Is Dating Dead Long Live Hanging

Berwyn PA, April 29, 2008 -- Generation X may have started it decades ago. Subsequent generations of teens have embraced and refined it. Today, it's the status quo.

""It"" is the demise of dating, and the rise of hanging out.

Perhaps dating had become too serious, with too many structured responsibilities for both sexes, too much undesired pressure; an inherited, evolved dogma that felt stifling to modern young people.

""Hanging out"" became the relaxed alternative, the less-structured group activity. Over time, hanging out even extended to one-on-one couples, becoming a ritual-free, unpressurized ""dating lite.""

Yet Unheard of Books (http://www.unheardofbooks.com) author W. Town Andrews, Jr. found it puzzling that such an established phenomenon, having evolved in the waning decades of the 20th century and half a decade into the 21st--to the point of nearly replacing old-fashioned dating entirely--still lacked two essential ingredients; 1) a simplified, descriptive, and definitive vocabulary loosely corresponding to the archaic terms of dating, and 2) a written guide to the practice and perfection of the techniques of ""hanging out""--because in any age, and no matter the terminology, there are beginners and awkward souls to whom social skills don't exactly come naturally.

Seeing no reason why these two needs shouldn't be solved simultaneously, and simply, Andrews applied an ingenious formula:

Take a 1950s dating manual. Replace key terms and phrases with standardized, simplified equivalents from the actual day-to-day usage of a youth culture that hangs rather than dates. Sprinkle in more new lingoisms from the vocabularies of subsequent urban, suburban, and exurban youth subcultures. Add catchphrases, neologisms, niche jargons, and cliches from pop culture, pop psychology, and Madison Avenue. Shake well.

The result is "...an old-fashioned guide to new social lifestyles, filled with in-your-face surprises and unexpected linguistic somersaults."

And, as an added bonus, as one reads The Art of Hanging (http://www.unheardofbooks.com) (between chuckles, giggles, and the occasional out-and-out guffaw), the thought occurs that perhaps injecting a little bit of the old-school code and structure into the newer, looser social lifestyles might not be such a bad thing after all.

And the benefit to the average reader Beyond amusement

Every reader is to some degree also a speaker, and a writer. ""Art of Hanging"" will show readers that they too can use the unconventional English of the past, and the present--and their own imaginations--to have fun expressing themselves. "We all have the right--though some grammarians and English Professors may want to restrict or outright squash it--to use our language in creative ways to communicate, and even to amuse," says Andrews. ""Art of Hanging""--and the pastiche of slangs called ""The New Manglish""--simply uses that license to extreme effect.

"For the reader, The Art of Hanging renews your license to be unreservedly expressive in informal settings," says Andrews.

More Information:

Full Title: The Art of Hanging...and Stylin' Limp

- Format: Trade Paperback

- Genre: Self-Help/Humor

- Series: New Mangled Guides

- Release Date: May 16, 2008

- ISBN: 1-933728-30-8

- Price: US$14.95 (CAN$19.95)

- Pages: 304

- Illustrations: 50, Black/White w/ captions

- Cover: 4-color

- Author: W. Town Andrews, Jr.

- Includes TOC, Index, Source Citations

The preface and a sample chapter of The Art of Hanging are available as a PDF download at the Unheard of Books (http://www.unheardofbooks.com) website.

The Art of Hanging will be available beginning May 16, 2008, at UnheardofBooks.com at Amazon.com or it can be ordered at most bookstores.

To read more about books being published by Unheard of Books, visit the website, at www.unheardofbooks.com.

About Unheard of Books:

Unheard of Books is a small boutique publisher of fiction, non-fiction, humor, self-help and how-to books. UHB publishes 3 to 5 titles per year, specializing in offbeat, innovative, outlandish, or exceptionally irresistable new works that defy categorization or classification by "normal" publishing standards.

Unheard of BooksFiction, Self-Help, Non-Fiction, HumorSometimes All At Once! Have You Unheard

Media Contact: Sue Piskai

Unheard of Books

PO Box 153

Berwyn PA 19312 USA

+1-866-925-8921 toll free

+1-610-482-9264 fax

Is Dating Dead Long Live Hanging