How We Want to Live: Seventeen Distinguished Writers on the Meaning of Progress in Their Lives, edited by Susan Richards Shreve and Porter Shreve (1998). From the publisher, Beacon Press: "In 17 thoughtful essays--edited by the novelist Susan Richards Shreve and her son, the writer and University of Michigan instructor Porter Shreve--How We Want to Live follows up their 1997 anthology, Outside the Law: Narratives on Justice in America, with another eclectic, distinguished collection of authors--this time, defining the concept of progress as it pertains to their lives. More often than not, each author concludes that Western culture's idea of progress actually leads to regression, as we lose touch with each other, hide behind our computer and TV screens and windshields, and rely on modern conveniences to shield us from intimacy. In his own contribution, "Made by You," Porter Shreve searches to find a birthday gift for his youngest sister. He walks down a block previously filled with independently owned stores, only to find an antiseptic mall. Deborah Tannen, author of the bestselling You Just Don't Understand, considers the benefits and the shortfalls of online communication when she begins an intimate e-mail correspondence with an old college friend dying of lung cancer. And Shawn Wong explains his struggle to assert his American identity as a U.S.-born Chinese man. The tone varies from the cynical (Ishmael Reed's essay "Progress: A Faustian Bargain") to the wonderfully poignant (Pearl Abraham's "Lost Souls"), but the essays are always well wrought, inspiring readers to extend the question of the meaning of progress to their own lives."
Here are the How We Want to Live pages at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
And here's the Table of Contents:
SUSAN RICHARDS SHREVE PREFACE vii
JAMES RESTON, JR. INTRODUCTION 1
PEARL ABRAHAM LOST SOULS 9
JOHN BARTH DEAD CAT, FLOATING BOY 16
ALAN CHEUSE COUNTING FORWARD, COUNTING BACK 27
NICHOLAS DELBANCO LESS AND MORE 34
ANNIE DILLARD THE WRECK OF TIME 49
BRUCE DUFFY THE ROCKET OF PROGRESS 59
ALAN LIGHTMAN PROGRESS AND THE INDIVIDUAL 68
BILL McKIBBEN THE PROBLEM WITH WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY 74
NOELLE OXENHANDLER THE LOST WHILE 86
ISHMAEL REED PROGRESS: A FAUSTIAN BARGAIN 102
KIRKPATRICK SALE FIVE FACETS OF A MYTH 107
PORTER SHREVE MADE BY YOU 115
JANNA MALAMUD SMITH BEYOND BREAD AND ROSES 125
DEBORAH TANNEN CONNECTIONS 131
REBECCA WALKER PROGRESS AND DESIRE 136
SHAWN WONG "THE CHINESE MANHAS MY TICKET" 142
SUSAN WOOD THE TORNADO IN THE CARPET 150
CONTRIBUTORS 165