OR

source:https://www.nytimes.com/
28 Sep, 1943
24 Nov, 2006
Complications from a stroke
American
Novelist
63
George W. S. Trow was an American writer, journalist, and cultural critic known for his razor-sharp dissections of media, culture, and the United States of America. Born in the United States in 1943, he attended Harvard University, where his intellectual and literary interests grew. He had a unique, at times critical, stance on many of the cultural and political changes that defined the 20th century, and his career passed through several decades.
Trow’s signature book, Within the Context of No Context (1980), helped make him a leading voice in American cultural criticism. An assemblage of essays and reflections, the book is about the collapse of traditional social structures and how media besieges modern life. At the heart of Trow’s argument is that a world too filled with readily available mass media has rendered human beings out in the cold, confused about their role in this strange frozen place and lacking cogent stories to guide them through its disjointed morass. More of a memoir, critique, and philosophical/spiritual exploration all rolled into one dense, patchy text, Within the Context of No Context depicts a culture growing gradually more enervated by its voracious consumption of information.
Besides the book, Trow was a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, where his essays and reviews could be found for decades. He wrote about a diverse slate of issues, from politics to literature, often with a focus on the intersection between media, power, and society. Trow had a particular talent for dissecting the impact of television, mass communication, and advertisements on public consciousness—changes that he showed were profound but presented themselves in subtle or insidious fashions.
A recurring preoccupation in Trow’s work was the loss of individuality in a culture driven by commercial and media power. According to him, the growth of mass culture and corporate control over information had resulted in a “packaged” society where individuals could no longer think independently. Instead, they became vessels for the images and narratives developed by those sitting behind screens.
Trow’s prose was regularly heavy, sometimes elliptical and hard to read—as he tended to round in circles when exploring even a simple point—and yet this reflected his own fascination with some of the more clouded challenges of postwar life, alongside his own wariness towards neat solutions. His work was, in a sense, deeply intellectual yet also very personal, fusing philosophical thinking with critical comments on the surrounding culture.
Trow was an intellectual and had little patience for mainstream liberal or conservative shibboleths during the entire span of his career. As a pioneer of postmodern cultural criticism, his work is still key for scholars working on the intersections of media, culture, and identity.
Trow died in 2006, but the impact of his approach to cultural criticism remains, especially with regard to how he explained the bewildering totality that mass media brought to society. Today, more than ever, with so many of us seemingly living in a media-saturated culture, his work still speaks loudly and clearly.
George Trow
George Trow
Male
Complications from a stroke
Greenwich, Connecticut, United States
Naples, Italy
Trow's seminal essay "Within the Context of No Context" became a landmark work in cultural criticism.
Trow's book The Harvard Black Rock Forest (1991) is a fictionalized memoir that reflects on his personal life and education at Harvard.
Trow's works remain widely studied in media and cultural studies.
He critiqued the rise of television and its effects on society.
Trow was friends with several prominent literary figures, including novelist and essayist Joan Didion and playwright David Mamet.
Contributed landmark essays like “Within the Context of No Context” to The New Yorker
Known for his critical work on the effects of media and television on culture
Wrote the novel “The Harvard Black Rock Forest”