This book is an interesting read. The author talks about culture and society as he views it; however, he still presents things in a way that may be different to how the reader views them. Many of the essays were impactful enough that I want to bring their message back to my students!

I could not relate to these essays, they seem very dated to me. The author complains the impact of the internet on today's society, but his references are MySpace and Friendster. He also states that families are no longer closer, but having grown up in the sixties I can tell you that our parents spent no time with us. Parents in that era had no interest in their kids or what they were doing. The problems with kids today is not technology, it is that they are not allowed to grow up and make their own decisions. Even college age kids have their parents trying to control where they live and what they do. The kids have to learn to have other role models besides their parents for them become adults.

"Our culture is scientistic: it believes that science is the only form of truth, that there is only one way of knowing: objective, empirical, quantitative. But our culture also displays... what I have come to think of as the engineering mentality."

My first exposure to William Deresiewicz stretches back to my experiences in AP English Language and Composition class during my junior year of high school. It was there, in the early days of social media, that I read this collection's titular essay and was quite engrossed and excited by the experience. To say the least, my brain was not a fan of reading on computer screens, being regularly interrupted by text messages, and socializing via Facebook. Seeing my concerns about the effects of technology on learning, culture, and consciousness reinforced by a former Yale English professor and professional writer was a private "gold star" of sorts that made me feel intellectually precocious and otherwise self-satisfied. Of course, this attitude, my professional ambitions, and achievement-focused academic career are precisely the types of thing Deresiewicz laments in educational contexts, but I was blissfully unaware of this and happy to continue on my path. It wasn't until many years later in an intellectually curious and voracious period (after completing my long journey in the academy) that I have rediscovered Deresiewicz's work. Although I now deeply disagree with Deresiewicz on many topics, including technology, I've cherished the opportunity to return to his writing and delighted in being challenged by his ideas.

<i>The End of Solitude</i> is a wide-ranging collection of essays designed to showcase the best of Deresiewicz's writing over the last three decades. It is an impressive work organized into six sections: culture and technology, higher education problems, social trends, art criticism, profiles of important figures in art and criticism, and reflections on Jewish identity. The first half of the work coheres better thematically than the latter half. The earlier essays revolve around related concerns and claims about the deterioration of intellectual, cultural, and civic institutions in America from a distinct perspective - a hard-to-label yet easy-to-detect leftwing Romanticism moderated by elite aesthetic preferences and inspired by disaffection. These early essays are also the more accessible and topical, where as the later essays are often longer, more reflective, and less organized by specific arguments. There is of course variation in length and quality of the pieces, but I think most prospective readers would benefit from reading through to completion so as to develop an appreciation of Deresiewicz's erudition and passion for writing and his ideas. He's written some of the more elegant and pithy sentences I've seen in recent writing.

In the years since high school, I've grown more skeptical of Deresiewicz's ideas concerning the effects of technology on the self and the problems with higher education. Concerning the former, I think Deresiewicz's anxiety that the near ubiquitous mediation of personal and social experience by technology is causing the loss of "both halves of the Romantic dialectic" (solitude and friendship), is mostly misplaced. He seems concerned that Western culture has lost a particular form of consciousness that was unique to elites in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is unclear if this is really a problem of any kind or just a change. Moreover, "solitude," in Deresiewicz's meaning, i.e. an autodidactic self-exploratory process and maverick mode, was also probably lost well before the invention of social media. The invention of mass culture, television and radio, and anti-mass elitist mass culture (something Deresiewicz also describes and laments) brought about or at least hastened "the end of solitude." The constant stream of digital stimulation may indeed impair "solitude" with greater intensity than before and maybe we should be worried, but nothing is stopping us from hitting the off button either. Maybe we should think more about why no one really chooses that option (even Deresiewicz), and those who do aren't exactly intellectual heroes (Ted Kaczynski). Nonetheless, the essays on the issues raised by technology and the omnipotent of market integration even into the personal sphere (Deresiewicz like many left-of-center thinkers uses the pejorative term "neoliberalism" to point out this phenomenon) are provocative and deserve contemplation. I think it would be unfair to flippantly dismiss Deresiewicz's ideas as Neo-Luddism without trying to empathize with his perspective on technology despite the obvious advantages it has wrought.

