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
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Page xxii
... Nazis turned off the lights in Austria , the Viennese prodigy knew everything , or talked as if he did . There was nothing he could not talk about brilliantly . Some thought him a charlatan , but no charlatan is ever remembered for ...
... Nazis turned off the lights in Austria , the Viennese prodigy knew everything , or talked as if he did . There was nothing he could not talk about brilliantly . Some thought him a charlatan , but no charlatan is ever remembered for ...
Page 5
... Nazis and has been in print ever since . ) His omniscient tone of voice was at least partly a put - up job , but the universality of his gusto remains an enduring ideal . The finest wit of all , the essayist and the- atre critic Alfred ...
... Nazis and has been in print ever since . ) His omniscient tone of voice was at least partly a put - up job , but the universality of his gusto remains an enduring ideal . The finest wit of all , the essayist and the- atre critic Alfred ...
Page 6
... Nazis of either city pru- dently shed their uniforms . In Tokyo , the pre - war coffee - house cul- ture so eerily ... Nazi liberal humanist impulse , a burgeoning which continues in the new post- Soviet era , took place and is still ...
... Nazis of either city pru- dently shed their uniforms . In Tokyo , the pre - war coffee - house cul- ture so eerily ... Nazi liberal humanist impulse , a burgeoning which continues in the new post- Soviet era , took place and is still ...
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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