Introduction
Health and Safety by Emily Witt is a daring and introspective memoir that explores life in New York City during the charged years of the Trump presidency. In the summer of 2016, as political unrest brewed, Witt immersed herself in the underground world of dance music while navigating her career as a journalist. Between covering gun violence and climate crises by day and losing herself in the pulsating beats of Brooklyn’s nightlife by night, Witt crafts a raw portrait of a divided America. This memoir offers an unflinching look at the chaos of the times, capturing the collision of personal, political, and cultural upheaval in one woman’s quest for meaning and escape.
Health and Safety Synopsis
In the summer of 2016, a divisive presidential election was underway, and a new breed of right-wing rage was on the rise. Emily Witt, who would soon publish her first book on sex in the digital age, had recently quit antidepressants for a more expansive world of psychedelic experimentation. From her apartment in Brooklyn, she began to catch glimpses of the clandestine nightlife scene thrumming around her.
In Health and Safety, Witt charts her immersion into New York City’s dance music underground. Emily would come to lead a double life. By day she worked as a journalist, covering gun violence, climate catastrophes, and the rallies of right-wing militias. And by night she pushed the limits of consciousness in hollowed-out office spaces and warehouses to music that sounded like the future. But no counterculture, no matter how utopian, could stave off the squalor of American politics and the cataclysm of 2020.
Affectionate yet never sentimental, Health and Safety is a lament for a broken relationship, for a changed nightlife scene, and for New York City just before the fall. Sparing no one—least of all herself—Witt offers her life as a lens onto an era of American delirium and dissolution.
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More About the Novel
| Author: | Emily Witt |
| Publisher: | Pantheon |
| Genre: | community & culture |
| Mode: | Complete |
Themes Explored In The Novel
The themes explored in Health and Safety by Emily Witt include:
- Cultural Escapism and Subcultures: Witt delves into New York City’s underground dance music scene, highlighting how individuals turn to music and community to escape societal and political pressures.
- Personal and Political Intersection: The memoir juxtaposes Witt’s personal experiences with broader political developments, such as the rise of right-wing extremism during the Trump presidency, offering a lens into how individual lives are shaped by political climates.
- Psychedelic Exploration and Consciousness: Witt reflects on her experimentation with psychedelics as a means of seeking a broader understanding of consciousness and personal growth.
- Loss and Transformation: Themes of broken relationships, shifting identities, and a changing New York City underscore the memoir, serving as a meditation on impermanence and adaptation.
- Critique of Modern America: Witt paints a vivid picture of societal disarray, including political turmoil, cultural fragmentation, and the looming challenges of 2020, offering a critique of the country’s trajectory.
These themes collectively create a vivid narrative of an individual navigating a complex era while searching for meaning and connection.
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