adulthood are a little bit freaked out by. Maybe he gets weirder every year, and it's not always pretty, but you still want to hang out with him, because you feel more real around him than you do around anyone else...