Against Venice

"The Venice Regis Debray evokes so vividly for us in hyperbolic, tongue-in-cheek prose is a cultural theme park, a kind of Euro-Disney for snobs. In this ostentatious sanctuary of the Beautiful, the Artificial, and the Picturesque, the tired senior exec or stockbroker feels rejuvenated, transfigured by the glow of Art; the Tourist, caught up in the festive unreality of the city's "ongoing fancy dress ball," feels free on the very spot where the native inhabitant feels imprisoned Venice only plays the city and we play at discovering it. And as the introduction points out, it is not finally Venice itself but rather this repertoire of poses, temptations, day dreams, and alibis it so easily encourages that is Debray's real target. Kill this "inner Venice," he urges, or it will surely kill you." "In "Cicero in Venice," an extended essay that follows the text, translator Philip Wohlstetter tracks Debray's itinerary from guerrillas to gondolas, from a Bolivian jail cell to the inner circles of the Mitterand government, situating Against Venice within a unique body of work that includes novels, political essays, and "mediological" theory, and celebrating a life of exemplary provocations."--BOOK JACKET.