When it comes to higher education, Deresiewicz directs most of his complaints at the wrong targets: the student population (customer mindsets, political orthodoxy, and know-nothing over-achievement complexes) and the sociocultural expectations concerning the function of college (job training rather than intellectual training). The more important targets should be the system constructed by the professionals in higher education and the rent-seeking enabled by legislators through subsidies like federal student loans and accreditation. These groups don't entirely escape Deresiewicz's critical eye, but they are not the focus they should be. Deresiewicz doesn't reckon directly enough with the relationship between higher education and elites. Higher education, especially the kind associated with intellectual prestige, is an experience for elites and luxury only available to them. Most of the cultural and intellectual practices that Deresiewicz is eager to preserve and reinvigorate are almost entirely and utterly the province of elites, and it is only the growth and excess wealth created by markets that enables these enriching practices. We should talk more plainly about this, which may also remedy some of the issues with higher education. Subsequently, Deresiewicz's prescriptions to fix higher ed seem wildly out-of-step with his ideals about the liberal arts and the importance of the humanities.

Finally, I enjoyed <i>The End of Solitude</i> deeply because it ruminates on ideas, topics, and figures that are often absent from public discourse. The humanities as Deresiewicz laments have lost culture relevance, and it is enlivening to see them in the foreground for once. Moreover, it was refreshing to see an author with an idiosyncratic compilation of influences, ranging from milquetoast conservative cultural critics like David Brooks to bohemian Marxist art critics like Harold Rosenberg to liberal-then-neoconservative literary critics like Lionel Trilling, that somehow mixed together make sense. Plus there are random gems to be discovered in the collection. For instance. Deresiewicz's essay on Harold Bloom, which compared him to Kurtz from <i>The Heart of Darkness</i> was a rollickingly creative yet cutting work of meta-criticism (I'm actually a big fan of Bloom's) and a history of late 20th century literary theory. Pick up <i>The End of Solitude</i> and enrich and challenge yourself. Explore!

Some Pieces from <i>The End of Solitude</i> worth highlighting:
"The End of Solitude"
"The Disadvantages of an Elite Education"
"Generation Sell"
"Upper Middle Brow"
"The Platinum Age"
"Harold Bloom: The Horror, the Horror"

The End of Solitude by William Deresiewicz I have mixed feelings about how to review this book to readers. I suppose my confusion is related to this book being a collection of essays written by Mr. Deresiewicz which have been published before. As a result, it is not a book that flows but rather starts and stops with each story. The individual essays are well written and cover topics with interesting insight. But I think the book does not lend itself to be read in large “chunks” instead perhaps one essay and then do something else. To me, this is much like why I can not read poetry. This is not “an airplane read” nor in my opinion a book to snuggle down on the couch on a rainy day and enjoy with a glass of wine. Perhaps the book would be better if there was a new explanation of why or what the next essay or two was about. So if you like thoughtful pieces in small bits you will may enjoy this book otherwise I think it is a frustrating read.

“We have lost the capacity for idleness.”

A lyrical analysis comprised of short stories outlining culture, explaining modernism by reflecting on history, and how we are replacing and redefining the meaning of solitude in the era of constant connectedness.

Deresiewicz begins by exploring philosophical idealisms on the soul and solitude - romanticism vs modernism’s opposing dialectic on what the soul and self actually is. The End of Solitude is a compilation of thoughts on post-modernism, and insightful questions on what it means to be a contemporary human being.

Sometimes it felt epistolary in nature, as if I were reading an intimate diary, debating whether the strive for authenticity and self-validation were an assault on oneself. The insight on the dichotomy of connectedness through social media, living in relation to others, has created more loneliness rang powerful and true.

“The great contemporary terror is anonymity.” While some of these takes aren’t exactly groundbreaking (the debate on whether social media has done more harm than good has been around since the dawn of E-mail) it was a lyrically articulate piece of work that probes us to sink inwardly and ask ourselves what it means to live meaningfully.