Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines Hardcover - 2000
by Anna Deavere Smith
In a revelatory look at power, the presidency, and truth, award-winning actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith goes to Washington and beyond to decipher what the leaders of our country are really saying.
From the jacket flap
Anna Deavere Smith, the award-winning playwright and actor, has spent a lifetime listening--really listening--to the people around her. As a child in the segregated Baltimore of the early 1960s, Smith absorbed the words of her parents, teachers, neighbors--even train conductors--and realized that there was something more being communicated than the actual words:
The conductor's voice had a mild kind of grandeur that was a cousin to the vocal tones I had heard at funerals--"Ashes-to-ashes"--and at christenings and weddings. These are words that have been said many times, but the person who speaks them understands that each time it must be said as if it matters, because it does matter. We never know what lies ahead, and we never know what just happened, and all words must house respect of those two unknowns.
In Talk to Me, Smith looks back at a singular career as a seeker and interpreter of language in America, revealing the methodology behind her extraordinary search for the truth and nuances of verbal communication. For thirty years, the defining thesis of Smith's work has been that how we speak is just as important in communicating truth and identity as what we say. Everything from individual vocal tone to grammar, Smith demonstrates, can be as identifiable and revealing as a fingerprint. Her journey has taken her from the rarefied bastions of academia to riot-torn streets; she has conducted hundreds of interviews with subjects ranging from women prisoners to presidents of the United States. In 1995, her ongoing investigation led her to Washington, D.C. After all, what better place to wage an inquiry into the power of language and the language of power than in the city where"message" is a manufactured product? What happens when we as citizens accept--which we seem to be doing more and more--our chosen leaders' failure to tell the truth? And how can we know that we are hearing what Washington really has to say when everything we receive is filtered through the media?
Armed with a blazing intellect and a tape recorder, Smith tackled these questions head-on, conducting more than four hundred interviews with people both inside and outside the power structure of Washington. She recorded these sessions in her trademark verbatim transcripts, which include every tic and verbal utterance of her subjects. More than thirty of these remarkable documents appear in this book, including interviews with Bill Clinton, Anita Hill, Studs Terkel, George Bush, Mike McCurry, and Helen Thomas. After five years of searing investigation into the world of the politicians, spin doctors, and power brokers who are steering the course of our country from inside the beltway, Smith has come away with a revelatory assessment--by turns devastating and hopeful--of the lexicon of power and politics in America. Talk to Me is a landmark contribution from a woman whose pioneering insights into language speak volumes.
Details
- Title Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines
- Author Anna Deavere Smith
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition First Edition
- Pages 320
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Random House (NY), New York
- Date 2000-10
- Features Dust Cover, Table of Contents
- ISBN 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Weight 1.31 lbs (0.59 kg)
- Dimensions 9.57 x 6.44 x 1.05 in (24.31 x 16.36 x 2.67 cm)
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: 20th Century
- Library of Congress subjects National characteristics, American, Presidents - United States
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 00055306
- Dewey Decimal Code 306.209
Media reviews
Citations
- Black Issues Book Review, 05/01/2006, Page 15
- Booklist, 10/01/2000, Page 291
- Kirkus Reviews, 09/15/2000, Page 1342
- Library Journal, 06/01/2000, Page 0
- Library Journal Prepub Alert, 06/01/2000, Page 100
- New York Times, 10/29/2000, Page 25
- Publishers Weekly, 09/18/2000, Page 95
More Copies for Sale
Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines
by Smith, Anna Deavere
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
DEWITT, Michigan, United States
- Item Price
-
£1.89£3.63 shipping to USA
Show Details
Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines
by Smith, Anna Deavere
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Ventura, California, United States
- Item Price
-
£4.00£4.00 shipping to USA
Show Details
Talk to Me : Listening Between the Lines
by Smith, Anna Deavere
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Mishawaka, Indiana, United States
- Item Price
-
£4.04FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines
by Smith, Anna Deavere
- Used
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - VG / VG
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Hopatcong, New Jersey, United States
- Item Price
-
£4.04£3.64 shipping to USA
Show Details
Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines
by Smith, Anna Deavere
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Memphis, Tennessee, United States
- Item Price
-
£4.72FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines
by Anna Deavere Smith
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
State College, Pennsylvania, United States
- Item Price
-
£4.84£4.03 shipping to USA
Show Details
Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines
by Smith, Anna Deavere
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Houston, Texas, United States
- Item Price
-
£4.89FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Talk to Me : Listening Between the Lines
by Anna Deavere Smith
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
- Item Price
-
£5.14FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines
by Smith, Anna Deavere
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Seattle, Washington, United States
- Item Price
-
£5.14FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines
by Anna Deavere Smith
- Used
- good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780375501500 / 0375501509
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
HOUSTON, Texas, United States
- Item Price
-
£6.11FREE shipping to USA