Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts"I can't remember when I've learned as much from something I've read—or laughed as much while doing it." —Jacob Weisberg, Slate This international bestseller is an encyclopedic A-Z masterpiece—the perfect introduction to the very core of Western humanism. Clive James rescues, or occasionally destroys, the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the twentieth century. Soaring to Montaigne-like heights, Cultural Amnesia is precisely the book to burnish these memories of a Western civilization that James fears is nearly lost. |
From inside the book
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... lover of the arts. Mozart never heard most of Bach. We can hear everything by both of them. Brahms was so bowled over by Carmen that he saw twenty performances, but he had to buy twenty opera tickets to do so. Manet never saw all.
... lover of the arts. Mozart never heard most of Bach. We can hear everything by both of them. Brahms was so bowled over by Carmen that he saw twenty performances, but he had to buy twenty opera tickets to do so. Manet never saw all.
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... everything that matters. The times are not long gone when nobody could aspire to that—not even Egon Friedell, a man once famous for being better informed than anybody in Vienna. In a city stiff with polymaths, he was the polymath's ...
... everything that matters. The times are not long gone when nobody could aspire to that—not even Egon Friedell, a man once famous for being better informed than anybody in Vienna. In a city stiff with polymaths, he was the polymath's ...
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... everything went to hell. Clare's book is unbeatable at showing that one of the consequences of cultural success can be political naivety. The lesson still applies today, when so many members of the international intelligentsia—which ...
... everything went to hell. Clare's book is unbeatable at showing that one of the consequences of cultural success can be political naivety. The lesson still applies today, when so many members of the international intelligentsia—which ...
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... everything she had ever written in verse form was dismissed as “remote from socialist reconstruction.” Her prestige abroad helped to keep her alive at home, but also ensured that her life could never be comfortable: the security police ...
... everything she had ever written in verse form was dismissed as “remote from socialist reconstruction.” Her prestige abroad helped to keep her alive at home, but also ensured that her life could never be comfortable: the security police ...
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... everything that needn't have been like that. We also have to grasp that art proves its value by still mattering to people who have been deprived of every other freedom: indeed instead of mattering less, it matters more. For the Russians ...
... everything that needn't have been like that. We also have to grasp that art proves its value by still mattering to people who have been deprived of every other freedom: indeed instead of mattering less, it matters more. For the Russians ...
Common terms and phrases
admirers Alfred Polgar already American Aron artist Australian beautiful believe better café called career civilization Communist creative critic culture death democracy didn’t Egon Friedell English Ernesto Sabato Ernst Jünger essay everything exile famous film French German gift Goebbels Golo Golo Mann Gombrowicz happened hard Hitler human idea intellectual jazz Jean-François Revel Jews knew language later less liberal literary literature lived look Marcel Reich-Ranicki mental mind modern Montesquieu movie Nazis never novel philosopher play poem poet poetry Polgar political probably prose Proust Raymond Aron reason remember Revel Rilke Sartre Sartre’s Schnitzler sentence Shakespeare Sophie Scholl Soviet Union Stalin Stefan Zweig story student style Tacitus talent talk tango tell thing Thomas Mann thought torture totalitarian translated true truth Vienna wanted whole Witold Gombrowicz word write written wrote young Zweig