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 82
Page xv
... mind : a long essay , but one with the usual shape , a single line of argument moving through selected perceptions ... mind - or at any rate my mind , such as it is - works as it moves through time : a trail of clarities variously ...
... mind : a long essay , but one with the usual shape , a single line of argument moving through selected perceptions ... mind - or at any rate my mind , such as it is - works as it moves through time : a trail of clarities variously ...
Page xvii
... minds at all . That beckoning , however , grows increasingly feeble . The arts and their attendant scholarship are ... mind beyond their own advancement . By putting the humanities to careerist use , they set a bad example even to ...
... minds at all . That beckoning , however , grows increasingly feeble . The arts and their attendant scholarship are ... mind beyond their own advancement . By putting the humanities to careerist use , they set a bad example even to ...
Page xix
... mind , somewhere at the back of the build- ing between the storeroom and the laundry . In the three years it took to compose the actual text , I was faced more and more , as it moved for- ward , with the consequences of not having ...
... mind , somewhere at the back of the build- ing between the storeroom and the laundry . In the three years it took to compose the actual text , I was faced more and more , as it moved for- ward , with the consequences of not having ...
Page xx
... mind . The mind in question happens to be mine , and any psychologist could argue persuasively that mine is the mind I am least likely to know much about . This much , however , I do know : it would not be a mind at all if its owner had ...
... mind . The mind in question happens to be mine , and any psychologist could argue persuasively that mine is the mind I am least likely to know much about . This much , however , I do know : it would not be a mind at all if its owner had ...
Page xxii
... mind at seri- ous play . At the time , he left people wondering if there was nothing he might not do next . That kind of expectation can easily breed envy . Though he did his best to be humble , there were many in his audience who ...
... mind at seri- ous play . At the time , he left people wondering if there was nothing he might not do next . That kind of expectation can easily breed envy . Though he did his best to be humble , there were many in his audience who ...
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 | |
Other editions - View all
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