Ethan and Todd in conversation, February 4th!

By
J.D. Beltran
on November 7, 2009 9:56 AM |

 

 

Ethan Watter's has been getting a lot of national attention (including a recent appearance on The Daily Show) for his new book Crazy Like Us. But this Thursday, February 4th, will be a unique event that promises to be particularly fascinating: Ethan will be interviewed by his fellow Grottoite Todd Oppenheimer for Berkeley Arts & Lectures

Tickets are $12 in advance; $15 at the door. The conversation begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club (2286 Cedar Street, Berkeley. For more information, see the Berkeley Arts & Letters site,  brownpapertickets or call (800) 838-3006.

In case you haven't tapped into the buzz yet, nere's an overview of Crazy Like Us: 

American culture is homogenizing the way the world goes mad.  Our exportation of everything from movies to junk food is a well-documented phenomenon.  But neither our golden arches nor our bomb craters represent our most troubling impact on the world: the bulldozing of the human mind itself.  In CRAZY LIKE US, leading trend-spotter and science writer Ethan Watters shows that we are  not only changing the way the world treats and understands mental illness, we are actually changing the symptoms and prevalence of the diseases themselves.

In CRAZY LIKE US, Watters reveals how:

  • American versions of depression, post traumatic stress disorder and eating disorders are spreading around the world like contagions -- and we are the ones spreading them.
  • Western trauma counselors rush to far off countries to save the day without taking into account that the psychological reactions to trauma vary dramatically from culture to culture. (What would we have thought if New Guinea shamans arrived in New Orleans to counsel Katrina survivors)?
  • Anorexia rose in Hong Kong over the last two decades not only because of western fashion and diet crazes but because we exported the idea of the illness itself!
  • Our Western biomedical conception of mental illness has been show to increase the social stigma placed on the mentally ill around the world.
  • America believes it has a rightful place as the therapist to the world.  Given the state of mental health in our culture, Watters argues it is time to rethink our generosity.
  • Watters travels the world to illustrate the ways in which Western influences have changed mental illness.  In Hong Kong, he meets teenagers who have learned from American culture that anorexia is the modern way to express distress, and who began refusing food after a wave of Western celebrities and researchers began raising awareness.  In Zanzibar, he witnesses a much milder and more bearable form of schizophrenia than what we have in the States.  In Sri Lanka, he sees western crisis counselors bungle the treatment of tsunami victims and actually cause the community more distress. And in Japan, he tells the story of the drug companies selling depression itself to create a market for a new drug. 

Ethan Watters is the author of Urban Tribes, an examination of the mores of affluent “never marrieds” and the coauthor of Making Monsters, a groundbreaking indictment of the recovered memory movement.  A frequent contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Discover, Men’s Journal, Details, Wired, and NPR, he has appeared on such national media as Good Morning America, Talk of the Nation, and CNN. 

Todd Oppenheimer works as a journalist at The Writers Grotto. During his 25 years as a journalist, Oppenheimer has won a variety of national awards for his writing and investigative reporting and has appeared on numerous radio and television programs, including ABC's "Nightline." His articles have appeared in The New Yorker, Newsweek, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, and an assortment of daily and weekly newspapers. He is the author of The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology, a finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors Book Award.

 

 

 

 

TWO NEW ONE-DAY CLASSES ANNOUNCED FOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER!

Two new Grotto Seminars have just been announced for November and December:

The Grotto Cafe - Come get a shot of espresso for your writer's brain!

TThis workshop begins with a week of daily writing prompts (administered by email), and ends with a Half-Day Writing/Reading/Craft Marathon at the Grotto Cafe (i.e. the Grotto conference room - scene of the daily Grotto lunch - turned into a cafe). The idea is to figure out how to write into the most creative part of your brain - and then to learn what to do with all that juicy material. This class is equally useful for beginners ad advanced writers, as well as writers of any genre.

Meeting times: This class will be offered Saturday, November 21, 10 am to 1 pm, Daily writing prompts begin Monday, November 16. Course fee: $75, which includes a week of daily writing prompts plus the half-day Grotto Café.

Instructor: Janis Cooke Newman

To register contact: j-newman@...


It's (Not) All About Me: The Art of the Personal Essay

This one-day workshop will teach you how to write a personal essay—and how to get it published. We’ll talk about which of your experiences have universal appeal, and when your personal writing is just too personal. We’ll also look at how to structure a personal essay, grabbing the reader’s attention and tugging them along to a satisfying ending. Come with some essay ideas.

