Winging It Book Reviews

Winging It by Randy Fertel Book Summary

In Winging It, literary scholar and cultural polymath Randy Fertel returns to the interrogation of improvisation he began with his earlier work A Taste for Chaos (2015). In this new volume, Fertel explores the wider landscapes of popular culture and public affairs, ranging deftly from the unmediated experience in Fred Astaire’s tap dancing, Frans Hals’s brush strokes, hook-up culture, psychedelic trips, social media, and Hamilton’s hip-hop to—last, though not least—the performative and demagogic posturing of Donald Trump. The gesture all improvisations share—“I will create this on the fly,” or as Trump has it, “my gut knows more than many brains”—defies rationality and elevates embodied emotions, instinct, and intuition, challenging our assumption that everything of value depends upon long study, tradition, and hard work. Claiming to be free of serious purpose, improvisation only pursues pleasure. Or so it says.

Randy Fertel is a master at unveiling theatrical illusion. In this brilliant book, he shines a piercing light into the shadows of the so-called improv style in politics. Winging It reveals the concealed instincts and the fierce emotional currents that keep a rapacious predator aloft.
   — Murray Stein, author of Jung’s Map of the Soul

At the farmers market, I’m responding to color, and smell, and I’m following my intuition. In my kitchen when I’m imagining how things will lead from here, I’m improvising. In his artful and authoritative new book Winging It, Randy Fertel explores how improvisation shapes and enlivens our wider world. Yield to your impulses, act spontaneously, and get this book—it’s a revelation.
    — Alice Waters, Founder of Chez Panisse and the Edible Schoolyard

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