Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World

by Eduardo Galeano

Book Overview

In a series of mock lesson plans and a "program of study" Galeano provides an eloquent, passionate, funny and shocking expos of First World privileges and assumptions. From a master class in "The Impunity of Power" to a seminar on "The Sacred Car"--with tips along the way on "How to Resist Useless Vices" and a declaration of the "The Right to Rave"--he surveys a world unevenly divided between abundance and deprivation, carnival and torture, power...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312420315
• ISBN13: 9780312420314
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Imperdible

Este, como todos los libros de Eduardo Galeano, es imperdible. Una excelente obra que nos ayudara a despertar del letargo y a darnos cuenta de lo que sucede a nuestro alrededor. Un punto de partida para empezar a cambiar de una vez por todas !!!!

ashamed to be "upside down"

Upside Down is a shocking and passionate documentation of the world's injustices that our "upside down" First World society has turned our back upon. This book will not merely evoke sympathy and remorse, but will leave you screaming for change. I found myself drawn especially to Galeano's dark humor and satirical, poetic style. Galeano's fiery language left me speechless. However, at times I did become glazed after reading list after list of facts. I found that the most inspirational and telling portions of the book were the rare asides and anecdotes in which individuals' stories were recounted. Galeano shows us the bleak reality that we have accepted- a reality where children toil from dawn to dusk to stay alive- a reality where power is driven by security, money and terror. This book will make you ashamed to be privileged.

Excelente, revelador, crítico

Eduardo Galeano se caracteriza por su gran forma de escribir tan lúcida y fundamentada. Este libro no es diferente. Aquí nuevamente se demuestra la gran capacidad investigativa de Eduardo Galeano y su gran visión crítica a través de su inconfundible prosa con un toque irónico pero que dislumbra una dramática realidad. El libro tiene una serie de recuadros y notas que son muy útiles para la relectura y que hacen la comprensión del Libro más entretenida.

Simply excellent. Simple, damning, convincing prose.

Eduardo Galeano was prompted to leave Uruguay for being too pushy with the truth. His crime? Telling tales that pushed politicians and citizens before the mirror of Uruguay's looking glass world. These same pushy truths are revived in Galeano's 10th book, Upside Down: A Primer for The Looking-Glass World. Galeano's newest collection of essays and quiet manifestos-haunted throughout by the sketchings of deceased political illustrator Jose Guadalupe Posada-are part advertisement, part class syllabi, part prose performance piece, and part human rights reportage. Deftly translated by Mark Fried, chapters include such titles as: The Sacred Car, The Teaching of Fear, and Master Class on Impunity. Each missive, biting yet lyrical, is a carefully considered bit of philosophical criticism dispelling the mystique of the `advertised life'. By integrating slogans, commercials and advertisements into his prose performance pieces, Galeano reinterprets market economics, and deflates the progress myth of 20th century divine capitalism. It is impossible to read Upside Down without growing from reader to critic. However, Galeano's greatest achievement is not of social critic but as prose stylist and artisan. As such, he creates a new architectural foundation for words by extending the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction then re-joining them in order to put forth his ideas. In this book of easy and affecting prose Galeano directs the reader to be as he must always be-always conscious and forever a participant. "The looking-glass school teaches us to suffer reality, not change it; to forget the past, not learn from it; to accept the future, not invent it...Yet perhaps-who can say-there can be no disgrace without grace, no sign without a countersign, and no school that does not beget its counterschool."

The unvarnished truth

At the outset, I must admit that Galeano is one of my favorite authors, so I bought this with high expectations. Again, I wasn't disappointed; Galeano's comprehensive perspective and profound, yet practical, insights are genuinely awesome. He tells us what we need to know and recognize but often find too difficult to confront and acknowledge.This work directly presents the unvarnished truth about the relationship of the "developed" or "first" world vis a vis the "third" world. As Galeano aptly notes, the former comprises the "north" -- the United States and Europe, and the latter that which is south of this north -- Africa, Latin America, and much of Asia. His metaphor "upside down" is apt, not only in terms of geography, but as he points the power structure's media and institutions represent as truth the complete opposite of the actual realities of the world's institutions, societies, and plight of the majority of its populace.Galeano makes his astute and irrefutable observations in a clever, interesting and thought provoking conceptual fashion. The book is extremely readable, but after a while the first world reader will surely become ill at ease, and will unconsciously attempt to provide rationalizations for the ugly and relentless oppression and exploitation of the third world by northern societies. "Upside Down" is a needed dose of reality, but reading it is often like a cold glass of water thrown in your face. However, like such a glass of water it will wake you up and demand your attention.