Meeting times: This class will be offered Saturday, December 5, 10 am to 4 pm, with a 1 hour break. Course fee: $155

Instructor: Laura Fraser

To register contact: laura@...






PRAISE FOR ALLISON’S "THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH" AND HER BIBLIODICK

Grotto dweller Allison Hoover Bartlett's THE MAN WHO LOVED BOOKS TOO MUCH has been getting praise the last month in print, radio and television. The LA Times calls it "Tautly written, wry, and thoroughly compelling" at http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-et-book5-2009nov05,0,6077626.story .

You can listen to an interview on Minnesota Public Radio here:

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/11/03/midmorning2/f

And watch an in-depth interview with Allison and the "bibliodick" (no, it's not obscene, it's an amateur sleuth working the old-book beat) in her book on PBS/Utah at

http://www.kued.org/productions/utahnow/?action=viewShowDetails&id=184 (click on "watch").

And keep an eye out for an interview in the Boston Globe this Sunday, November 8th! To find out more, visit Allison's website at http://www.themanwholovedbookstoomuch.com






PO’S NURTURESHOCK A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND ONE OF AMAZON’S BEST SELLING BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Grotto co-founder Po Bronson’s NurtureShock has been a New York Times bestseller for over two months, and is listed by Amazon as one of their 100 bestselling books of the year. Interested readers can follow Po and Ashley's daily Newsweek column by joining at http://www.nurtureshock.com or going to http://twitter.com/nurtureshock.




KATHRYN’S LATEST NAMED A LOS ANGELES TIMES DISCOVERIES BOOK

Grottoite Kathryn Ma's book, ALL THAT WORK AND STILL NO BOYS, was named a Los Angeles Times "Discoveries" book: "Ma's stories are layered....there are no good guys, no bad guys, just the deep suffering that ripples through families -- the things that everyone knows and no one talks about."

Read the full review here:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/arts/la-ca-discoveries18-2009oct18,0,4138170.story

Get more info at Kathryn's website at http://kathrynma.com/index.html








CHECK OUT ETHAN’S WEBSITE FOR “CRAZY LIKE US”

Grotto co-founder Ethan Watters will debut his new book early next year. Please visit his new website for: “CRAZY LIKE US: The Globalization of the American Psyche” at
http://crazylikeus.com/

Remember while you are there to sign up for the Email list and the Facebook Fan page.







JD APPOINTED TO THE SAN FRANCISCO ARTS COMMISSION

Grottoite JD Beltran has been appointed to the San Francisco Arts Commission by Mayor Gavin Newsom. The San Francisco Arts Commission oversees all commissions of public art by the City of San Francisco. The city’s admirable multi-million dollar public art program has always led the nation in terms of breadth of works in outdoor spaces, thanks in large part to the guaranteed percentage (up to 2%) of every public construction project’s budget that is dedicated to commissioning new work. Its grant program alone commissioned over $4.4 million in fiscal year 2008-2009. The grants serve all areas of the arts, including visual arts, performing arts, media arts, literary arts, film, architecture, and landscape architecture. Beltran also is serving on the Visual Arts Committee of the Arts Commission. For more information on the San Francisco Arts Commission see http://www.sfartscommission.org/index.htm

Beltran also is currently completing her newest body of work, “Material Language,” which combines painting, film, photography, and video. It will debut in a January 2010 exhibition at the Meridien Gallery in San Francisco.






POSTCARDS AND JOURNALISM FROM CHRIS

Grottoite Christopher Cook is currently working on a story for Columbia Journalism Review (see their next issue), and plugging away at his new road adventure book, Postcards for Jack Kerouac, which he read from at Litquake. He's also offering writing one-on-one coaching/tutoring for writers and journalists, and editorial and research consulting, if you have any such needs. Visit and reach him through his site, http://www.christopherdcook.com






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When you subscribe to Grotto Class Notes, you'll receive monthly updates on what's happening with Grotto classes, what courses we're offering, which workshops still have space, and last-minute additions to the schedule. As a bonus, we'll also include valuable writing tips from our teachers -- everything from craft, to the best books on writing, to how to trick yourself into putting words on paper.

Don't miss out! Subscribe at http://www.sfgrotto.org/class-newsletter.html






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