Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the ArtsEchoing Edward Said's belief that "Western humanism is not enough, we need a universal humanism," the renowned critic Clive James presents here his life's work. Containing over one hundred original essays, organized by quotations from A to Z, Cultural Amnesia illuminates, rescues, or occasionally destroys the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the twentieth century. In discussing, among others, Louis Armstrong, Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, James writes, "If the humanism that makes civilization civilized is to be preserved into the new century, it will need advocates. These advocates will need a memory, and part of that memory will need to be of an age in which they were not yet alive." 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
Results 1-5 of 85
Page xix
... Hitler told quite good jokes . If there was no field of creativity that was incorruptibly pure , where did that leave humanism ? GRADUALLY I REALIZED that I had been looking in the wrong place . As a journalist and critic , a premature ...
... Hitler told quite good jokes . If there was no field of creativity that was incorruptibly pure , where did that leave humanism ? GRADUALLY I REALIZED that I had been looking in the wrong place . As a journalist and critic , a premature ...
Page xxv
... Hitler both thought that they could see the whole picture , and look what happened . WHATEVER WE SAY , it is bound to be dependent on what has been said before . In this book can be heard the merest outside edge of an enormous ...
... Hitler both thought that they could see the whole picture , and look what happened . WHATEVER WE SAY , it is bound to be dependent on what has been said before . In this book can be heard the merest outside edge of an enormous ...
Page xxvi
... Hitler spends very little time imagining he is Robert Lowell . Anna Akhmatova at her most beautiful , a catwalk ... Hitler , Stalin , Mao . But although Hitler and Stalin both talked like maniacs from the start , Mao was capable of ...
... Hitler spends very little time imagining he is Robert Lowell . Anna Akhmatova at her most beautiful , a catwalk ... Hitler , Stalin , Mao . But although Hitler and Stalin both talked like maniacs from the start , Mao was capable of ...
Page xxix
... Hitler's campaign on the eastern front and Richard Burton's pageboy hairstyle in Where Eagles Dare , but such an exploration is fundamental to its plan , which is to follow the paths that lead on from the citations , and try to go on ...
... Hitler's campaign on the eastern front and Richard Burton's pageboy hairstyle in Where Eagles Dare , but such an exploration is fundamental to its plan , which is to follow the paths that lead on from the citations , and try to go on ...
Page 3
... Hitler , whose early years in Vienna confirmed him in his own idea : the idea of a world without Jews . The Jews in the first half of the twentieth century were not the only persecuted minority on Earth , and indeed the time would come ...
... Hitler , whose early years in Vienna confirmed him in his own idea : the idea of a world without Jews . The Jews in the first half of the twentieth century were not the only persecuted minority on Earth , and indeed the time would come ...
Contents
VII | 11 |
IX | 16 |
XI | 23 |
XII | 31 |
XIII | 45 |
XIV | 47 |
XV | 57 |
XVI | 63 |
LXXVI | 432 |
LXXVII | 441 |
LXXVIII | 455 |
LXXIX | 460 |
LXXX | 470 |
LXXXI | 481 |
LXXXII | 485 |
LXXXIII | 492 |
XVII | 72 |
XVIII | 77 |
XIX | 85 |
XX | 87 |
XXI | 94 |
XXII | 101 |
XXIII | 106 |
XXIV | 110 |
XXV | 115 |
XXVI | 119 |
XXVII | 122 |
XXVIII | 128 |
XXIX | 133 |
XXX | 145 |
XXXI | 148 |
XXXII | 154 |
XXXIII | 161 |
XXXIV | 163 |
XXXV | 169 |
XXXVI | 175 |
XXXVII | 181 |
XXXVIII | 183 |
XXXIX | 188 |
XL | 199 |
XLI | 201 |
XLII | 205 |
XLIII | 209 |
XLIV | 220 |
XLV | 224 |
XLVI | 230 |
XLVII | 250 |
XLVIII | 255 |
XLIX | 257 |
L | 261 |
LI | 271 |
LII | 280 |
LIII | 289 |
LIV | 297 |
LV | 299 |
LVI | 305 |
LVII | 311 |
LVIII | 321 |
LIX | 328 |
LX | 335 |
LXI | 337 |
LXII | 341 |
LXIII | 343 |
LXIV | 348 |
LXV | 353 |
LXVI | 359 |
LXVII | 364 |
LXVIII | 368 |
LXIX | 377 |
LXX | 379 |
LXXI | 407 |
LXXII | 409 |
LXXIII | 414 |
LXXIV | 420 |
LXXV | 428 |
LXXXIV | 501 |
LXXXV | 515 |
LXXXVI | 524 |
LXXXVII | 533 |
LXXXVIII | 535 |
LXXXIX | 543 |
XC | 545 |
XCI | 555 |
XCII | 557 |
XCIII | 562 |
XCIV | 571 |
XCV | 574 |
XCVI | 578 |
XCVII | 583 |
XCVIII | 585 |
XCIX | 589 |
C | 591 |
CI | 600 |
CII | 607 |
CIII | 612 |
CIV | 625 |
CV | 637 |
CVI | 639 |
CVII | 650 |
CVIII | 658 |
CIX | 664 |
CX | 669 |
CXI | 680 |
CXII | 684 |
CXIII | 706 |
CXIV | 715 |
CXV | 719 |
CXVI | 727 |
CXVII | 729 |
CXVIII | 735 |
CXIX | 742 |
CXX | 747 |
CXXI | 759 |
CXXII | 761 |
CXXIII | 766 |
CXXIV | 773 |
CXXV | 781 |
CXXVI | 783 |
CXXVII | 790 |
CXXVIII | 795 |
CXXIX | 797 |
CXXX | 801 |
CXXXI | 809 |
CXXXII | 811 |
CXXXIII | 823 |
CXXXIV | 825 |
CXXXV | 829 |
CXXXVI | 833 |
CXXXVII | 845 |
CXXXVIII | 847 |
CXXXIX | 853 |
857 | |
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Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts Clive James No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
admirers Alfred Polgar already American Aron artist beautiful believe better café called career civilization Communist creative critic culture death 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 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 reader reason remember Revel Rilke Sartre Schnitzler sense sentence Shakespeare Sophie Scholl sound Soviet Union Stalin Stefan Zweig story student style Tacitus talent talk tango tell thing Thomas Mann thought tion took true truth twentieth century Vienna wanted whole Witold Gombrowicz word write written wrote young Zweig